DJones's 2004 Buick Rainier Cluster Swap

[DJones]

Yesterday, I purchased a 2004 Buick Rainier cluster from Crosstown Auto & Truck Parts in Kalamazoo. $49 with 10% discount for mentioning the ad on their website brought it to a grand total of $46.75. Not bad! They repeatedly told me "IT WON'T WORK", but that's o.k. All the power to me. Even threw in a non-returnable and non-refundable disclaimer too. I don't care. Today, I took out my stock cluster with LEDs and put it in. Fired right up! It has 103,338 miles on it and didn't display anything about "program cluster" as someone else had described. Turned it off and took it out, and popped them both open to access the guts. The two problems with the Rainier cluster are: the Buick logo on the Tach and a few light scratches accross the face.

Here are the pictures:

There is a slight difference in the physical mounting, however nothing needed to be trimmed.

Internals are identical except that mine has LEDs, the number on the board ends with "S" or "P."
The Trailblazer cluster has a LED for TPMS, but no indicator hole, the Rainier had no LED but did have the indicator hole. Weird.
While I had it apart, I replaced the 1KΩ resistor on the "Bright" LED with a 2.2KΩ. Now it shouldn't be so blinding bright.

The Rainier cluster has indicator areas for passenger seatbelt and a loose fuel cap, neither had LEDs on the circuit board.

Playing with the front bezels. They each have 3 alignment pins, of which the center is in a different location on each. A cutoff tool could be used to fix that.

My circuit board inside the Rainier housing assembly: (I used the same black back housing because the Rainier's was dirty)

More pictures:

Now I get to see pictures instead of words:

Total time: 2 hours.
Cost: $46.75, not including the gas to pick it up.

 

[TexazReece]

damnit......don't tempt me mann the bug is coming back

 

[Voymom]

Looks great! Wonder if one would fit in the 'voy?

 

[DJones]

Looks great! Wonder if one would fit in the 'voy?

Certainly. Other than looks or features, all 2002 - 2009 are swappable with each other.

 

[MAY03LT]

Great mod at a great price, I'd say you made out well on that deal!

Also, I've never came across the gas cap light being referenced in one of these, that's new to me.

 

[BOOMERZ]

looks great but whats up with the 2 check engine lights ?

 

[DJones]

Reduced engine power?

 

[Regulator]

Nice, I like the final look.

 

[ssmedt]

Nice mod! I purchased my 04 specifically for that cluster

Great mod at a great price, I'd say you made out well on that deal!

Also, I've never came across the gas cap light being referenced in one of these, that's new to me.

I have never noticed the gas cap or seatbelt 2 either. I had my gas cap go out about a year ago and my DIC displayed CHECK GAS CAP

 

[Juicy K]

Looks good.

 

[Me007gold]

Looks good, almost makes me miss my rainier cluster.

 

[DJones]

I had my gas cap go out about a year ago and my DIC displayed CHECK GAS CAP

They must have gotten lazy. If I were to solder LEDs on there, I wonder what it would take to get it to work...

 

[Blckshdw]

That looks really good.

I know my original non DIC cluster had the passenger seat belt indicator and gas cap lights, I thought that was normal for all of them. I don't remember if the DIC one I picked up out of an 02 has them or not... Now I have to go check

 

[DJones]

Did your non-DIC cluster have traces and solder pads for the DIC?

I'm thinking about putting the LEDs on there to see if they would work out of the box.

 

[Blckshdw]

Sure enough, don't have the red LEDs for the passenger seat belt or gas cap in the older cluster.

Did your non-DIC cluster have traces and solder pads for the DIC?

I'm thinking about putting the LEDs on there to see if they would work out of the box.

Looking at the pics of my 2 cluster boards, the pad/trace setup looks different, so I doubt they are swapable. I had the same idea you did, put some LEDs/resistors there and call it a day. Of course the pic I took of the DIC board, cuts off the far left edge, so I can't see if there's pads for them or not!

 

[DJones]

I found the LEDs. They're made by Kingbright and they are either obsolete or scheduled for obsolescence. $0.21 each for the remaining 105 in stock at Mouser.

 

[Blckshdw]

Trying to compare your DIC layouts to my non DIC with the LEDs over there, I can't quite tell if yours has the pads either.

Obviously you can see there are SMD resistors next to both of them, so you'd need to get those on there too somehow.

 

[DJones]

Your odometer setup is different than I thought it would be.

There are two 1.1K SMD resistors for each LED. Putting them on shouldn't be difficult - with a heat gun and hope nothing blows away. Just have to be sure I get the right size.

 

[DJones]

After some time of driving around with it today and tonight, my LED for the bright lights is too bright. I'll either increase the size of the resistor or get a lower MCD LED.

I also noticed that I pushed the needles on too far. There should be a slight ring of light coming from the fulcrum of the needles, and I only see it on two.

Otherwise, I'm happy with it.

 

[BOOMERZ]

Would putting this cluster in a non-DIC LS work ?

 

[Me007gold]

Would putting this cluster in a non-DIC LS work ?

Yes....