Topic

Just nipped out today to an appointment in Townsville, 600km return. My 04 160 ran flawlessly, spirited highway driving, at around 105kph. Full tank of 98RON and got back with over 1/4 of a tank. Very happy with todays run, although who ever signed off at MG Rover on the Medieval instrument cluster lighting should be sacked. Oh wait, probably was!

Ken


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Hi,
Just came back from run out to coast only 100km round trip but roof down and got back before sun started to bake.
Are you referring to the dial pod in front of you if so I have just removed the yellow filter and now nice and white and bright.

Tommy

It is awful and 'cheap' - I am still trying to find the wire to fir my LE500 dials to my TF but no luck so far!

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Just nipped out and 600km in the same sentence!!

G'day Andy.
Yep, life in Australia! 600kms for a Doctors appointment on a Saturday!
My horse is a 4000km return drive. A fair run for a ride now and then, but I make a decent road trip out of it with my Shar Pei and parrot in my VW van. I can actually be on time within 30 minutes depending on the road conditions!
Tommy; re the instrument cluster illumination, yep, Ive done that, as well as other mods to my instruments, however the non illuminated orange sticks that adorn our speedo and tacho are just plain amateur and ugly. Easy to see why MG had image and quality issues towards the end.
Best wishes all.

Ken

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You can go the illuminated needles route.

The pic shows them at full brightness in daylight conditions. They do come with a rheostat to adjust brightness.
Although you could suffer permanent mental health issues by the time you've got them on correctly!
See my 'How to' for the address of your nearest psychotherapist.

GDay David.
Yep, Ive seen the how to's re this mod and its not for me. I love the OEM white faces on my 04 and short of finding a replacement modern instrument pack, am just going to live with my dials.
Best wishes mate.
Ken


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Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh??? sorry but me no understand what te problem is. In all three of my F's the instruments light up when i turn th lights on and oen can see them ........................................... so I cannot see what the problem is .

I didn't say I couldn't see my dials, but was commenting on how cheap and nasty the OEM illumination of the main dials is compared to modern ( 1985 onwards) instrument illumination on every car I know of.
The non illuminated needle and dial numerals is very poorly executed in my opinion only.


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I tend to agree, although the plasma dials are much better than the original pathetic dial illumination. If you could retain the original style dial faces but have rear illuminated numbers and illuminated needles that would be perfect.

I am changing back to standard guages after ruining my original set fitting LEDs and illuminated needles.
The needles are not balanced as per the originals and show outrageously high readings over 120kph (they are dead on under that),
and the colour has faded out of the needles leaving them a sickly yellow/red after only a couple of years.
To add insult to injury the replacement pod cost me 99 euros + postage (due to being in KMH, and low mileage) and I will have to wait several months for the mileage to be close
enough to swap over.

That annoying Rich!

My needles are still red and they read quite accurately, so it is possible to achieve this.

However, I did find that it was quite fiddly to get the needles on the pin shafts so that they were not slipping round slightly giving the effect you mention, but It was also critical that the pin wasn't pushed too far into the gauge to damage the mechanism and cause unresponsive needles or again the effect you've got.