Review of Lextech 32's and Needle
12-01-13, 06:10 AM
#46
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I used Tanin Auto about 2 months ago to get my replacement cluster's odometer reset to current car's actual. I called / emailed them, they sent out the forms via email. I sent them the cluster on a Monday, they received on Tuesday, and had called me on Wednesday afternoon with the report. Because I was traveling, I asked that they not send back till the following week. Had I not asked for the delay, it would have been back to me in under 1 week! Tanin charge including shipping back to me= $75.
Now, I only had my odometer re-calibrated, but their report told me about what bulbs were out, needles flickering , etc. I replaced the bulbs and needles myself without any issues.
I would recommend Tanin as I had a good experience.
Now, I only had my odometer re-calibrated, but their report told me about what bulbs were out, needles flickering , etc. I replaced the bulbs and needles myself without any issues.
I would recommend Tanin as I had a good experience.
question after the calibration how is the speedometer reading? can use say for sure its accurate? if so maybe i will call them about that.
12-01-13, 06:22 AM
#47
good to know, thanks for the review. i was going to use tanin but i called them to ask a few questions about what lights they use and the girl unfortunetly couldnt answer the questions and the owner was out of town. i should have been more patient. but looking closesly at the pictures on ebay it looks like there are hot spots, which is what i was getting with the lights i was using, didnt want to pay 200 for the same thing.
question after the calibration how is the speedometer reading? can use say for sure its accurate? if so maybe i will call them about that.
question after the calibration how is the speedometer reading? can use say for sure its accurate? if so maybe i will call them about that.
12-01-13, 06:54 AM
#48
Geez after reading this thread I'm just glad all my needles light up properly. Sometimes my RPM gauge will not work when first started but I've learned to live with it. The cluster looks good except for the needles not being lit up all the way.
12-01-13, 07:00 AM
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there is a calculator you can use to figure out how to wire and which resistors to use.
12-01-13, 07:59 AM
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Faaaaakkkkkk....I wish this thread was created earlier. I sent out my cluster, climate control AND ECU to lextech on OCT.11. Still have heard NOTHING of an update and the website says my order is processing. When I email I always get a very short and seemingly irrelevant response to what my question/statement actually was. I also went through and read as much as i could find on their forums. I was quoted in an email before sending out my parts that turn around time would be 5-8 days. In 10 days it will have been 2 MONTHS! Seriously? 2 MONTHS! I have given up trying to communicate with lextech because of very vague and short emails that provide no updates or reassurance that I chose the right company. Absolutely terrible customer service so far and I still have no idea when I will actually receive my parts back. If so many problems are arising with the clusters I am horrified to see how my ECU is returned. Very disappointed so far.
12-01-13, 08:39 AM
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Faaaaakkkkkk....I wish this thread was created earlier. I sent out my cluster, climate control AND ECU to lextech on OCT.11. Still have heard NOTHING of an update and the website says my order is processing. When I email I always get a very short and seemingly irrelevant response to what my question/statement actually was. I also went through and read as much as i could find on their forums. I was quoted in an email before sending out my parts that turn around time would be 5-8 days. In 10 days it will have been 2 MONTHS! Seriously? 2 MONTHS! I have given up trying to communicate with lextech because of very vague and short emails that provide no updates or reassurance that I chose the right company. Absolutely terrible customer service so far and I still have no idea when I will actually receive my parts back. If so many problems are arising with the clusters I am horrified to see how my ECU is returned. Very disappointed so far.
Also pm me about the ECU i have a buddy who is having problems with his i just want to compare notes.
12-01-13, 10:00 AM
#52
Wow I'm surprised this thread hasn't been closed, since the guy who claims to not be a part of them always closes these types of threads. I'm one of the guys who originally called out Lextech for putting 24 LEDs in their advertised 32 led clusters. I also had bad experience with them shipping my cluster back and then have them accusing me of breaking the cluster when it flickered like crazy right out the box after install. This was over 3 years ago and it sucks to see people going through the same issues. I'm sure there are a lot of instances of problems with Lextech but most people don't speak up, since they usually get martyred by moderators.
12-01-13, 11:53 AM
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hopefully you will get it soon and it will work. when you do please let us know how it turns out, and take some pictures so we can see what it looks like, especially inside if you can.
Also pm me about the ECU i have a buddy who is having problems with his i just want to compare notes.
Also pm me about the ECU i have a buddy who is having problems with his i just want to compare notes.
12-01-13, 12:30 PM
#54
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I used Tanin about 9 months ago. Spent hours reading and came to the same conclusion of many about Lextechs service. I'm out of Chicago and I decided to drive my cluster to Tanin instead of shipping. I met Jason and spoke to him for a while.
He redid my backlighting in white and did my needles in blue. I also bought a new climate control unit and sent it to him so he could do white background with blue buttons. The quality of work itself was fine initially. About 4 months later, I began to have the strobe effect with one of my background bulbs. That is still going on. My temp needle was flickering as well, but that stopped. One of the bulbs in my new climate cluster burned out in 5 months.
My temp needle is reading 2 full bars higher. My tach reads 250 rpm higher (i have SAFC) and my Speedo is off much like the OPs. When I contacted Jason he suggested I disassemble cluster to physically adjust my needles. Some of us are not comfortable taking apart stuff and soldering. The full reason I sent it to a professional is to have it done right.
I have decided to live with it and bought a spare cluster a week ago. Since my car is a dd I can't be disassembling the center console and taking cluster apart when I please. Also due to the age and mileage, every time I take it all apart another ****ing piece of plastic snaps off.
OP, if you do a write up on how to DIY, I will take a crack at it. I don't want to be at the mercy of subpar vedors due to lack of options we have.
He redid my backlighting in white and did my needles in blue. I also bought a new climate control unit and sent it to him so he could do white background with blue buttons. The quality of work itself was fine initially. About 4 months later, I began to have the strobe effect with one of my background bulbs. That is still going on. My temp needle was flickering as well, but that stopped. One of the bulbs in my new climate cluster burned out in 5 months.
My temp needle is reading 2 full bars higher. My tach reads 250 rpm higher (i have SAFC) and my Speedo is off much like the OPs. When I contacted Jason he suggested I disassemble cluster to physically adjust my needles. Some of us are not comfortable taking apart stuff and soldering. The full reason I sent it to a professional is to have it done right.
I have decided to live with it and bought a spare cluster a week ago. Since my car is a dd I can't be disassembling the center console and taking cluster apart when I please. Also due to the age and mileage, every time I take it all apart another ****ing piece of plastic snaps off.
OP, if you do a write up on how to DIY, I will take a crack at it. I don't want to be at the mercy of subpar vedors due to lack of options we have.
12-01-13, 09:34 PM
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I'm sorry for your predicament man and i'm happy to see that you did your on work in the end and got something you are happy with. the only good thing to come out of this is you brought to lite an issue that i have read a little in the past about. you have convinced me, i'm gonna try and do the cluster myself now, at least then i will have no one to blame but myself when it doesn't turn out very good lol.
Last edited by DaveGS4; 12-02-13 at 11:14 AM. Reason: pming explanation
12-02-13, 05:20 AM
#56
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After reading every post of BOTH of your LLS related threads i have noticed one stricking similarity: you get a series of condescending replies in the beginning, and then a certain someone does not chime in again the rest of the thread. i kept reading to see what a reply was or an explanation of some kind and there just wasn't one.
I'm sorry for your predicament man and i'm happy to see that you did your on work in the end and got something you are happy with. the only good thing to come out of this is you brought to lite an issue that i have read a little in the past about. you have convinced me, i'm gonna try and do the cluster myself now, at least then i will have no one to blame but myself when it doesn't turn out very good lol.
I'm sorry for your predicament man and i'm happy to see that you did your on work in the end and got something you are happy with. the only good thing to come out of this is you brought to lite an issue that i have read a little in the past about. you have convinced me, i'm gonna try and do the cluster myself now, at least then i will have no one to blame but myself when it doesn't turn out very good lol.
In regards to DIY. Once i start work on my friends cluster I will take pictures of everything and make a seperate DIY only thread. Lets keep this to reviews only. And lets keep it clean and mature, I don't want the thread being locked.
And once I figure out the needles i will let you know
12-02-13, 10:51 AM
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I echo everything said about Lextech. I wish I had done more research prior to sending my cluster and climate control to them earlier this year. The backlighting came back looking nice, the needles not so much. I have red needles, so that was my only option – I can’t say if results are better with other colors, but the red needles do not look good. They are very washed out and look like crap. I brought this up to LLS and they told me it was because the plastic shield over my cluster was probably tinted and that’s why the needles looked bad – well, no. The plastic is fine, and the cluster backlighting is bright, so clearly if there was a tinting issue, ALL the lighting would look bad, not just the needles.
I also had the speedo/tach repair done. It didn’t work. I contacted LLS and they told me it was probably a motherboard issue and they couldn’t do anything about it. OK – that would have been good to know before paying the money. When I order a repair, I don’t expect it to come with any conditions – I pay to fix it, it comes back fixed. If they can’t guarantee the repair, they should say so, and if they had, then it would have been my decision to take the chance or not. SO – the speedo/tach repair is not worth it, IMHO.
And it took me 5 weeks to get all my stuff back. Slow response times, no apologies for delays, etc – everything stated here, I’ve experienced as well. I was even told that my unit had been shipped. I didn’t receive it after a week, and when I finally did get a tracking # from them, it was dated THAT DAY – so the unit did NOT ship out when they claimed it had.
All that said – I did not pursue LLS for any repairs after their initial responses indicating their lack of interest in addressing any problems. I had little faith in them being able to correct the issue, and quite honestly didn’t want to send everything off again to a company I no longer trusted, nor did I want everything to be gone for another 5 weeks. I chalked it up as a loss and moved on.
I also had the speedo/tach repair done. It didn’t work. I contacted LLS and they told me it was probably a motherboard issue and they couldn’t do anything about it. OK – that would have been good to know before paying the money. When I order a repair, I don’t expect it to come with any conditions – I pay to fix it, it comes back fixed. If they can’t guarantee the repair, they should say so, and if they had, then it would have been my decision to take the chance or not. SO – the speedo/tach repair is not worth it, IMHO.
And it took me 5 weeks to get all my stuff back. Slow response times, no apologies for delays, etc – everything stated here, I’ve experienced as well. I was even told that my unit had been shipped. I didn’t receive it after a week, and when I finally did get a tracking # from them, it was dated THAT DAY – so the unit did NOT ship out when they claimed it had.
All that said – I did not pursue LLS for any repairs after their initial responses indicating their lack of interest in addressing any problems. I had little faith in them being able to correct the issue, and quite honestly didn’t want to send everything off again to a company I no longer trusted, nor did I want everything to be gone for another 5 weeks. I chalked it up as a loss and moved on.
12-03-13, 01:19 PM
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Several years ago I sent my SC instrument cluster to Lextech to replace the needle lights. I was happy with the results and about six months later I sent them my SC HVAC control unit for new lights.
Upon return, the HVAC unit was DOA and had to be replaced, shortly after I started to drive the car again, the instrument needle lights failed.
I contacted Lextech and in response, I received a profanity laced e-mail with lies and threats. Lextech will never receive another penny of my money.
My local repair shop located a firm in CA that does good work at a better price. They have performed repairs on my SC and my wife’s LS. I have had no problems with failures on anything they have worked on.
Upon return, the HVAC unit was DOA and had to be replaced, shortly after I started to drive the car again, the instrument needle lights failed.
I contacted Lextech and in response, I received a profanity laced e-mail with lies and threats. Lextech will never receive another penny of my money.
My local repair shop located a firm in CA that does good work at a better price. They have performed repairs on my SC and my wife’s LS. I have had no problems with failures on anything they have worked on.
Last edited by SC & LS 40; 12-03-13 at 01:23 PM.
12-03-13, 02:04 PM
#59
ive been very hesitant to chime in here, because I am here to learn and share info, not to argue and get into beefs.
But if a customer has a complaint of some sort, no mater what your service is, you should try to help him resolve it, you don't attack them , call them a liar, and try to insinuate that they are too stupid to know what they are talking about.
I haven't seen one attempt , even a small one, to help you with your issue.
This is very typical actually and nothing new, anytime someone has made a thread regarding cluster lighting, cluster DIY or has any questons regarding needles or clusters, its the same routine every single time:
-first you get spoken too like YOU don't know what your doing, or YOUR way wont work or YOUR parts are cheap and wont last.
-second you get told to just give it up and don't waste your time, and send it in to the "pros"
Its ALWAYS done with a very snotty,condescending tone, rude, classless , unhelpful and seemingly deceitful at times.
Not once have I seen any real info offered on how to help someone with their cluster problem, or where to get any decent parts, or anything other then what I mentioned above.
But if a customer has a complaint of some sort, no mater what your service is, you should try to help him resolve it, you don't attack them , call them a liar, and try to insinuate that they are too stupid to know what they are talking about.
I haven't seen one attempt , even a small one, to help you with your issue.
This is very typical actually and nothing new, anytime someone has made a thread regarding cluster lighting, cluster DIY or has any questons regarding needles or clusters, its the same routine every single time:
-first you get spoken too like YOU don't know what your doing, or YOUR way wont work or YOUR parts are cheap and wont last.
-second you get told to just give it up and don't waste your time, and send it in to the "pros"
Its ALWAYS done with a very snotty,condescending tone, rude, classless , unhelpful and seemingly deceitful at times.
Not once have I seen any real info offered on how to help someone with their cluster problem, or where to get any decent parts, or anything other then what I mentioned above.
Very well said. I have been in customer service my whole life and sometimes when a problem like this comes up it can actually improve your business if the owner fesses up to problems and institutes new policies and addresses the changes they will make to avoid the problems in the future. I respect OLT's knowledge and very much appreciate his input on so many subjects but customer service is not his strong suit. In any business transaction maintaining a respectful tone to any discussion with someone even if you disbelieve them or disagree with them is paramount to long term business success. Remember anyone you come in contact with is a potential future customer or may refer a future customer to you so watch the tone. If you go to his sight even the line that is repeated over and over "We do not issue refunds because persons do not visit the info box at the lower left corner of the store before they purchase. This is very bothersome when dealing with large amounts of people. It has became necessary to put this disclaimer here due to persons that do not read before they purchase and expect product to simply show up on their doorstep. Please visit the info box. Thank you." has a tone to it that insinuates that OLT has to deal with a bunch of illiterate rubes for customers. Again I respect OLT's vast knowledge but he has to back up, reflect from a customers stand point and use this experience to improve his business which means he may have to eat some "crow" first before moving forward.
