LED Bulbs for the dash cluster

[JohnC]

Hi,
Been reading a lot of posts here on LED Bulbs. Has anyone installed LED Bulbs for the gauges and lower dash. Just hooked mine gauges up last night, not very bright. Have a new headlight switch set to full brightness, still pretty dim. Good idea to go LED? Is white the way to go? Maybe blue for the gauges?

Thanks

[Graham Rollo]

I change mine to 6w , have not used LED yet for dash, but the 6w made huge improvement.

[Barry Wolk]

You just need brighter lamps. There's a ton of junk out there. I would use a warm lamp as that's the color of incandescent lamps. 2700-3000?K,

[Roger Zimmermann]

Different car, same problem: the dash illumination from my '72 Coupe de Ville was marginal at best. Stronger bulbs? They generate too much heat, not good for the plastic support. Finally, I bought LED bulbs by superbrightleds.com. They are made in China to my dismay, but now I see at which speed I'm driving. The models 194-NWHP5 in natural white and 194-WWHP5 in warm white I bought have the advantage to be dimmable. For a Mark II, you will need other models as the socket will be different.

[Knickoliss Iv]

When I have changed to brighter bulbs on a dash they usually end up being different intensities which throws off the uniformity of the illumination. I have found that just changing them all at the same time with what was intended works best for me. I also clean the harnesses, sockets and grounds. There are places where the components can't get a proper ground on some dash boards. Also, cleaning dust off the insides of the cluster that are intended to reflect light need to be cleaned. On my Mark II, a previous "restorer" has a wire running from the cluster to a screw otherwise the dash lights do not work. I haven't been able to get in and see why and correct the issue.

[jdsnoddy]

That wire is most probably a ground wire. So if the cluster and pod are properly grounded, you most probably won't need the wire.
Best regards,
John

[Knickoliss Iv]

Just what I was thinking John!

[Barry Wolk]

When I have changed to brighter bulbs on a dash they usually end up being different intensities which throws off the uniformity of the illumination. I have found that just changing them all at the same time with what was intended works best for me. I also clean the harnesses, sockets and grounds. There are places where the components can't get a proper ground on some dash boards. Also, cleaning dust off the insides of the cluster that are intended to reflect light need to be cleaned. On my Mark II, a previous "restorer" has a wire running from the cluster to a screw otherwise the dash lights do not work. I haven't been able to get in and see why and correct the issue.

The dash pod was never meant to be grounded to the dash as the mounting screws have to go through leather and padding and should never be isolated that way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with an auxiliary ground as the ground method used is poor, at best. Almost every single ground wire is attached to one of the bolts that holds the wiring connectors. It has a thin brass tube that connects the ground wire to the body that is totally dependent on the steel threads to carry current if the bolt loosens, which they all do.

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[Jack Bowser]

SUPERBRIGHTLEDS.COM has everything needed for our cars.

They have a nice defused bulb that works well with the gauges. (Plug and play bayonet base).

I also changed my ceiling bulb that gets hot enough to actually blister your fingers if you touch it when it's on.

The new led bulb is much brighter and totally cool.

My under dash lenses were actually a little brown from the hot light bulbs and I have also changed them to LEDS.

I have bought the bulbs for the tail lights (red) and turn signals (yellow) but haven't installed them yet.

Interesting note. White LEDS behind red lenses (tail lights) do not work well. They make a round spot instead of a nice defused red tail light. Purchas red LED replacements for the tail lights and the entire lens will light up nice and red. Some technical reason I don't totally understand.