smo

@86 924S Driver: Yes the red circled bulbs can be replaced with the 74_t15 link above. You need to shave off a bit of plastic on the twist on connector. Basically there is a square plastic stop that doesn't jive with the twist mounting on the gauge pod. I used a dremel with a cutting wheel on low rpm and just melted/cut the plastic stop out. If you look at the bottom part of that page, in the middle of the diagram on the left there is a 1.75mm rise from the lip of the bulb (for lack of a better description). That little square snippet of plastic needs to be removed so that the bulb can spin and lock more than the few degrees allowed by the design of the bulb.

It's harder to explain than it is to do....

Yes they are drop in, except the cutting mentioned, and yes they are brighter than stock. The red plastic on the ! warning light cuts down on the intensity. My turn signal indicator is alot brighter, as is the shift indicator. It isn't OMFG bright, but its more modern looking.....

@xschop: yes the warning light is a T1.5. The only wedge bulbs are the three on the bottom that are for the "backlighting". I'd say that it can't be modified. Anything is possible but you are trying to take a wedge connection and use it on a twist connection which has the contacts on the twisting lock.

In the lower left of that image above there are three of the twist connection points that have no bulbs in my car. You can see the contact is made on the blue ribbon cable. With the wedge connectors (if memory serves), you pull out the white socket pull out the wedge bulb drop in the new LED wedge and put the entire thing back on the gauge.

smo

Almost certain I used the regular bulbs...I don't have the email with my order confirmation to check. It was some time ago.

xschop

Is there another designation# or cross reference for the T1.5 "twist lock"
I get all my **** from the bay and can't find white T1.5 (a good picture anyway)

smo

EDIT: Bad guess on my part. The T1.5 is a #73 or #74 type bulb in a twist base. Any twist base bulb should work.

"T1.5 instrument LED lamp consists of a T1-1/2 (#73/74) standard miniature wedge LED bulb or High Power SMD LED installed in a twist lock socket base
12 Volt DC
100/120 degree beam pattern"

Good luck....

xschop

I found only "blue" colored with the twist base. So what you are saying is the 944 gauges ahve twist bases that have replaceable "74" bulbs in them and the twist lock bases are reused?

smo

From what I remember, and according to the links I posted in my old thread on another board, the three bulbs used for illuminating the gauge cluster are located in the three white holders circled in yellow (pic may be in the thread linked to above). When you remove the white bulb base (possibly with a twisting action, I can't recall) you replace the bulb with a standard wedge style automotive bulb. Or the replacement wedge style LED I linked too above. I chose that LED bulb style because it had multiple LED's for better directional lighting and wasn't too big to be used as are replacement.

The 12 or so lights that illuminate the warning lights and indicators are the T1.5 twist bulbs I linked too. According to the description it is a type #73/74 bulb in a twisting style base. The bulb wasn't removable from the base if I remember correctly.

I did this over a year ago and it wasn't a long involved job. I think I found the bulb recommendations on another 944 site and just went with it. If you order the bulbs I linked to you can just remove the extra tab of plastic and they work fine.

I'd recommend just pulling the gauge cluster and looking. It can be done in less than an hour with no prior experience. It took me about 15 min on the first try. Just go slow when you remove the plastic surround as it can be brittle from age. All you'll need is a socket to get the wheel off and a philips head screw driver....

86 951 Driver

I was curious does anyone have a picture of their dash with blue gauge lighting along with the rest of the dash lights being stock?

86 951 Driver

It looks like that there isn't just a white color bulb for the 16 needed for warning lights.

Would cool white not work well for lighting the gauges? I was thinking that instead of blue?

86 951 Driver

Anyone? My gauges are so dimmly lit that I can't read them at night.

pa951

that's not true.. the one under the backup light is for the normal light, on the bottom left is the brake light. The vertical lens next to the backup and normal light is the fog light on a euro.
Lights on:

Brake.

86 951 Driver

I did the LED lighting up grade to my gauge cluster and it was awesome. I also replaced the reflector material with aluminum foil and it is brighter than stock by a lot. It looks good though. I recommend using either white or cool white. Blue isn't bright enough.

Arominus

I only did the third brake light as an LED and man, it makes a difference! You can really see how much faster it lights up.