Working with LexTech
Okay, the gory details... The good news:
The needles look very good. I picked red waterfall. At full brightness there is a bright spot near the base (the LED) and it's a bit dimmer on the short end. But over all very even and professional looking. No rough edges etc.. The guages all still work - no damage was done, they seem to be still in calibration.
The backlight good - even, nice color. I picked the 16 led white. I was told it would be similar to native backlight in intensity - being that the plastic sheild on the cluster is a smoked color. And it is. Dims nicely and at full brightness it is a soft but white color (maybe a slight gray from the smoke plastic). I was told the 32 light would be much brighter.
I also had the backlight for the Climate control done - it had 2 dead bulbs. It looks good. No detail it is simply a LED backlight with no changes.
The stupid side (me):
I got lazy and did not want to drop the steering wheel, so I did this (taking out and putting back in) with the battery on, and the ignition to first position which tilted the wheel out of the way (but was tight). That has triggered the Air Bag light - which I or my local shop will reset.
When I plugged it all in, it all seemed fine. I had been playing with the dimmer - and I smell that acrid hot-electronic part smell and see some smoke. The dimmer cut the lights off before bottom now. I am suspect it got toasted in one spot. But it still works, and everything else still works and there is no more burning. (I will update if there are further issues.) I can not fully point the finger at LexTech on this, but I am suspect the LEDs might be drawing more power than the old bulbs. The smell was that of a burned electronic part, not just a quick short - and I am guessing that had it been something in the cluster there would be a problem. It seems to be in the dimmer - perhaps I will replace it and see if it fixes, and have a chance to smell it (that smell sticks in the parts for a while).
The pain in the rear side (LexTech):
I paid a fortune to insure this fully and ship Priority mail. When things started dragging out - after a second request for status, I was told it took longer than expected to be delivered. Then the work was said to be on time, but shipping did not happen for another 5-6 days. There is only one shipping option, FedEx ground (read as SLOW). Even they missed their delivery by 3 days. Bottom line is that this took from my ship dated of 5/16 till delivery to me 6/10. 3 1/2 weeks. I did not need the car so it did not kill me, but it should be considered. And there was no insurance on the return that I know of. Given that I had a cluster and climate unit - there was some very significant value (I shipped with $2k in insurance).
The plastic face screen was rather smudged and needed a Goo-Gone cleaning. I would have hoped it would have been handled more delicately and cleaned before shipping. I can not comment on scratching mine is a 166k car and there was minor scratching already.
LexTech did somewhat keep me informed when shipped and sent me a tracking number. I would have appreciated an option for faster shipping, and certainly keeping tighter to the 2-5 days estimate of work and that would imply it getting shipped right away. Status at start and end of work would have been nice.
So - follow the rules (disconnect the battery) and don't hold your breath on speed. But appreciate the beauty. And watch for an update on the dimmer question.
