Replace instrument light bulbs

[frankv]

Hi all,
Now that 3 bulbs out of 4 are blown, I've finally got round to deciding to replace my instrument lights in the "combination meter". Presumably someone has had to do this before... how do you go about it? The BGB is no help at all.

I'm guessing, (but hoping I'm wrong) that the entire "combination meter" needs to be removed, to get to some light bulbs at the back. Can someone confirm that's necessary, or give me an easier technique?

Also, what to replace them with? LEDs? Or what are the standard bulbs?

Frank

[GDII]

You will have to remove the whole combination meter to replace the bulbs. The hardest part I found was removing and re-installing the cable speedo (if your car is cable and not digital). The rest is just a matter of removing all the screws that hold in the combnation meter and panels around it.

This link shows how to remove the combination meter. http://www.speedview.co/forum/Thread-In ... prox-91-92" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I had a link from Heylin about LEDs but it seems to be different now. The were direct replacements with heat sinks I think.

[Benckj]

I've seen a write-up with pics on the US forums. Even bought some LED's to do mine but have not gotten around to it.

Believe you need to pull the whole cluster to get at but its not a hard job. Might pay to replace the capacitor in back as this is known to go.

[CJ]

i did mine with LEDs. Bought them off the net http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/inst ... O4,21,240:
and they have to have the correct size twist base on them too. NE04.
Mine are red obviously but theres about 6 or so colors you could choose from. I got the bulb ones as opposed to the super LED ones as they have a better light. Not too in your face bright.
While i was at it, i replaced the ones in the aircon unit, the drivers window control and the key start surround.

[frankv]

Thanks Jim & CJ...

Anyone else want to join me in buying some of these and sharing shipping costs? Price will work out to about NZ$3 per LED (USPS shipping, untracked) or $6/LED (Express, tracked).

I'll be ordering in the next couple of days.

Frank

[Barark]

keen, ask me again the day before you order. PM me, im never far away.

[frankv]

Just replaced my panel lights with NE04 LEDs.

The bad news... the NE04 bulbs are not the right size to replace the panel illumination bulbs. They are the right size to replace the little warning lights like the oil pressure and door open bulbs.

Panel illumination bulbs are "wedge" bulbs (the same as park lights and interior lights and so on). Probably the right LED replacement would be http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... -base/197/, or maybe http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... -base/226/.

The good news... it's not too hard to adapt the NE04 LEDs to make them work. Here's how...

Each of the incandescent bulbs presses into a socket which installs into the combination meter with a 60degree twist action. Each socket has has two brass contacts on the front of it to connect to the combination meter itself, and a slot with two pairs of brass contacts. The bulb pushes in between these pairs of contacts, and has wires on the outside to touch the contacts.

The NE04 LEDs have a 60degree twist base on them, but are much smaller than the sockets. They have wires wrapped around the base to effectively work like the contacts of the sockets.

What I did was unwrap the wires from the LED base. These wires are too fine to reliably maintain pressure between the pairs of contacts, so what I did as poke each of the wires down *behind* one of the pairs of contacts. I then pushed the LED base down into the gap where the bulb would normally sit, and hot-glued them into place. I then tested them with a 12V power supply to make sure they still worked... the pushing down might unseat the wires. That did in fact happen, so I dug the hot-glue out with a screwdriver, and did the whole process again.

Remember that LEDs (unlike regular incandescent bulbs) are polarised, so only light up when the voltage is the right way round (wrong way round doesn't do any harm). So when testing, if you get no light, you need to test the other way round before you know whether it needs redoing. Also, when installing the completed bulb in the combination meter, you need to check that it is working before reassembling the panel.... you have a 50/50 chance of installing each one the wrong way round.

This all seems to have worked just fine, and looks great. Will post back here if my fix turns out to not be a good idea.

[GDII]

Good the hear the small ones work. I guess I forgot to mention the correct sizes as there are two different ones as you found out.

Depending on the heat output of the LEDs, the hot glue might become soft and the LEDs could become loose and stop working. If that does happen, a higher temp glue would work or buying the correct size LEDs.

[CJ]

crap,..i was sure that was the one i used.
Had a look back through my receipts and the neo4 were for the AC unit. these were the ones for the dash http://www.superbrightleds.com/search/l ... s/wled-r5/
I feel really stink about that... Those other ones you listed in the first link will work, same wedge, just a single wide angle tho. These disperse light in a lot of directions.

[IC3YG4M3R]

Hey CJ do you have a photo of your dials/AC/Ignition slot etc. Im curious as to how bright these come out with the end result

[CJ]

All on my build thread under rides bro. I can take some more tho if needed. Cant for the life of me remember the wattage of leds tho. I do know the red ones are mint. Blue are same strength however blue seems brighter so doing again i would get slightly weaker blue ones. I will have a look, see if i can get info on them.

[jbondjr]

I did mine in blue a couple of months ago 5X T10 5smd 5050 wedge for wide dispersion for the speedo rev counter fuel temp and volts 2X T5 smd 5050 for indicators and 10X T5 286 leds for the dash lights 1XT5 smd 5050 for ignition surround and since I have an auto 5X blue T4 neo wedge and 1X T4 red neo wedge for neutral as the blue comes out light purple I also did the heater controls which are T4 neo wedges X2 .Here is a photo of the bulbs and my dash

[jbondjr]

Cant get the photos to upload but the blue T10 5smd 5050 leds give it a nice rich blue without being really bright the blue T4 neo wedge leds for gear selection are bright blue which is good for daytime driving and not to bad for night time the T5 286 leds I used for the warning lights are not that bright during day you can see them but they find it hard to punch through the red lenses of the warning light good at night or raining days the T5 5050 smd on the igniton and indicators comes out a nice rich blue

[Murray_Miskelly]

I know this is an old topic, but having just completed a replacement of bulbs in the instrument cluster I found some of the info on the web was not 100% correct in my case.
I have prepared an identifying chart for any others to follow in case it helps.

Cheers

Murray

[ClanFever]

Import, NZ new, even US or Europe market will have different changes. Cool to have a NZ new one available now.