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As most of you know, the FC gauge cluster only goes to 8k RPM (9k on S5 NA's). As my 13b PP redlines at 10k RPM, I currently have 2k of RPM range that I have zero visibility of. While you can find rare 10k RPM clusters from FEED, KnightSports, etc., these are currently selling for upwards of $1500.00! Seeing as I like the OEM style of gauges (no custom blank dash panels with 8 autometer gauges or a digi-dash), I started researching cluster swaps for the FC. In my search, I came across @clokker 's thread for a Miata cluster swap. After doing some more digging, I discovered there is vendor making many varieties of aftermarket cluster options for Miata's that actually look really nice. In addition, that vendor has the capability of making clusters that read to 10k RPM and 180 MPH (not necessary, but might as well do it for fun).
While clokker's thread had a slew of great information, there were some issues with the install methods he chose. I plan on retaining the entire Miata cluster and basically shoving it inside the FC dash. As the miata cluster is physically smaller, I will have to design and 3D print a "plate" that will hide all the unsightly gaps and make the Miata cluster appear to be an OEM install.
All this being said, I've already figured out the wiring and verified that my NA8 Miata cluster turns on, oil pressure & coolant gauges work, the tach works and reads accurately, and the turn signals/illumination work. HOWEVER, I can not figure out how to get the high beam indicator to work. The wiring is fairly simple and all my knowledge tells me the indicator should be working....but it isn't. @j9fd3s or some other guru, do you think you could help a guy out?
I've attached a copy of my wiring diagram for reference, but basically pin 2E on the Miata cluster should go to pin 12 on the white FC meter plug. However, connecting this simply doesn't work. Based on the Miata wiring diagram, pin 2E goes directly to the headlight switch, so this should work as described.
I apologize for the blurry photo, the forum reduced the size. I can email the file to someone if they'd like.
My headlights are not led. I've also verified the high beam indicator works on the stock FC cluster and I've swapped bulbs in the miata cluster with no luck. The high beam is receiving 12v as it shares switched 12v with the turn signals and those work.
The high beam is receiving 12v as it shares switched 12v with the turn signals and those work.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the turn signals and their indicators don't share their 12v source with the headlamps.
The HB switch in the turn signal lever provides GROUND to trip the dimmer relay, which then sends 12v to the HBs (FTP) or to switch from the LBs to the HBs. The dimmer relay transfers 12v from the 30a HEAD fuse to the lamps as well as the HB indicator.
The turn signal switch sends 12v from the 15a TURN fuse to the flasher unit, and then out to the front and rear turn signals, and the signal indicator on the dash.
Your turn signal indicators (on the NA cluster) do however share the same GROUND as your HB indicators and those are working. That can only mean that either you aren't receiving 12v to the cluster on the HB wire, or you have a bad bulb.
Sorry for the dumb questions, but have you actually seen your HBs kick on, with the FC and the NA cluster? Can you turn your high beams on and meter pin 12 on the combo meter connector for 12v? Try injecting 12v directly to the HB wire?
You're correct in that the HB and turn signals share a common ground. That was a typo on my part.
Also, I'm an idiot. Apparently, both bulbs I used were dead. I had a brand new bulb laying around and presto! The HB indicator works.
After firing up the car a few times, I'm a little hesitant about the oil pressure gauge. I have an aftermarket gauge hooked up and the oem sender is not connected. However, when switching on the cluster, the oil pressure gauge shoots up to a little over half the meter sweep. With no sender input, this should not be working at all, correct? Or is there a default position when the gauge receives power but no sender input?
FWIW, the oem coolant temp sensor is also not hooked up as I'm using it to feed data to my haltech, and the miata coolant gauge reads zero...as it should.
Interesting. It just seems odd that the miata oil pressure gauge would read at half, with no sender input. Whereas, the miata coolant temp gauge reads zero with no input.
After firing up the car a few times, I'm a little hesitant about the oil pressure gauge. I have an aftermarket gauge hooked up and the oem sender is not connected. However, when switching on the cluster, the oil pressure gauge shoots up to a little over half the meter sweep. With no sender input, this should not be working at all, correct? Or is there a default position when the gauge receives power but no sender input?.
what year cluster do you have? its a real gauge up to some point and then its just an idiot light. people complain when the gauge moves...
what year cluster do you have? its a real gauge up to some point and then its just an idiot light. people complain when the gauge moves...
It's a 1995 NA8 cluster. I honestly don't care if it's not super accurate, as i have an aftermarket gauge for precise readings. However, I want to make sure it's actually functioning as intended since my intent is to make this appear like an oem install. Aside from the coolant gauge, I'd prefer to have no dead gauges (may replace the coolant gauge with a volt gauge anyway, since i have an aftermarket coolant temp gauge mounted too)
EDIT: found this on a miata forum. Looks like I'm fine.
"On a 1995 miata, the oil pressure gauge uses an on/off pressure sensor. The pressure switch is closed when there is no pressure, and it opens up when there is pressure.
If there is minimum pressure, the switch is open and the gauge is designed to always go about halfway. With no pressure, the switch is closed and the gauge sits at zero.
The pressure sensor is to the left of the oil filter. If you unplug it and turn on the igntion, the stock gauge would read in the middle. If you ground the sensor wire, the stock gauge would go to zero."
It's a 1995 NA8 cluster. I honestly don't care if it's not super accurate, as i have an aftermarket gauge for precise readings. However, I want to make sure it's actually functioning as intended since my intent is to make this appear like an oem install. Aside from the coolant gauge, I'd prefer to have no dead gauges (may replace the coolant gauge with a volt gauge anyway, since i have an aftermarket coolant temp gauge mounted too)
EDIT: found this on a miata forum. Looks like I'm fine.
"On a 1995 miata, the oil pressure gauge uses an on/off pressure sensor. The pressure switch is closed when there is no pressure, and it opens up when there is pressure.
If there is minimum pressure, the switch is open and the gauge is designed to always go about halfway. With no pressure, the switch is closed and the gauge sits at zero.
The pressure sensor is to the left of the oil filter. If you unplug it and turn on the igntion, the stock gauge would read in the middle. If you ground the sensor wire, the stock gauge would go to zero."
i wonder if you can change it to a voltmeter without re-inventing the wheel?
i wonder if you can change it to a voltmeter without re-inventing the wheel?
From what I understand, people often swap VDO gauges into miata clusters as they are much more accurate. However, I need to determine where the factory voltmeter wires connect to. Based on the diagrams I've seen, the FC volt meter doesn't have it's own dedicated wires and is likely tapped into another circuit. TO THE FSM!
Edit. Looks like I was right. There is no direct input wire for the voltmeter. So technically, I can take a VDO voltmeter and connect it to the positive and negative pins from the Miata coolant temp gauge. As long as there is no sensor input hooked up, this should read voltage.
To follow-up on this, I've decided to purchase a VDO volt gauge to install in the miata oil pressure gauge location. I already have an aftermarket oil pressure gauge and would rather use that than a dummy system anyway. I do have a spare cluster, so I'm going to determine the best method to install this prior to putting it in the final assembly.
I've completed the wiring harness and all the functions that I need (turn signals, high beam indicator, tach, fuel, and oil pressure/volts) work. I don't have any photos, but I de-pinned all the unnecessary wires and tidied the harness up a bit. Since this was done, I decided to work on the VDO Volt gauge install. If you recall, I'm installing the VDO gauge where the factory miata oil pressure gauge is. I already have a more accurate aftermarket oil pressure gauge, so I didn't want a bunch of redundant gauges.
When approaching this install, I believe I definitely overthought it. However, I wanted something that basically appeared as factory. This meant no hot gluing crap or just shoving a gauge in without securely mounting it. After staring at the cluster and VDO gauge for a bit, I started what I think is a good idea. I WILL SAY, it really helps to have two miata clusters on hand. This way you will have enough spare parts and screws when you mess up.
This is the gauge I bought:
This photo is stolen from Clokker's thread, but the idea is the same. The VDO gauge has an external housing that needs to be carefully cut off in order to access the guts of the gauge.
Below is what you'll see after dismantling the volt gauge. Notice how it uses removable pins on both sides (one is positive 12v, the other is signal which is not used in this gauge [it's actually clipped short from VDO so you don't mess up the wiring]) and the center stud is the negative ground terminal. Sorry for my fat thumb covering it.
Now, the factory miata oil pressure gauge is eerily similar. This is with the face removed but the metal casing intact.
When you slide the metal casing off, you can see the only major difference in mounting styles is the miata gauge uses studs molded into the plastic frame.
As shown in the picture, these studs thread into long hex style nuts. This is how the miata gauge mounts to the inside of the cluster.
Seeing as the VDO gauge has holes for pins. I decided the cleanest way to install the VDO gauge was to cut the studs from the miata gauge and press them into the VDO.
Since the VDO only has two pin locations, I cut two of the four studs from the miata gauge. Then I created "stand-offs" as shown below.
Once this was done, I simply pressed the VDO gauge onto the studs/pins. That's it, that is how the VDO gauge will mount and bonus is that it's secure. Also, it's worth noting these studs are in the factory locations. This means the screws that hold them in are attached to the flexi-circuit board on the back and provide switched 12v and ground. The only issue is the signal terminal for the oil pressure gauge will now conduct electricity and attempt to send a signal to the VDO. To keep things simple, I took a small vinyl washer from home depot and mounted it as shown below:
With that taken care of, I needed to address the ground issue. So I took another long extended nut from the original miata oil pressure gauge, and mounted it in the factory location. The screw on the back of the cluster threads directly into this, providing a ground location.
Then to provide ground to the VDO, I made a small jumper wire and attached it. The picture below shows this, but the wire was in the wrong position due to my brain not working for a minute. Instead of one end of the jumper connecting as shown, it should and actually connects to the negative terminal on the VDO.
And that's it! At least for the VDO volt gauge mounting and wiring. I did notice that when the cluster is assembled, the VDO gauge face is slightly smaller on the bottom and there is a visible gap that allows light to come through. I'm addressing this by having a custom volt meter gauge face created for the factory miata oil pressure gauge face, as they are only slightly different and can be easily swapped. The gauge face is being made by REVlimiter and will match the custom gauge faces he made me.
On to mounting the cluster! I stole this picture from Clokker's thread, as I forgot to take a photo. In this picture, you can see the bottom plastic tabs from the miata cluster where cut off with a dremel. After that, I pushed the cluster back as far as it would go inside the dash. This wedged the cluster in and lined up the top mounting points of the miata cluster with the stock FC cluster mounting points. (like it was meant to be! lol)
After setting the cluster in place, I made a cardboard template for the brackets that will hold the cluster in place.
I transferred this template to a sheet of aluminum and made two mirrored brackets. For a more OEM look, I will be 3D printing these in ABS. On the back of the top mounting bracket, I slid an M6x1.0 u-nut onto the bracket. This way I can bolt the new bracket to the cluster as shown.
This shows how the cluster now mounts.
Aside from the above posts, a friend of mine has been designing the adapter or "fill" plates that will be necessary to hide the gaps between the dash and the cluster. We've got most of it ironed out and will post pictures once it's complete.
It's been a busy last few weeks, but here is some progress on the adapter plates! Initially, we were going to print the design in sections until we got it just right, and then combine the prints into one design/final print. Unfortunately, the printer I have access to that works with ABS isn't that large, so we decided to keep it sectional. This is the bottom half of the "fill plate" that will fill in the gap between the FC cluster hood and the miata cluster. We'll be wrapping up the design on the top half sometime next week hopefully. Aside from that, I've already swapped in my custom 10k RPM gauges from Adam at RevLimiter (pictures to come soon). Getting close!
Per Clokker's thread, the NA Miata speedometer cable does work in the FC. The only issues are as follows:
The Miata cable is a solid 4-6 inches shorter than the NA FC cable
That said, the Miata cable will work as the Miata cluster gets shoved way further back in the dash than the FC cluster does
The Miata cable plug (the section that connects to the back of the cluster) is physically larger than that of the FC
To feed the cable through the firewall on the FC, you will need to take a dremel and make the OEM FC cable hole larger by about 10mm
Once the cable was fed through, I installed some vibration/anti-rattle felt tape. I hate interior noises, so I will be placing this anywhere contact is made in the dash.
After that, I mocked up the new cluster. As you can see, the OEM Miata bulbs make the cluster appear way too pink. So I bought some amber and red #194 LED bulbs from Super Bright LEDS. I chose to buy both colors, as I wanted to replicate the factory FC lighting as best as posssible.
After trying both the red and amber, amber appears to be the winner! The light looks damn close to what the factory FC cluster looks like. It's difficult to get a good photo of how the light actually appears in person, but I'll be sure to do that once the project is wrapped up. I also took the car for a drive and got the gas and speedometer needles set to the correct positions (these were moved when putting in the custom gauge faces). Actually, I think I'll take a short video once the project is complete
Not to double post but I neglected to mention, you will need to modify the factory gauge cluster hood to make the Miata cluster fit. The following image is from Clokker's thread:
Note: I did not cut mine as far "up" as Clokker did. I cut just under the center mounting hole and was able to retain the center mounting point.
To prevent rattles and make the overall install look cleaner, I cut some felt tape and small u-channel stripping.
Here is the tape and stripping applied to my cluster surround. With the Miata cluster in the car, you can't even see the cut out section, but I wanted it to look nice since it will always be in the back of my mind lol
After trying both the red and amber, amber appears to be the winner! The light looks damn close to what the factory FC cluster looks like. It's difficult to get a good photo of how the light actually appears in person, but I'll be sure to do that once the project is wrapped up. I also took the car for a drive and got the gas and speedometer needles set to the correct positions (these were moved when putting in the custom gauge faces). Actually, I think I'll take a short video once the project is complete
Oh man, I really like this photograph. I have no compelling reason to do this swap yet, but it's definitely something I want to do eventually. Is there any way to wind the odometer forward to match the chassis mileage?
Thanks for the compliment! This is actually a mock-up with an old gauge cluster lens, the lens I will be using has oem chrome rings around the speedo and tach. It gives the whole thing a much more modern touch and additional depth. Here's a screenshot from a clip I took. Please excuse potato quality.
As for the odometer, it actually matches the mileage on my chassis For legal purposes, I can't advise how this can be done lol.
I just realized, I've never followed up on this. The cluster has been completed, calibrated, and the 3d printed components have been completed. Pictures below:
Steering wheel not installed:
Steering wheel installed:
All in all, this was a fun little project and a good learning experience. I think I will be going to a custom digital dash set-up eventually (as I'm installing a S2 Rx8 6 speed). I really don't like the look of digital gauges, so I may try to rig up a tablet behind a stock FC3S cluster. I could also use a Dakota digital converter box on a factory cluster, but having more read out options would be nice. Something like this:
01-23-21, 12:40 PM
