LED Dash Lights
Discussion
Hi All,
Thought i'd post the following as there wasn't too much info when i looked. I don't have any pictures at the moment but i will upload some in due course.
I have replaced my dash light bulbs with LED's, i wanted to be careful to get the same type of LED, and be sensible about the brightness to try and keep them all similar.
Its worked pretty well, all colours seem to match, and the light brightness and patterns seem as good as they were with the filament bulbs in.
Bit of faff to get them installed, some of the wedge LED bulbs are slightly wider than the glass bulbs so needed careful opening of the sockets.
The larger 501 wedge LED bulbs were tight in the gauge but installed fine in the end. Only major point to note was the speedo, this did not match all the others until i pulled the LED bulb out the holder a little, seems the light spread with it in the socket all the way is obscured once installed in the gauge.
I ordered-
2x T5 White 5630 SMD LED For the speedo and rev counter.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251648127031?_trksid=p20...
2x BA7S White SMD LED for the oil pressure gauge and the boost gauge
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181628846097?_trksid=p20...
2x 501 White 4 SMD LED for the water temperature gauge and the fuel gauge
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261372019716?_trksid=p20...
Hope that helps
Matt
Thought i'd post the following as there wasn't too much info when i looked. I don't have any pictures at the moment but i will upload some in due course.
I have replaced my dash light bulbs with LED's, i wanted to be careful to get the same type of LED, and be sensible about the brightness to try and keep them all similar.
Its worked pretty well, all colours seem to match, and the light brightness and patterns seem as good as they were with the filament bulbs in.
Bit of faff to get them installed, some of the wedge LED bulbs are slightly wider than the glass bulbs so needed careful opening of the sockets.
The larger 501 wedge LED bulbs were tight in the gauge but installed fine in the end. Only major point to note was the speedo, this did not match all the others until i pulled the LED bulb out the holder a little, seems the light spread with it in the socket all the way is obscured once installed in the gauge.
I ordered-
2x T5 White 5630 SMD LED For the speedo and rev counter.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251648127031?_trksid=p20...
2x BA7S White SMD LED for the oil pressure gauge and the boost gauge
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181628846097?_trksid=p20...
2x 501 White 4 SMD LED for the water temperature gauge and the fuel gauge
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261372019716?_trksid=p20...
Hope that helps
Matt
An LED is a diode, by definition it is a polarised device.
Looking at the devices above be very careful not to damage the clocks, especially the fuel and temp gauges, the heat generated will melt them, the LEDs won't last very long using resistors like that to try and achieve constant current. I played with my dash lights some time ago, the Noble wiring doesn't make it easy, looking back the best way to do it would have been to make a new loom for the back lights and drive them all with a proper led driver, you could then dim them, this is how a car manufacturer will do it.
I also backlit all of the switches and made them bright when on, that was a nightmare
Making an LED last is not straightforward, for example I make an LED interior lamp for one of the car makers, to last and to remain consistent and reliable it has 61 discreet components...............just to replace a bulb!
Looking at the devices above be very careful not to damage the clocks, especially the fuel and temp gauges, the heat generated will melt them, the LEDs won't last very long using resistors like that to try and achieve constant current. I played with my dash lights some time ago, the Noble wiring doesn't make it easy, looking back the best way to do it would have been to make a new loom for the back lights and drive them all with a proper led driver, you could then dim them, this is how a car manufacturer will do it.
I also backlit all of the switches and made them bright when on, that was a nightmare
Making an LED last is not straightforward, for example I make an LED interior lamp for one of the car makers, to last and to remain consistent and reliable it has 61 discreet components...............just to replace a bulb!
Will see how I get on with them, they were cheap so a can handle the shorter life.
My fuel and temp gauges had already shown signs of deformation with the filament bulbs installed. Because of this I did a bench test, admittedly in free air, and they didn't seem to get more than warm in a ten min period whereas the filaments were hot. Would you expect them to be hotter than filament?
Matt
My fuel and temp gauges had already shown signs of deformation with the filament bulbs installed. Because of this I did a bench test, admittedly in free air, and they didn't seem to get more than warm in a ten min period whereas the filaments were hot. Would you expect them to be hotter than filament?
Matt
Adrian W said:
2.5bluenob said:
Thats strange as i changed all of mine in the centre console for LED's and all seems fine!Are you sure it wasn't a coincidence Devil?
If they have built in resister it might just be enough to get the alernator all excited I haven't driven my car for some time and now i come to think about it there was something strange happening after fitting the LED's - the battery light would stay on all the time and go out when the alternator wasn't charging(so opposite way round to normal). But everything still worked in my eyes.
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