RXREY

A mod is of course, a modification and it is that no matter how simple. It's no big deal, just a different thing , you are right, it's not a competition, it's two different things. But as I said, I work with entertainment designers and time is always considered...so this is just the five minute solution. Rey in L.A. ...finally, it's raining!

A designer/special effects man, friend of mine, who happens to own an Infinity FX35 was riding in my RX 400 and loved my blue gauges and thought my car came like that. He mentioned that he hates the gauge color, or lack of color in his Infinity, and wished his came like mine, that nifty blue color......I told him what I did...he laughed and said it was clever. He's a former student of mine at the design center, ya know the one Chip Foose graduated from......now he did the acetate trick to his FX and everyone is happy...even non Lexus Forum members love this five minute mod! Very few people are really going to take their dashes apart, no offense to CDULUC but that's a bit much for me.

You are correct cduluk, that honeycomb grille is NOT the Thundercloud grille. I actually saw that same one but didn't like it as much as the one that I got. Lemon, what is the Thundercloud shift knob look like? Oh, my 06 400h is also savannah metallic.

I keep getting nice remarks about the HARRIER logo plus the grille is so much nicer, at least to me. Check out my "Blue Gauge" post as well plus the postings on how to get rid of all of the rattles.

Three years now and I haven't missed having that roof rack once.

"lemon" This is unrelated but I believe that you are using kilometers where you live? How many miles have you put on your 06 400h? I am at 43K and the car still feels brand new.

Very cool! Now go and fill your tank! Oh, and thanks for the much better pics!!! I think this is something all of us can do and it really is an easy way to add to the car without any fuss. Glad to be of service! Rey

OK, I just took another picture but it is still a little blurry because I can't use a flash and it is hard to hold the camera steady. You get the idea and this time I left all of the colored display lights on so you can see that the blue acetate doesn't change those all that much. If you really wanted to you could actually cut an arc to allow some of the gauge images stay clear. Or you can just "Blue" the large center gauge...or, well, you get the idea! Rey Never mind, look at the next post from "lemon". Much better pics than mine......

By George, I think you've got it! Try it. The great thing is, if you don't like it, no harm done, no time wasted to speak of. Let us know what you think. As I said, I was really trying to be honest about how easy this was and it does look good. It does make everything blue though but I like it. The amp gauge, or whatever that is that replaced the RPM gauge, has a blue area and a much larger white area...now it has a blue and a light blue. No biggie. So if I go with red acetate, I'll end up with a power meter gauge that is red and......magenta!!!! Yep. The nice thing is that you can try whatever you want without messing anything up and if you don;t want to keep it, you haven't invested any time, very little money and you can easily try different colors. At the hobby store where I came across the acetate they only had a few colors but some of the slots where empty so I don;t know what other colors they normally have and I didn't ask since I only wanted the blue. Art supply stores often have packets of colored acetate as well and would work great I imagine. Let us know if you try this.

Yes. it all has a blue over it...it's like tinting your windows...you are "tinting" the clear plastic that covers your gauges. It's not like you can't tell how much gas you have, the value change still tells you how much gas you have as well as of course the needle! Anything red still reads as red, not purple. The blue just isn't dark enough to change any of the colored lights. You WON'T accidentally run out of gas! What was white is now light blue, what was blue or red, is now a darker red....what is yellow, still reads as a shade of red, not green. The whole effect is nice especially at night and more soothing on your eyes as well. This isn't for you since you don't mind putting a lot of time into things like this and taking things apart, it's for someone like me that wants a nice effect without taking anything apart. If I wanted to, or decide I don't want it any more, I can take it off in seconds, the acetate is merely laying on the slanted clear plastic. The tiny piece of double stick tape just keeps it from slipping down. Happy trails Rey in L.A.

Yes cduluk, it's all blue. This post is for a simple solution inspired by seeing your "Blue Ring" post. I work with the entertainment designers at my school so I teach methods of doing things simply and cheaply to simulate more complicated things. I like problem solving but have to think about the bottom line in many cases and also the time it takes to do something. How long did it take you to do what you did? I am not being facetious, I am just curious. Keep doing stuff, it's fun to see what you come up with and I may copy you in my own way! Be well, Rey

By the way, I apologize for the inferior photography. It's late now so I might try to replace the original photo with a new one...if I can make it better. Rey Bustos in sunny (even in January) L.A.

By George, I think you've got it! Try it. The great thing is, if you don't like it, no harm done, no time wasted to speak of. Let us know what you think. As I said, I was really trying to be honest about how easy this was and it does look good. It does make everything blue though but I like it. The amp gauge, or whatever that is that replaced the RPM gauge, has a blue area and a much larger white area...now it has a blue and a light blue. I think it's fine this way... Yes, you can leave the smaller gauges alone...do the smaller ones red the large center one blue...etc....

Looks like everything is blue, which makes sense if I understand exactly what was done. That's the difference between your project and this one - everything will be blue as the entire plastic circle face has blue acetate in front of it. *edit* Looking at your post above cduluk, and I thought he had done something like this as well, but what I 'think' he's done is simple. As he said, go to your vehicle ( I know it's hard for you, but don't take anything apart - ;) ), take a business card, place it in the smaller 'ring' (like the power meter ring) against the clear plastic face, and push it sideways. You should see the business card now appear in the speedometer ring, still in front of the clear plastic face. Now picture doing the same thing with blue acetate. Apparently, as RXREY has found out, there are not three separate round clear plastic faces, but one large piece of clear plastic that appear round because of the faceplate. Pieces of acetate will just slide in there like the business card. The pieces can be oversized because it's one big piece of clear plastic behind the cover plate. The oversize area (and the tape holding up the acetate I think) will be covered by the faceplace. Yes, thanks for the clearer explanation. Like I said, it's really unsophisticated...that's why it takes only five minutes...including a coffee break!

Yes. it's in front so it CAN be red, polka dot...whatever film you put on top of the clear plastic. It's very unsophisticated compared to the genius cduluk method...and yes, EVERYTHING will be whatever the film is. It actually looks great! I was pleasantly surprised.

Actually the blue acetate worked great. Bright enough even in the daytime...maybe the acetate that I bought was just the right opacity or whatever. It is so beautiful. No one would know it wasn't this way when I bought the car. Oh, to answer the last question, you don't take anything off, the acetate(thin plastic) is an overlay. Do this next time that you are in your car: Take a small piece of paper or business card and put it on one of the gauges, lets say the small gas gauge at the right of the center large gauge...you'll see that the card actually can be slid UNDER the ring and will go over to the other gauge and be seen....get it? I am not the best writer so I am trying to describe something that is really easy to do. With all due respect to cduluk, I simply cannot see myself doing some of the projects that he has done. One, I don't think I could figure it out and secondly, it would scare me to death! I am a tiger at what I do and am successful at it, top in my profession....but.......but it's not doing these kind of laborious and technical mods on my car. I say this with respect.

I know it wasn't as high tech as what member "cduluk" did but it was REALLY EASY to do it this way. I found out that the gauge rings and the clear plastic that lies behind the rings but in FRONT of the gauges (it's one piece of plastic) are totally separate...meaning that if you go right now and sit in your car and you took a business card and put it in the smaller gauge you would see it pop into the large center gauge. So all that I did was cut three pieces of blue acetate (from a hobby store, sold in roughly 8X10" sheets) and slipped them on top of the clear plastic. They were cut roughly the shape of each gauge but bigger. They really were roughly cut, no need to be accurate since they slip under the unseen portion of the rings. I suppose they could be done in one piece but you may not be able to avoid crimping this way. I used very small pieces of Scotch double stick tape to hold them up. The tape is easily hidden under each gauge ring. 5 minutes that's it, including a few sips from my coffee! No taking anything apart, no fancy stuff necessary. OH, I graduated and teach at the school that Chip Foose graduated from( his name pops in in this forum often), Art Center College of Design in Pasadena! He was in the Transportation Design dept. and I was in the Illustration Design....I didn't know him though. Anyway, this was just an alternative and VERY simple alternative to what cduluk did. I know I for one would not take apart my dash. I have too many other things that are more pressing...like making a living.

sorry,read the next post, I posted it twice and didn't know how to delete the duplicate post...hence, you can see why I would not be able nor desire to do the blue gauges the way cduluk did!...

Blue Acetate: $2.49 Time spent: 5 Minutes Satisfaction: Priceless By the way everyone, "Lemon" took much better pictures of his new,blue gauges. Look on page two of this post..... Added note: Through the brilliant skills of our very own cduluk, as you will see on page 4 of this post, the gauge bezel is very easy to pop off! Amazingly, after viewing his addition to this post I tried to take it off using his instructions...and voila, it came off. So now I am replacing my blue acetate sheets with a single sheet covering the plastic gauge window.

I started going to this forum when I bought my amazing 06 400h. Lately though,it's just such a downer to read about how many of you don't like the RX, lacks quality, etc...Murano? Please..... it's too much already. It's been nice to get info from most of you but get your Murano, your Yugo, or whatever you like better and that's it....it's too depressing here in this little forum and hearing all of the stuff you like about other cars etc.. I'm sorry but NIssan doesn't make world class cars...they just seem OK to for a year...maybe two, but then....good luck! Thanks for all of the help in the past. I will get info somewhere else. I personally love my car....but then I am not as spoiled as many sound in this forum. I have a cofortable life but I didn't start off with much so I appreciate thngs more....or that's the way it seems listening to many here that sound like whiny, spoiled Americans. Rey in L.A.

The RXh is also $20-25,000 more than a fully loaded Murano. Hardly a fair comparison. The new Murano is really nice, and I would buy one over an 04-09 RX (gas or hybrid) anyday. The 2010 is a different story...but with the price difference I'd still lean heavily towards the Murano. I guess it's OK until you start finding transmission parts, random nuts and bolts in your driveway....if the Murano is anything like the other Nissans....

While you may feel that 23 MPG in the city is incredible, it is a far cry from the 28-30 MPG that hybrid SUVs, such as the RX400h and RX450H have been achieving. And high-traffic, big city environments are where hybrids have always excelled. If you have been perusing this forum for any length of time, you'd know that many of us will advise newcomers who are interested in a hybrid Lexus that unless they spend an ample amount of time driving in city traffic, there will not be a large difference in fuel savings over a gasolene-only vehicle. I believe the Toyota RAV4 boasts similar numbers as the Murano. But you glazed over my other point - Nissan service. I was told very bluntly by more than one Nissan dealership clerk that if I needed a ride more than 10 miles away, I was out of luck. That was just one part of the overall Nissan experience that turned me off to the brand. It's somewhat like comparing Honda to Acura service or Chevrolet to Cadillac - huge difference and a big reason why the RX-series are the best selling SUVs in the US - far outselling the Infiniti SUVs and even anything that Nissan has to offer. Nissan makes the only Japanese car maker that doesn't have any cars in the top ten list in reliablity. I'd stick with Lexus. In about four years the Murano will more than likely have issues like any other Nissan product. I agree on the reliability issues of nissan. The quality has improved in years, the infiniti's don't seem to have wide spread issues. Lexus can't be beat when reliability is the topic. I have notice that the GS line seems to be a weak spot in Lexus perfect reliability. Really? Which is the GS? The big family SUV?

While you may feel that 23 MPG in the city is incredible, it is a far cry from the 28-30 MPG that hybrid SUVs, such as the RX400h and RX450H have been achieving. And high-traffic, big city environments are where hybrids have always excelled. If you have been perusing this forum for any length of time, you'd know that many of us will advise newcomers who are interested in a hybrid Lexus that unless they spend an ample amount of time driving in city traffic, there will not be a large difference in fuel savings over a gasolene-only vehicle. I believe the Toyota RAV4 boasts similar numbers as the Murano. But you glazed over my other point - Nissan service. I was told very bluntly by more than one Nissan dealership clerk that if I needed a ride more than 10 miles away, I was out of luck. That was just one part of the overall Nissan experience that turned me off to the brand. It's somewhat like comparing Honda to Acura service or Chevrolet to Cadillac - huge difference and a big reason why the RX-series are the best selling SUVs in the US - far outselling the Infiniti SUVs and even anything that Nissan has to offer. Nissan is the only Japanese car maker that doesn't have any cars in the top ten list in reliablity. I'd stick with Lexus. In about four years the Murano will more than likely have issues like any other Nissan product.

What did all what mean in English? This ISC reset? It's easy to do yourself. Do a search of this forum - I've posted instructions somewhere. Doesn't have so much to do with increaseing the efficiency of the hybrid system, but more to do with decreasing the amount of time the gas engine runs (something to do with the idle speed blah blah blah). All I know is that I did it myself, and my mileage and the amount of time I could run on electric only increased. Very cool, thanks! I want to look into it. What a great forum. I appreciate it. Rey

What did all that mean in English? I am really curious about what the deaer can do to increase the efficiency of the hybrid system. If they could do this, why don't they do it to begin with? There must be a catch to all of this...hmmm.....I'm so confused....No surprise. Rey