Yes.

As with swapping any of the instrument to LED's the stock dimmer will give you crappy results wrt dimming, you can have full on OK but not much dimming beyond that (certainly very non-linear)

Get Ed Scherer's great PWM dimmer and it will work as well for these as it does with everything else. I'd not do instrument LEDs without a PWM dimmer. \

The bright modes should still work fine.

Alan

 

Do you have a link to said dimmer?

Hard to search on my phone.

Thx

 

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...eferrerid=6055

 

I installed LEDS using green for green and red for red etc. Also I eliminated my dimmer a long time ago. Sometimes the switches are a bit bright but better than stock, I also swapped out the prisms for LED's. They were $50 and came out of Bangkok. I opted for the blue, which gives the same cast as a new VW.
Might change them for a white or red set in the future.

 

Alan,
Any suggestions on how to rehab my switches as originally intended with this post? Sounds like the leds will look weird (too bright) without the dimmer and with all of the other original lights. If not maybe I'll just buy new (used) switches.

 

I have an entire box of switches, even an extra set of gauges. I tried everything.
Maybe I'm because I'm old and can't see but I wanted a brighter panel and the LEDs without a dimmer works for me.
I bought a new 86 300E and it's gauges were dim. It's a German thing in the 80's I believe. Dim or Tokyo at night, your call

 

Alan

Just read up on the dimmer.. Sounds perfect!

Much appreciated.

 

Kinda hard to get a good picture but here are a couple I just took.





Alan is right, you won't have the dim function but if that doesn't bother you don't worry about it. I did install Ed's dimmer module and honestly have not used it since I installed it. I have installed a bunch in other cars and they really like having that feature.

 

I don't think you should get new switches - these cannot logically be causing your problems (one maybe... but not three).

Do your variable dash lights work: pod illumination, HVAC etc?

If not you need to fix that first. If yes there must be a wiring issue to the pod switches

Alan

 

Those look Really Good Sean, Thanks for taking the time to snap the pics.

I'm gonna go ahead and order those as well.

 

I changed everything to leds also, to keep approximately the old brightness you need to use resistors, I bought mine from radio shack. There's a great write up online how to swap them. I also added lights to my auto-gear shifter so that the center console including ashtray is blue, rest I stayed with factory colors, there was also a diode or two that I needed to add.

 

I'm convinced. Ordering LEDs nnnnnnnnnow

 

LEDs will not solve any functional problems you already have.. any answers to the questions?

Alan

 

Thankfully no malfunctioning issues here, for me its just a matter of getting a bit brighter allumination. With new LED's along with the dimmer module looks like I should get the perfect desired affect.

This thread has been very informative.

Thanks guys

 

Oh yes sorry Alan, I get overwhelmed with all the posts sometimes.

All of the other lights function properly. The other pod switch lights, illumination on gauges, hvac, doors domes etc although the hvac , radio and other center console stuff is all unplugged currently. Also all switches on pod, doors, center console work properly.

I've cleaned some of the body grounds but not all of them yet.

Only the trip reset is dim and the flasher is dim in the out position. I changed out the bulbs (37's) for new ones but same results.

Could I have put too much deoxy in there maybe? I just put in a tiny drop but I couldn't really get in there to wipe it afterwards like the directions call for. I lightly deoxyed the tabs and connectors behind all the pod switches too. It sounds like I doused everything but I didn't, I was sparing and careful with the deoxy. Also I cleaned up all the tabs and connections with a fiberglass pen.

Tomorrow I'll double check the wiring behind those two switches and double check to make sure none of the loose wires (radio, hvac etc) are touching or grounding out. No fuses have popped. I'll double check the ground under the pod to make sure it's tight. What am I missing?