Gauge Needles?

[canowat]

I was wondering if anyone used thin strips of safety reflective tape found in trucks? that would be a cheap way to see the gauge needles.

[snguyensc3]

I was thinking about painting them glow in the dark diff ones glow longer than others

[Cwallbball10]

I was thinking about painting them glow in the dark diff ones glow longer than others

HAHA, I thought about doing that! I think lextech.org will "Fix" the needles, and make them different colors for about $100. They have had mixed reviews though, so be cautious

[canowat]

I was thinking about painting them glow in the dark diff ones glow longer than others

HAHA, I thought about doing that! I think lextech.org will "Fix" the needles, and make them different colors for about $100. They have had mixed reviews though, so be cautious

I'm going to try it maybe this weekend. i will post pics later.

[snguyensc3]

yeah try it let me know what happens im sure a lot of people are stuck in the same situation

[UCF3]

Interesting.

[MikeL22]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Anyone know how I go about getting to the gauge needles?

[VJZ]

I saw an SC400 in the junk yard that someone had gone over the lit section of the needles with white paint. You could see that when the car was off (obviously since it was in a junk yard).

That's an idea.

I have also heard mixed reviews about LexTech. It seems that even if you pack the living daylights out of your package when you send it to him, its still your fault if it doesn't work when you get it back. He claims that he solely packs it back with what YOU send it to him. While I understand that he can't pack for everyone, there needs to be better accountability.

Do you know who it is that runs that business? It's that OLT guy that is a moderator of the SC300/400 forum on ClubLexus. He's a complete asshat and one of the rudest people I have ever encountered on a forum. i know tons of people that have left CL because of him. I wish there were someone else that did these conversions for people. I'd rather give them even a little more money than give Brian (OLT) one red cent.

But thats another ball of wax.

[DaveMcKenz]

I saw an SC400 in the junk yard that someone had gone over the lit section of the needles with white paint. You could see that when the car was off (obviously since it was in a junk yard).

That's an idea.

I have also heard mixed reviews about LexTech. It seems that even if you pack the living daylights out of your package when you send it to him, its still your fault if it doesn't work when you get it back. He claims that he solely packs it back with what YOU send it to him. While I understand that he can't pack for everyone, there needs to be better accountability.

Do you know who it is that runs that business? It's that OLT guy that is a moderator of the SC300/400 forum on ClubLexus. He's a complete asshat and one of the rudest people I have ever encountered on a forum. i know tons of people that have left CL because of him. I wish there were someone else that did these conversions for people. I'd rather give them even a little more money than give Brian (OLT) one red cent.

But thats another ball of wax.

The lextech packing and shipping were OK. Maybe he just used mine, but of course you need to pack well to get them to lextech undamaged. The product I received back was just OK. The lextech needles I received light mostly at the base and usually I barely see any light on the rest of the needle. I told him I was disappointed and he basically told me that is how they are supposed to be so get used to it.

Well, after a while you do get used to it and it functions adequately for you to read your gauges. It's just not the crisp OEM look.

FWIW

[LLS]

VJZ, like most trouble makers, has a problem following rules and ever since he was given infractions by THREE moderators he's been running around talking out is you know what trying to start trouble anywhere he can. It's too bad that on the internet you only go by a user id posting whatever they want, because in the real world you'd never give what that guy says a second thought. Just a juvenile troublemaker. You couldn't follow the rules and got put out, quit whining about it, but by all means stay over here please. This situation works out great.

At least get your facts correct. As Davegs4 posted here: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343266 LLS was sold off more than 2 years ago to a new owner. You can't even get that right, how are you going to feed the rest of the internet info?

- VJZ is a delinquent that was ousted from CL and is now mad at the world. he has a problem with authority and rules.

- VJZ is not only spreading malicious lies, he can't even get his facts straight.

_________________________________________________________________

Dave,

In their forums they have a sticky that says "read this info" or something to that effect and it is in every email they send out. It clearly explains the waterfall needles and how they are purposely designed to eliminate heat that kills the factory needles. It's no surprise how they look upon return. There's no reason anyone should be surprised in their lighting effect, it is put out there for everyone to read before purchase and on the page where they sell them in the store it says "do NOT buy these until you read the forums". I mean...... can't really get more clear than that, eh? People try and buy OEM needles from an aftermarket company that states "we designed them to be completely different from OEM" doesn't always make much sense.........

I'd reckon you bought the red needles, because all the other colors are not affected by daylight quite so much. Red is a natural color that blends with sunlight, unlike the bright blue or the bright white (or even green). In that respect you have a needle that is not designed like OEM and is the color of sunlight..... and you are expecting a laser of light to come out of the dash...... which is not going to happen. I know Brandon offers people the chance to change the color if they buy red and they don't like it because some areas (new mexico, cali, etc) are a lot more sunny than others and SOME people prefer the needle to stand out more. I'm sure he offered you that option also. He wouldn't just leave you out in the cold, but he can't make it "more red" than it is.

The "mixed reviews" are real simple folks..... when you do something right, no one is sure you did anything. When you do something wrong, or someone says you did, it's on the front page. The same 5 people who have ever had an issue with Lextech have been repeatedly posting the same crap over and over and over for years trying to run them in the ground. Go ahead and look.... they might jump forums, but they are the same 5 people. I get 18 hits for a problem with LLS, half of those are repeat threads, 2 of them are not really even complaints. So I get a total of 7 actual logged complaints that for arguments sake we'll just call "unresolved".

Lextech has been in business for 6+ years, it had already serviced over 2,500 clusters by the time I sold it of, and in the last three years Brandon says it doubled business and he is around 4,500 clusters serviced over the last 6 years. You can pull up 18 total complaints, half of which are duplicates from the same person, and tell me this has a disappointing factor to it?

Get real! That's OVER 99.5% customer satisfaction in a high volume internet business. Not ever Carson Toyota has that kind of record. Brandon has done an excellent job of progressing the business, and Im really proud of him.

Remember folks, when you do something right, no one is sure you've done anything at all! :) 6+ years, nearing 5,000 clusters and you can't fill one page of google on complaints. That's absolutely awesome.

VJZ can come back in and trash up the thread if he wishes, but I'm done here. Just remember, it's the internet folks, it takes all kinds.

C-ya! :)

[DaveMcKenz]

VJZ, like most trouble makers, has a problem following rules and ever since he was given infractions by THREE moderators he's been running around talking out is you know what trying to start trouble anywhere he can. It's too bad that on the internet you only go by a user id posting whatever they want, because in the real world you'd never give what that guy says a second thought. Just a juvenile troublemaker. You couldn't follow the rules and got put out, quit whining about it, but by all means stay over here please. This situation works out great.

At least get your facts correct. As Davegs4 posted here: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343266 LLS was sold off more than 2 years ago to a new owner. You can't even get that right, how are you going to feed the rest of the internet info?

- VJZ is a delinquent that was ousted from CL and is now mad at the world. he has a problem with authority and rules.

- VJZ is not only spreading malicious lies, he can't even get his facts straight.

_________________________________________________________________

Dave,

In their forums they have a sticky that says "read this info" or something to that effect and it is in every email they send out. It clearly explains the waterfall needles and how they are purposely designed to eliminate heat that kills the factory needles. It's no surprise how they look upon return. There's no reason anyone should be surprised in their lighting effect, it is put out there for everyone to read before purchase and on the page where they sell them in the store it says "do NOT buy these until you read the forums". I mean...... can't really get more clear than that, eh? People try and buy OEM needles from an aftermarket company that states "we designed them to be completely different from OEM" doesn't always make much sense.........

I'd reckon you bought the red needles, because all the other colors are not affected by daylight quite so much. Red is a natural color that blends with sunlight, unlike the bright blue or the bright white (or even green). In that respect you have a needle that is not designed like OEM and is the color of sunlight..... and you are expecting a laser of light to come out of the dash...... which is not going to happen. I know Brandon offers people the chance to change the color if they buy red and they don't like it because some areas (new mexico, cali, etc) are a lot more sunny than others and SOME people prefer the needle to stand out more. I'm sure he offered you that option also. He wouldn't just leave you out in the cold, but he can't make it "more red" than it is.

The "mixed reviews" are real simple folks..... when you do something right, no one is sure you did anything. When you do something wrong, or someone says you did, it's on the front page. The same 5 people who have ever had an issue with Lextech have been repeatedly posting the same crap over and over and over for years trying to run them in the ground. Go ahead and look.... they might jump forums, but they are the same 5 people. I get 18 hits for a problem with LLS, half of those are repeat threads, 2 of them are not really even complaints. So I get a total of 7 actual logged complaints that for arguments sake we'll just call "unresolved".

Lextech has been in business for 6+ years, it had already serviced over 2,500 clusters by the time I sold it of, and in the last three years Brandon says it doubled business and he is around 4,500 clusters serviced over the last 6 years. You can pull up 18 total complaints, half of which are duplicates from the same person, and tell me this has a disappointing factor to it?

Get real! That's OVER 99.5% customer satisfaction in a high volume internet business. Not ever Carson Toyota has that kind of record. Brandon has done an excellent job of progressing the business, and Im really proud of him.

Remember folks, when you do something right, no one is sure you've done anything at all! :) 6+ years, nearing 5,000 clusters and you can't fill one page of google on complaints. That's absolutely awesome.

VJZ can come back in and trash up the thread if he wishes, but I'm done here. Just remember, it's the internet folks, it takes all kinds.

C-ya! :)

I did read the lextech info before ordering. I did expect the needles to be brighter at the base than the shaft. I did have red needles and understood that the color could not be changed. I think my disappointment comes from the photographic appearance of the needles on the lextech website and also the photos I took of my own needles. The camera tends to compensate in such a way to make the needles look better than the human eye perceives them. The "waterfall" light distribution is much more exaggerated in real life than in photos.

As I said I did get used to this and it does function adequately in all but the brightest sunlight. I was not offered any recourse or upgrade to address my issues. Perhaps none were available at the time. I did receive a rather condescending email (kind of like the LLS post above) telling me that the needles were working as designed, and that was it. For the price, I now enjoy a fairly nice instrument cluster, so I guess things could be worse.