LILBENZ230

I genuinely like most things about the W204 and that's why I have one now. But I absolutely hate.. hate.. hate.. the hooded gauges. I thought they had it right in the 2008 models and never understood why they changed them for 2009. There's only one youtube video I can find that shows the removal and disassembly of the W204 gauges and it appears that the hoods over the gauge pods are built into the front window of the pod. Could I buy a 2008 cluster and just use the gauge surrounds to make it look like this?



I'll settle for this, as well:



But this:



Looks terrible to me.

Anyway - does anyone know?

angeloxnet

there is a plastic piece around the gauges that pry out with a thin pry tool
once out it's pretty straight forward.

I actually added gauges to my 2008 :P lol

LILBENZ230

If you added these 2009-2011 Sport hooded surround to your 2008 then I should be able to make my 2011 look like a 2008. I don't wish to change any of the actual gauges or anything like that which would require coding. I just want to change the face of the gauges to look like the 08 and ditch these silly, exaggerated hoods on them.

aowhaus

I moved to Canada from the U.S. and by law I was required to have gauges converted to metric by a MB dealership in order to have it imported and registered here.
Luckily it was replaced with the same non-hooded style, but my new guages have the white/black needles instead of the original orange/silver. I like the orange/silver because it is easier to see at a glance and I think looks a little more sporty. I have driven a loaner car with the hooded guages and I don't quite like the appearance of them, in particular the slightly distorted signal and hazzard light indicators and the reflections of the chrome rings of each hooded tunnel.

I still have the original U.S. sport guage cluster -- the same style as the first pic. I remember seeing a page in this forum with instructions on replacing the guage cluster as I was interested in swapping out my needles. I never got to it as I didn't have the time or patience for such a small detail. I am willing to sell mine if you are interested.

Like LILBENZ230 said you will need to go the dealership or a MB garage to have the guage cluster reprogrammed/coded. I know for sure the car won't start when the guages are removed, but I don't know if the car will run after a new cluster is installed without having it coded first.

LILBENZ230

I don't want to swap the entire cluster.. I am wondering if I can keep the dials and MFD, just swap the front pane and gauge surround - the area around the needles. I don't want to mess with having to code or anything like that. Just a cosmetic mod.