Well I joined the crew of needles that have burnt out... I'm a hair disappointed as I only have 47k on a garage kept 2008 but that doesn't seem to matter ( I recently replaced my center console touch screen too!). Anyway my first set of needles didn't arrive.. thanks USPS... long story... but my second did... so here's a look!

 

... and here is the new!

 

Here's the news for anyone that needs to do this... first off... you MUST take off the bezel so that you have a flat plain. Good luck getting the needed leverage if not. Secondly, I took mine off at a literal zero on both MPH and RPM.. yet when I aligned the prongs it was off... don't let this process fool you put the "motors" at zero and adjust the prongs if you must. Mine were off big time until I gave into this thought; the needles stop at the zero positions so I was a bit baffled when this happened to me. Lastly... my new needles are now clear when off. I'm OK with this as they are quite blue when on but the negative is they seem to fade a hair towards the end.

Overall a bit a pain but nothing any of us couldn't tackle. I hated the dead spot and had to act so I don't second guess my decision to undertake this assignment.

Hope this helps anyone going through this. I really wanted a 2012+ cluster but like asking for snow in California.

*Cheers*

 

Any special reason you have the brightness turned up all the way? That's what kills them in the first place. I have mine set to the minimum brightness I can see day and night to make sure this kind of failure is least likely and more importantly, to make sure my eyes are not impacted by looking at something bright at night time.

 

That's a fair response. I did that for the pics. I don't keep them at full.. normally roughly 75%. Perhaps brighter than I should but I still wouldn't expect these LED's to give up the ghost so fast.

** I should note that in that first pic I was missing just one segment. Not too long after that I lost a second so I only had two LED's functional on the rpm needle- the first and last. I really hated looking at that.

 

Mine are at 25% and have been since I bought it in 2008. Never an issue here. Dimmer is better for many reasons. If I had the HUD like the GS F, I'd turn it down to the lowest setting all the time.

 

The one thing I wish they kept from the older model speedos is the fuel gauge. I absolutely hate the 10 bar fuel tank reader on the 2011+ clusters, triggers the OCD part of me. I much rather have it gradually fall in the needle fashion.

 

Not to change the subject, but the blue needles fluster me, big time. During the day I wear polarized sun glasses. With the glasses on, the blue needles are almost invisible. Doesn't really matter much now that I have my wireless OBD reader app on my phone. I now have a digital readout of MPH and RPM

Lou

 

Not my thing. 50% minimum is my preference. I still don't believe they should fail.

Lol. I figure (I could be wrong) that I can live with that 10 bar gas gauge. I would miss the voltage gauge though.

 

Fuel gauges are total BS anyway. They always default to telling you there is no fuel left when you have at least 2.5 gallons to go. I never pay them any mind, I just reset the A trip meter and look for 300+ miles to know when it is time to get fuel.

 

^^^^That's your motorcycle heritage

Lou

 

I'm a freak and tend to fill at 1/4 tank at the latest.