Butters944

+944 I recall that battery light having some significance to the alternator circuit and when the bulb goes out the alternator stops working. I'm sure you could find an led with all the equivalent specs to work but is it worth bothering?

flagtie

sausagehacker, Did you already install? Do they dim with the dimmer ****? If so, how low do they go?

odonnell

Haven't ordered yet, but I've read in other threads that the dimmer switch still works to some degree.

I don't think the battery light is worth the hassle personally... you won't be concerned with aesthetics if you're ever in a situation where it's on

Butters944

Can't wait to see your install! Judging by all my old posts on this thread, I realized the car has 1000 higher priorities on the project list than led dash lighting

Please post lots of pics when you do yours, I will bookmark it for future reference.

odonnell

Yes sir! They should be here in a few days. I kept it down to ~$40 shipped by not replacing the bulbs on the combo gauge, with the exception of the ones circled (fuel and temp gauge areas):



EDIT: I also want to leave info about the stock bulbs. The combo gauge uses Sylvania MF2721 bulbs, which twist 90 deg into the PCB. The tach, speedo, and center console lights are all Sylvania 2721, which are separate from the black plastic holders, which are reused.

odonnell

I installed the LEDs earlier, all of which are amber colored, with the exception of the glovebox light (which is warm white). Impressions so far: the amber is bit more orange than I thought. I would opt for the 'warm white' color option for all of them. The pics/videos really don't show how orange they look! I'll attach a document that outlines exactly what you should get, depending on what you want. The dimmer switch works technically, but it's not useful.

See the attached document for details and ordering information!

EDIT: I replaced them with white LEDs and it's a LOT better. It's now the proper brightness, without hurting the eyes on a long drive. See pics.

Here's something I noticed... a PO must have broken off the screws that hold the HVAC panel to the center console, and from what I've read on other threads, it seems normal for the mounting brackets to be missing/damaged. I used 3M mounting tape in a few key areas to aid in remounting, YMMV. Also, LEDs are polar, so make sure you're prepared to get back in there if some of them aren't working.

On to the results!

Amber LEDs: http://imgur.com/a/0fBxe
White LEDs: http://imgur.com/a/fhYx3

Here are a few videos of the amber LED setup (which I was not satisfied with)...

Low light:


Pretty dark:

dmjames

Just did this swap in my 84, and I found that the dimmer does some, but not as much as I'd like. Searching around hasn't gotten me anywhere on whether someone's found a solution... Anyone figure out how to dim the replacement LED cluster lights farther in a safe manner?

BoulderGeek

Wow, interesting. I put cluster LEDs and new silvering on the light tunnels, and my lights are just barely bright enough at night.

My dimmer works, but I have it at max brightness. The LED light strip mod might make it too bright, however. It is nice to have the diffused glow, and not a blazing dashboard at night.

dmjames

Guessing this is the difference between early and late style gauges, then. The early ones are seriously bright. They look fantastic, and are a ton more readable than before, but I'd take about 50-75% of the current brightness given the option.

Jacob AbuKhader

Here are my results. 924s gauge swap in my 944 and a custom fuel pressure gauge.

924RACR

Dead thread ressurrects!!

Personally not a fan of too much blue, but to each his own - certainly nice and bright.

I still need to chase down some of the correct bulbs with sockets for my 931, but since it's now buried under almost a foot of snow, that'll wait...

ElRicardo

Old thread indeed! I found that although there are many solutions, anything that involves the silvered light tunnels/reflectors for l 85.5+ models is a tough fix. These just don't transmit enough light. I suppose someone will chime in that if you pump enough light through them they will work. What I found was most effective was to put white overlays on the gauges (there are several people on the web doing this, I used "whitegauges.net" only because they popped up at top of search) and repaint the needles with high reflective orange. It looks great and is highly visible in the reduced light. But I understand it is not "canon" and therefore will not appeal to all.

UK_in_NY

Does anyone know if these LEDs are available in green? - would be cool if the clocks matched my Alpine Stereo.... just a thought.

Jacob AbuKhader

Green might be a tough one to find. I’ve seen white blue and red, but check superbrightleds.com if anyone will have it they will!

UK_in_NY

Will do. Thanks!