Difficulty Reading VE MY10 SV6 Dials

[jamesmp]

Hi all,

I purchased a VE MY10 SV6 about 18 months ago and struggle to read the speedo/tacho on bright, sunny days, particularly when wearing sunglasses. There's not enough contrast between the grey background and white numbers so I drive with my lights on or use the digital speedo. I didn't have any problems reading them in my VX S.

Does anyone else have this problem?

How would I go about getting the dials changed?

Cheers,
Mick

[Sabbath']

Keeping the headlights on will be the cheapest solution to your problem.

[Zerone_V]

Yeah, I can understand where you are coming from.
I have fitted HSV Gauges and have found them to be hard to read at dusk, when the lights are on, but there is still some sunlight.

You could swap out the cluster face, but you will have 2 problems,

1) To buy just the face is very difficult, Holden sells the cluster complete, and I havent seen just the faces sold on their own on eBay (apart from the cheap aftermarket inkjet printed ones).
2) If you did manage to source just the face, you would need to make sure the maximum speed on the face matches the one that you have. There are faces that read 240, 260 and 280 as the maximum speed.
From 120Km onwards, the speedo reading is compressed (You will see what I mean when you look at the speedo increments from 120 onwards).
The compression amount is stored in the cluster EEPROM (Dunno where exactly), so if the max speed is different, then your speedo will be out from 120Km onwards.
Not a big deal really, when you consider 120Km/Hr is considered speeding and carries a fine, but the problem will be there.

A not so easy fix is to swap out the cluster for one that is easy to read.
Of all the ones that I have had fitted (SV6, Omega, Calais), the Calais ones have been the easiest to read.
As a bonus, you will get the triple LCD screens if you upgrade to a Berlina / Calais /HSV Cluster.

There is a thread here for changing / programming clusters with information on what is required.

Hope this helps

[jamesmp]

Thanks for the info - sounds like an expensive exercise!

[Woollie]

I wish that like in some other cars the dash lights up without having to have the lights on. That would be a perfect solution. I wonder if this can be done?

[Voodoo_SV6]

Leave the parkers in the "on" position rather than auto. Thats what I do so my xenons don't fire on/off each time I start the car in the garage or work carpark during daytimes

[burleighboy86]

You've probably tried it, but thought I'd cover all bases and add my 2 cents in Lol. Have you tried adjusting the brightness of the lighting?

[jamesmp]

Yep. I'm talking more around readability in general - with or without back lighting.

[UFO]

doesnt phreddy/asr do dial lighting swapovers?

[Rufys]

a good Auto Electrician will be able to set the dash lights to come on with the car rather than the headlights.

[Fekason]

One of my biggest complaints with my MY09 SV6 was the instrument cluster. My car was Silver, giving instruments that were small white numbers/letters on a light grey background. Additionally the chrome strip below the cluster would regularly reflect over the speedo. Effectively the speedo was useless during the day.

Getting on in years, my eyes are also on the downhill run. As with most older drivers, the red lighting flares badly, making the old instrument cluster a lot less than good even at night.

Now I have an MY11 (Series II) SV6, and the new cluster is a huge improvment. Only the reflecting chrome strip remains a problem. Then numbers are much larger, and tyhe grey backgroung is darker, making the contrast between the numbers and the background pretty good. The newer cluster also uses white lighting now, which is good.

I drove a Series I Omega once, and the visbility of its gauges was good.

[greenacc]

Yup, by the sound of it i've got the same cluster as James and Fekason. I thought it was just me that thought it was shit, so it makes me feel better knowing i've got company.
Holden could have done their homework better on clusters. Hell, the VS cluster was 1000 times easier to read, how did it go so far backwards on the VE ?

[The X Man]

It was one of those things the engineers forgot about when they were told they had a 1 Billion dollar budget!

[jamesmp]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The problem could have been alleviated by white print on black background!

[Matt_27]

Jhp does different colour faceplates not cheap tho

[jamesmp]

I'm going to have a chat with Holden about it when the car goes in for a 45,000 service in the next month or so.

Replacing dash lights is expensive too (because they'll burn out more quickly driving with lights on). I had them done in my VX and it was about $800-odd 4 years ago.

[Thumpin]

There has been many posts about this issue. I have contributed to some of them as I found my S2 SSV had the same issue (and still does). Changing the readout colour is an option for the centre cluster screen but this doesn't help the anologue gauges or the glare issue.
The daytime glare issue is due to designers that are still wet behind the ears over-looking the basic design factors learnt by experience. With many new car designs, VE included, the windscreen extends back over the instrument cluster and during mid-day drives the gauges can be completely obscured by either direct sunlight or reflected light.
This phenomenon is not purely a VE trait. I have a new Mazda6 that is in a word "worse".

I was thinking about designing a half-stylish shield (like a tennis cap peak) to help combat the glare. Maybe someone with time on their hands could comeup with a template...