[Velocity]

The previous owner of my car bought LEDs from www.sportscarleds.com to replace the instrument cluster lights (just three main ones) with blue LEDs.   While I hadn't planned on replacing the stock ones, I decided to give it a try since I was into the cluster anyhow to fix a broken odometer issue.   Results (before and after) are below.   The lights (before and after) are significantly dimmer in person as my cameraphone was in night shot mode (that or my night vision is worse than I thought).   I also covered the light tunnels with reflective AC tape, but didn't clean the original stuff off first, so not sure how much of an impact that gained me.

 

Before - stock (AFAIK) lighting:

   

 

After - Blue LEDs and taped tunnels:

   

 

Not a huge difference (other than color) - may switch back to white LEDs and do better repair on light tunnels.   

 

Will need to research the light tunnel issue and see what best way is to clean off original coating (which was failing badly on mine, as shown below) :

 

Deteriorated light tunnels:

   

 

..and my quick "hack job" taping over them with the reflective tape.   Same reflective tape shown on top here around edges is covering tunnels where you see the "white" (underside of the reflective tape.     Almost embarrassed to post this picture as it's a mess, but I was in a rush and I figured it'd be better than leaving it alone.  ;-)

 

   

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[Greystone]

Thanks for the write up and the pics.  I will be looking into doing some repair and replacement on mine pretty soon.  I had thought about the reflective ac tape and I compared it to aluminum foil.  My thinking is that the extra reflectivity of the foil may have a big impact on the final brightness.  When I first started reading the post, I thought your 'before' picture was the after shot - it looked great especially when compared to mine. But I get it that the camera doesn't always capture the real effect. 

 

My dash lights are basically non-existent.  I can only tell that my dash lights are on is when I am in a 'dark sky' zone with no ambient light - lol

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[snova]

Thanks for the write up and the pics.  I will be looking into doing some repair and replacement on mine pretty soon.  I had thought about the reflective ac tape and I compared it to aluminum foil.  My thinking is that the extra reflectivity of the foil may have a big impact on the final brightness.  When I first started reading the post, I thought your 'before' picture was the after shot - it looked great especially when compared to mine. But I get it that the camera doesn't always capture the real effect. 

 

My dash lights are basically non-existent.  I can only tell that my dash lights are on is when I am in a 'dark sky' zone with no ambient light - lol

Greystone,

my dash lights were non-existent as well until I replaced the voltage regulator in my alternator.    What's your voltage gauge in the instrument panel showing with lights off and motor running?

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[snova]

 

 

 

Not a huge difference (other than color) - may switch back to white LEDs and do better repair on light tunnels.   

 

 

 

from a longevity point of view, I agree that LEDs are good move. At the same time I agree that yellow lighting would be easier on the eyes. Its just human nature.

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[Greystone]

Greystone,

my dash lights were non-existent as well until I replaced the voltage regulator in my alternator.    What's your voltage gauge in the instrument panel showing with lights off and motor running?

I just checked it.  On a cold engine.  It was reading halfway between horizontal and '14'.   Normally it halfway between horizontal and '12'

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[Roboman]

Hi guys, I see we are tracking the same issues ..... dash lights, odometer gears. Thanks for these posts, I was hoping to get to mine last w/e but life got in the way. Soooooon.....


Bye the way, did you sort your boot opening problems?

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[ds968]

I have the blue LEDs, and love the look ! But they are significantly brighter than the OE lights and I did not change the reflective material, just the bulbs . Also the dimmer button will not work with LEDs , but I , for one, don’t care ..I never dimmed the OE lights from their full brightness anyway ..

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[Waylander]

The dimmer will work if you use the expensive CANBUS Led’s

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[Velocity]

Bye the way, did you sort your boot opening problems?

 

Guessing this may have been directed at me - if so, last status was that removing and cleaning the switch in footwell resulted in switch working, but trying to open with key popped a fuse.   I went ahead and found another (relatively cheap, but in decent shape) used switch on ebay and will try swapping out to see if that resolves the issue.

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[Ernie]

Really Waylander? If that's the case, and there is only 3, it's worth it! I believe Flash had previously reported red is the best color to use... but I have to find the thread. Thanks for the info!

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[Roboman]

Hi Guys, response to multiple people on this thread ....

 

Velocity - yes, I was wondering how you had got on (snova too), did you look at the other thread on boot opening? "Key won't open boot" I think, I had just sorted mine (though the faults behind our issues may be different) so wrote a reasonably comprehensive "report" on what I had done as many seem to be having the same problem.....probably should swap forums if you wish to continue this one.

 

Waylander - good info as always, thanks .... they must include a little board with a 555/PWM or similar to create the impression of dimming.

 

Dan - agreed, I have mine on max all the time too, but then again that could be because the light tunnels etc are presently so inefficient.

 

Ernie - I suspect red is the "best" colour (it's not hard to know who is on which side of the pond, is it?) because red has the least effect on one's night-vision. How well it illuminates the dash, but doesn't effect you looking ahead when there's no light pollution, will be interesting to know. 

 

Cheers all

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[Kaj Hallstrom]

Trying to keep the instrument lights as dim as possible. My night vision is not was it use to be. I need to focus on the road, not some fancy instrument light. The less distraction, the better. All you need is just being able to read the gauges....that's it.

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[94SilverCab]

Trying to keep the instrument lights as dim as possible. My night vision is not was it use to be. I need to focus on the road, not some fancy instrument light. The less distraction, the better. All you need is just being able to read the gauges....that's it.

 

That was always Flash's opinion as well...

 

Jay

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[ds968]

Yes, that opinion is shared by most, and it has been suffictely circulated in car magazines for decades , so I wonder why most automobile manufacturers havent subscribed to that theory and produce low intensity red ( or even amber ) lighting for instrument panels. Bright blue and green, or white , still dominate . At a personal level I dont find the instrument panel all that distracting and whilst it may indeed have a negligible affect on the vision of the road , without me realizing it, just turning on a single cabin overhead light causes a lot more vision interference than the entire instrument panel. Of course no one drives with the cabin lights on so maybe not a good comparison .. Im going to install strobe lighting and a disco ball in my car and test to see if that prevents me from seeing suicidal deer crossing my path at night ..

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[Velocity]

Trying to keep the instrument lights as dim as possible. My night vision is not was it use to be. I need to focus on the road, not some fancy instrument light. The less distraction, the better. All you need is just being able to read the gauges....that's it.

 

As I mentioned in my original post - the actual brightness of both the before/after shots of my dash is significantly less than what it looks like in the pictures - so much so that the original lighting made the dash gauges hard to read at night.   The updated blue leds, while still dim, at least make the gauges readable.        Definitely not "distracting" as my eyes strain much less to see the gauges now than before.   I'd of rather had the soft white LEDs, but just decided to use what i had on-hand....

 

The previous owner had also installed LED light strips in each front footwell - those were bright enough to be distracting, so I just used black electrical tape to block off 4 out of 6 of the LEDs in each footwell, which resulted in a much softer/less distracting effect.  

 

 

 

Interestingly, both the dash LEDs and the footwell LED strips DO work with the stock dimmer (not a huge change, but they do dim).

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[Waylander]

Wonder why the previous owner did not connect the foot well lights to the door switches

 

so they only lit when the door was opened

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[Kaj Hallstrom]

Some cars are equipped with dim red instrument lights. I believe SAAB had that in their cars for a while adapted from the instrument lights in their fighter jets. I have seen it on some BMW's as well. I have have this bright white LED light in my G37 and I have to tone it down big time at night.

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[Ernie]

So if the CANBUS led's that Waylander suggested are dimmable, the brightness can be controlled, correct? Each of us could adjust them to our individual preference... JMHO

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[Chris Vais]

Aircraft instruments are red so as not to compromise the pilots night vision. I need to something about the instruments in my 968, so I'm going to opt for red LEDs. I am very accustomed to red instrument lighting. 

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[Waylander]

You will have women banging on your window at the traffic lights, asking what service they get for 5 bucks

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