Berniea Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 I'm on my third instrument cluster and despite the vehicle being out of warranty by about 8 months, Fiat fitted the last one FOC. At approx £900 a go i'm pleased they did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 Len Salisbury - 2017-05-17 7:37 PM Just another point nobody has mentioned the other dials and the computer... Why should they? UK motorcaravanners’ complaints have related to difficulty reading a RHD X290’s speedometer in low-light daytime conditions. The various DIY ploys to improve matters have included adding pieces of silver foil or using LED ‘torch lights’ or (see gullrock’s 13-07-2015 postings on following link) http://www.fiatforum.com/ducato/425538-new-ducato-imala-m-home-instrument-cluster-illumination-2.html fixing an LED panel adjacent to the speedometer itself. I don’t recall any complaints from UK motorcaravanners about readability of an X290’s tachometer, but on LHD X290s that instrument is more affected by dim daylight conditions than the speedometer. Consequently, when I decided to amuse myself by DIY front-lighting my Rapido’s instrument-cluster, it was commonsense to illuminate all the instruments. As should be apparent from the photo on Page 2 of this thread, the approach I adopted (with a strip of 10 ‘side-lit’ LEDs stuck to the underside of the plastic cover above the instruments) does the job pretty well. Equally important for me (being afflicted with a neatness gene) the presence of the additional LED lighting is virtually invisible and there are no unsightly loose wires. I’m not suggesting other people do as I did, but it works for me and the procedure is simple enough if you have basic DIY skills. It probably cost me about a tenner to carry out the instrument lighting modification and the strip of non-side-lit LEDs I decided not to use for the mod wasn’t wasted as I put it into the Rapido’s garage to provide much-needed extra illumination. As far as I’m concerned the wish to actually ‘read’ the numbers from the inner scale of a UK-norm mph/kmh speedometer is a red herring - the kmh figures will be much too small. (GOOGLE on car speedometer images). If you own a RHD X250/X290 and adhering to Continental European speed limits will be a worry, just follow Bryan40’s approach and employ a GPS device (add-on speedo, sat-nav, phone app) that will clearly display the vehicle’s speed numerically in kmh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 Derek Uzzell - 2017-05-18 7:54 AM Len Salisbury - 2017-05-17 7:37 PM Just another point nobody has mentioned the other dials and the computer... Why should they? UK motorcaravanners’ complaints have related to difficulty reading a RHD X290’s speedometer in low-light daytime conditions. The various DIY ploys to improve matters have included adding pieces of silver foil or using LED ‘torch lights’ or (see gullrock’s 13-07-2015 postings on following link) http://www.fiatforum.com/ducato/425538-new-ducato-imala-m-home-instrument-cluster-illumination-2.html fixing an LED panel adjacent to the speedometer itself. I don’t recall any complaints from UK motorcaravanners about readability of an X290’s tachometer, but on LHD X290s that instrument is more affected by dim daylight conditions than the speedometer. Consequently, when I decided to amuse myself by DIY front-lighting my Rapido’s instrument-cluster, it was commonsense to illuminate all the instruments. As should be apparent from the photo on Page 2 of this thread, the approach I adopted (with a strip of 10 ‘side-lit’ LEDs stuck to the underside of the plastic cover above the instruments) does the job pretty well. Equally important for me (being afflicted with a neatness gene) the presence of the additional LED lighting is virtually invisible and there are no unsightly loose wires. I’m not suggesting other people do as I did, but it works for me and the procedure is simple enough if you have basic DIY skills. It probably cost me about a tenner to carry out the instrument lighting modification and the strip of non-side-lit LEDs I decided not to use for the mod wasn’t wasted as I put it into the Rapido’s garage to provide much-needed extra illumination. As far as I’m concerned the wish to actually ‘read’ the numbers from the inner scale of a UK-norm mph/kmh speedometer is a red herring - the kmh figures will be much too small. (GOOGLE on car speedometer images). If you own a RHD X250/X290 and adhering to Continental European speed limits will be a worry, just follow Bryan40’s approach and employ a GPS device (add-on speedo, sat-nav, phone app) that will clearly display the vehicle’s speed numerically in kmh. I guess the point of many here is not so much what can be done to fix the issue but that, with a vehicle costing £000s, it shouldn't be necessary to use additional (and sometimes Heath Robinson) methods to read the speedo clearly. That should be the responsibility of the manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 I can’t disagree with your final statement but (as I’ve said before) the visibility in daylight of the speedometer of an X250/X290 is no worse than that of many other vehicles. And, if the wish is to actually ‘read’ a vehicle’s speed in kmh from the type of dual-scale speedometer normally fitted to RHD vehicles, this will just not be practicable because the kmh numbers will be much too small. What’s really needed is a speedometer with a large digital readout that can be switched between mph or kmh, but the X250/X290 (which is basically just a light-truck) does not have this. In the 1980s Opel/Vauxhall offered a ‘digital dashboard’ (photo attached). It was not wonderfully pretty and the electronics were flaky, but the principle was right and the speedometer (switchable between mph and kmh) was very readable. I’d be very happy with an updated version in any vehicle I owned. Much more dangerous (in my view) and more infuriating than X250/X290 speedometer poor readability is the hair-trigger operation of the vehicle’s direction indicator stalk’s ‘lane change function’. This has been commented on here before and there seems to be no reliable way of avoiding inadvertentlly causing the direction indicators to flash when selecting headlamp dipped-beam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocs Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Yes, I agree that the digital one would be better. Or, as I've said before, even better is one like my new car. With ignition switched off, you see only a blank screen with no physical dials. The screen is totally configurable by the user in terms of the shape/format of the dials and whether m/km or analogue/digital or a mixture of both. I'd be surprised if all manufacturers didn't follow this route in time as, once the software is designed, it must be cheaper than dials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan40 Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Bryan40 - 2017-05-17 5:30 PM I am giving up with the thought of changing dials and backlighting. I have just taken delivery of an iNeibo Universal GPS Head Up display from Amazon. This plugs into the cigarette lighter and once set up projects the speed up onto the windscreen in front of you. Ordered tongue in cheek and ready to return if it does not work as described. Although it is a rather dismal overcast day today the projection is very bright. The brightness can be adjusted if necessary. It will be interesting to see how it goes in bright sunlight. I was persuaded because there were reviews on it from driving instructors who set it up on the nearside so that they could monitor their pupils speeds. It can also be set to KPH or MPH. We are off to France so will use it extensively to keep speeds down through 50KPH villages. Will report on success when we return - no internet access whilst we are away. Bryan We have been driving in bright sunlight for two weeks since my post above. The Head Up Display is absolutely brilliant - no more straining to see the dashboard display - only now need to keep an eye on the fuel gauge otherwise look straight ahead and see my speed in the windscreen in front of me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monique.hubrechtsgm Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 Once more X290 refers to a facelift and some changes. But theiir type approval is still on x250 just look at your fiat COC haviving a x290. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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