TboneH

Hey guys. I've been thinking about doing the blue led swap for my dash lights for a while now. Since i have an aftermarket head unit with blue lighting it would look a lot better if everything matched. My only concern is that I won't be able to change the color of my odometer. My truck is a 2000, so I have the electronic green one instead of the mechanical one. I don't want to jump into this project without knowing for sure that I can change that display to blue. Don't crucify me if this has already been discussed, I've done quite a bit of research and have come up with nothing. I would also like some advice one how to keep all of the stock red areas; I only want to change everything that's green. Thanks guys!

Warspite

This from another forum:
http://www.f150online.com/forums/art...r-97-03-a.html
I can only speak for the '97 and '98 which DOES have the blue film, and I matched my JVC head unit to the ice blue cluster. HOWEVER, your model, being newer, may have GREEN film - which means taking the cluster apart (and the needles too) and remove that film with nail polish remover or equivalent - THEN ordering blue LEDs instead of hyper white. Worth the effort if you are patient and careful.

Warspite

Here's what the hyper whites look like with the blue film on a '98 cluster:

TboneH

Thanks for the help Warspite, but I'm afraid that still doesn't answer my main question about the odometer. I really want to do this project, but if I'm always gonna have a green odometer I don't really see a point to making everything else blue. I've seen it and it looks really weird in my opinion.

Warspite

TBoneH - I just realized that your 2000 has the digital green ODO, while '97 and '98 models are the analog worm gear-driven one, that takes the backlight from the gauge cluster. That digital ODO I don't think you can change from green - unless there's some aftermarket 'raw" component with the same pinouts (these are soldered onto the dash cluster PCB) that is another color.

TboneH

That's what I suspected. My only hope is if the LCD is somehow backlit green.

Warspite

Somehow I thought (without being in a 2000+ model) that the display was a sealed unit, and that the FL numbers were green by default. If yours is LCD (which I doubt) and it's an external LED soldered to the cluster, then you could change it out for any color - again if you're willing to take the whole cluster apart to get to that diode, desolder the green, and solder in a blue one. I don't think any of us is that lucky!

stangbang94

I'm interested what you find out. I want to do this to my 2000 also

FordmanUGA

I know this kind of sounds cheesy, but you might be able to find a dark blue film that you could cut out to fit over the odometer only and stick it on and see if it would filter out the green some. It may not be true blue but closer to blue than green.

Then again I could just be crazy.

Warspite

I think you hit on something, Fordman! 3M makes colored tabs (as in bookmarks) and you could try the blue one to test that effect. It will cut down the brightness, and it'll be a blue-green hue - but does anyone really stare at the odo that much? Cheap experiment (and temporary one) to try.