Issue with Instument Cluster

Happy Memorial Day to all I have a 2004 Carrera 4S Cabirolet. I am the 3rd owner. It has these red instrument dials and on the build sheet it has Option C45 which is for either white/yellow/red dials. But the red part of the dials is sliding and you can see white behind it. So I always thought it may be aftermarket. I am just not sure. I want to fix it but was quoted over $2000 to remove it, send it out where it will be redone and sent back to me. Seems a bit excessive. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Anyone experience this before? I really want to get this fixed. Hh3R8lX.jpg

I would remove and ship it it myself. Removal is simple. Boxes and packing are relatively cheap. Why pay someone to do the easy part for you.

No one has any experience with this? Am I the only one this has happened to?

Stuff gets old. I believe those are vinyl overlay stickers, and of course, with many heat/cold cycles I can see where the vinyl adhesive might start to give way. Are you asking if anyone else has experienced this or do you want a solution? I recall a place, I think California Speedometer, or Pedros Speedometer (something like that), that might replace the stickers.

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Thanks. I was trying to first see if this is random or something that happens typically with this car. I don't know what the correct color of the dials should be but I want to fix the problem.

My guess is that they are original. All the aftermarket I've seen have the numbers in white not clear or cut out like yours. Auto Atlanta sells the face kits for around $00 and they will put them on for around $300 is you send them the cluster.

getting the cluster out is easy, removing the gauge face cover is easy. Separating the gauges from the face of the dial isn't too terribly hard. $450ish from FVD Bromacher and you can get a new set of dials in any color you like..... https://www.fvd.net/us-en/F966412020...uards-red.html

Also here is a post about 997 with the same problem from the factory. https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...t-overlay.html

It seems like the factory colored dials are all complete crap. My car had the "Instrument Dials Interior Color" option. I think it's a pretty rare and expensive option, but some things are rare for a reason . I hated that the dials were Savannah Beige, but the dial faces had also bubbled a lot . I was hoping that the interior-colored dials would be just stickers over the standard black dials (which is what I wanted), but no such luck. Nobody sells black dials (neither Porsche nor the aftermarket), so I had to buy another gauge cluster, then transfer the black dials over. It was a pain to do and you have to be careful to put the gauge needles back exactly in the right positions so the gauges are accurate. It was well worth the effort, but not fun. The standard (red/yellow/etc) color (rather than interior matching) Porsche dials may be different -- they look more like "overlays" given the alignment issues, so there's a chance you might find standard black dials underneath if you pull them. Personally, I would pull the colored dials off if black faces are underneath, since I don't like anything other than black gauges. If you choose to replace the red dials, I would definitely go with aftermarket red dials before I went with restoring or replacing the factory dials since the factory colored dials seem to have chronic alignment issues.

Looking at the first photo again, I don't think it is an "alignment issue", it just looks like the white in the numbers/graphics is chipping off -- so these are probably the same as the factory "interior match" dials where there is nothing underneath. I'm an originality freak in general, but I would definitely use aftermarket red dials over replacing/restoring the factory dials because of the OEM dial quality issue. Nobody makes black faces that I am aware of. Carbon fiber faces (if they are available) or dark blue faces might be a nice option if you want something different than red or standard black.

I don't mind the red. I wish I could find out if it's original. If it is then I would just want to fix it (align it)

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It's very likely they are original because it's listed on the options sheet, and because it is chipping and the OEM dials seem to be of low quality. I really don't think they are slipping or misaligned -- on the tachometer, it seems like it would be impossible for the both the "0" and the "8" to be perfectly aligned, but for the numbers at the top to somehow be that far off. Hopefully somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel pretty confident that whatever the factory used for white fill is just chipping off. I'm pretty sure if you pull the red dials off, there will be nothing but black behind them (that was definitely the case with my factory interior color matching dials). You might be able to touch up the white if you are super careful. If all of the above is correct that these are OEM, I would definitely get aftermarket (many options available in red) from a good brand (haven't heard about any aftermarket dials failing like this). If a seller has an option to send them the cluster to have the dials installed, I'd probably take that route if the install wasn't excessive.

@DBJoe996 You may have been thinking of Palo Alto Speedometer. Palo Alto Speedometer www.paspeedo.com 718 Emerson St. Palo Alto, CA 94301-2410 [email removed] Tel: [phone removed] Fax: [phone removed]

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You are correct and thank you. I saw that in the other instrument cluster thread.

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Thank you. I need to buy new faces and ship that and the cluster to them. They install and calibrate and ship back to me. Not cheap but less expensive than the original method. I still don;t get how they could be so poorly made on a $100K + car.

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Agreed on the craziness of the OEM being so poorly made . Unless you have an issue with the cluster that would require Palo Alto to re calibrate, I'd try to find a seller of dials that has an option for you to ship the cluster to them. I would guess that would be cheaper than buying and sending to Palo Alto, though you'll only know by getting quotes. The dial faces aren't that hard to install yourself as long as you keep track of where the needles were. Mine were a more difficult because I had to transfer the OEM gauge faces from an old cluster to mine, would have been easier with brand new dial faces. I see that the aftermarket now makes them in black (in addition to other colors). Too bad nobody seems to make them in carbon fiber.

They are stickers, open it up and peel them off the original will be underneath

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I'm on the same boat C4S 2004... removed the dashboard thinking that I could just slide the sticker but no...what did you end up doing?

Peel off the aftermarket overlay stickers you can see the original black underneath them

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Its not OEM they are aftermarket stickers that have been stuck over the original dials

F WIW, I don't know that much about the instrument cluster, 'cept it bubbles at times. I am not certain you can put a different cluster in and everything "reads-displays" the same. However, since R/R is relatively simple, here is a thought: Replace the whole cluster. Pics below. Other Renn expert folks may know about "read-display" issues... go for it. YMMV

Has anyone been able to resolve this? My car was optioned with "X45 -- Instrument Dials Painted Interior Color", which is graphite gray. It seems Porsche just made black gauge faces with white lettering, and added stickers/decals on top for the color gauges. My gauges are peeling/ballooning, and I'm wondering if it's as simple as just peeling them off.

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I had the same option, except in Savannah Beige. I absolutely hated the beige color to start with, but they were also bubbled (they all do that apparently). I read somewhere that interior matching dials were an $1100 option (I'm not certain that is correct), so it's amazing they are made from such cheap material as a very poor quality overlay sticker. I was hoping that the stickers were over the regular black gauges, but of course they are not -- there is nothing underneath them, sadly . I only like black dial faces, and the factory and aftermarket dial faces tend to be in available every color except black . I ended up buying a used instrument cluster, then transferring the black dials from that so my cluster. It was a MAJOR pain, but very well worth it in the end.

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Ah. That's a bummer. It really looks like there are black gauge clusters underneath (I can see the black face and white lettering). In any case, I really like the gray clusters (they remind me of my 981 CS). I suppose the easiest solution in this case would be to get new OEM or aftermarket gauge faces. Thanks!

Y�all may want to check this site out first: https://gaugefaces.com/product-categ...996/996-98-05/

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If you see black & white, under, it s sounds the black dials may be there. Maybe yours is different or they changed later? (mine is a 2000). It�s been a long time since I looked, but I think grey aftermarket dials are available.

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Ah. It might be a .2 thing. I am tempted to try to peel off the gray decal without removing the needles but I'm hesitant because it seems no one else has done it so far.