DIY: 93-97 Reverse Indiglo Gauges

DIY: 93-97 Reverse Indiglo Gauges

NOTE: my gauge kit came with three faces with wires and harnesses coming off them, a black box with 4 wires coming out of it and a switch to mess with the gauges. please note that there are different gauge kits to buy so yours may not be the same but its probably close.


ok, in another thread many people want to know how this is done. Unfortunately they missed some perfect DIYs with pictures from the old vvti site. I already have mine installed and do not have a camera for pictures. I would rather not uninstall everything, look at it, and then re-install it again. Therefore, I will only explain WHAT I REMEMBER. I know how everything goes, but how the gauges were assembled, I may not recall fully. So here it is as the best way I can explain it.


First, take a seat in the driver's seat and look at your gauges. They is a oval shaped black trim piece you need to take off first. There are two screws on the top of this, just lean over and look up to see them. Get a phillips screwdriver and unscrew them. Next grab hold of the trim piece and you should be able to pull it out and/or move it around to get it out. Just be careful and take your time, it will come out. Next you should see 4 screws, one at each corner, these hold the gauge cluster in. Remove these and you should be able to grab hold of the cluster and take it out. Take it out as far as possible and when it stops, reach around and unplug the 3 wire harnesses for your temp gauge, speedo, and fuel gauge (assuming you dont have a tach or anything else, if so there are more harnesses to unplug.

Now this part I don't fully remember but I belief the plastic piece is held on by plastic clips. TAKE THEM OFF SLOWLY AND PATIENTLY. I seriously when too fast and too hard and nearly broke off all the damn clips. Don't panic if you break one or two, it will still go back together. This piece also maybe held in by screws as well so take them out if needed. Next is the black bezel, I think this is held in by screws as well but im not sure. What ever way it is held in place, take it off.

Now you are to the gauges them selves, they are held in by very small screws, take those off, you dont need to remove the needles or the stock faces at all but CAREFULLY slip the new faces over the needles and onto the stock faces. be very careful of the needles, now you can screw the small screws back. at this point i did some optional stuff that isnt needed but i did it b/c i think it looks better. first i colored the needles black with a permanent marker. Also, if you flip the cluster around there are many 194 bulbs back there to take out. I took out all the stock ones that light up stock faces at night. i think both these give it a better look. however, if you dont know which ones to take out, i suggest you dont because you may by accident take out the bulbs that light up your warning lights and all. you could have a check engine light and never know it b/c there would be no bulb there.

ok now i took the white wires and flipped them over top and put back everything on the cluster. Take it back inside your car and hook up all the harnesses from the gauges to the ones that come off the black box. the black box comes with 4 harnesses and you may only have 3 harnesses for your gauges. this is because the box is default for if you have a tach. so if you have 3 gauges harnesses just plug them in and leave the forth open. at this point you have a power wire and a ground wire. i remember mine had a metal loop on it (i think it was ground but im not sure). i cut that off and used wire cutters to expose some of the wire. now you have a power and ground wire with some exposed on each. i believe my wires were red and black. red is power, black is ground. for mine i took the temp. gauge harness, and looked at the back. There are many wires running into it if you look at it. take your black wire and jam it down into the slot for the BROWN wire. you need a good ground and a good jam to make sure it doesnt fall out. power goes into the green slot and needs a good jam as well. i remember there were multiple greens and i know it went in the darker color green. plug back your harnesses but dont put everything back yet. flip on your running lights and make sure your gauges work properly for the nighttime. they should turn blue or green and it all depends on the light during the day. mine also make a faint buzzing noise when they work. if they work but everything back in. everything is a tight squeeze so be patient. now, you are left with a switch to turn your gauges face from blue to green and a dial to turn your intensity down or up.

i popped the left vent out on the drivers side. on this vent is a vent, dimmer switch, and other stuff depending on your year and trim. there is a small slot at the bottom. take a flat head screw driver, put it in and push upwards. dont get all crazy and crank it around because you'll just make the slot look like crap. now it should come out and there are a few harnesses to unplug. now if you moved all your glow gauge crap over towards the vent you should be able to reach it. i just wrapped the black box around some wires and grabbed the switch and lowered it down past the vent and past and all the plastic console garbage. if you lowered enough your should see it dangling to the left of where your legs are. I just propped it up against the console, took a drill and drilled the holes for the switch. next i got 2 screws and bolted the switch to console. now the switch is in an easy to reach place and isnt totally visible. your now done so enjoy.


i know everything may not be 100% accurate so please correct me if im wrong. this is my first diy and i hope i helped some people out. if you want to make revisions to this, please reply to this post and ill make them. thanks and enjoy.

OMG!!! thank you!!!! i really wanted to install my after i get it. and now i know how. thanks alot. and about the light switch, can you take a pic of it? i wanna see how it turns out. cuz i dunno where to put it, neither the left vent or the lil box near the cigarette lighter.

Good DIY, anyone interested should also check out Vamps, it's a different year, but corollas are basically the same from 93-02

i got the faces on teh cluster which is the hard part adn all needles work great the only thing left to do is wire teh power adn ground wires which are teh best places ?

Use the incoming wires to the original gauges. I juse wired a bulb one end to my battery and poked around with a wire until I found a good positive connection. I think it will be a green wire for + and brown for -. Look at the wires coming into the gauges on the white plugs, it will be the white plug 2nd from the left when the gauges are in. There should be 4 sets coming in. DO NOT use a power source coming off your dimmer switch for your original lights. This one doesn't give enough juice, the indiglos pull a lot of power.

Stupid question...

In Captain Corolla's indiglo DIY, it mentions something about possible airbag malfunction when disconnecting the harnesses behind the gauge cluster. It recommends disconnecting the battery first. Should I watch out for the same thing for my 93-97 gauge install?

Sorry for bringing back an old thread. I am a proud Search Function user.

Yeah, just be super careful. I just simply suggest disconnecting the negative side of your battery. I've heard horror stories about airbag malfunctions and having to get your computer reset in your car. Better safe than sorry.

thats because ur wires are not on a good connection, i suggest splicing into the lines rather than jamming it in the slot, but thats me, i have the same indiglo setup for my 93 corolla no tach, and mine dont buzz, another thing is to take out all the larger light bulbs those are the ones that affect the lighting... hope i could help