Van Larson

Got the bulbs and holders. Is there a "correct/identifiable/ascertainable" way to know you are inserting the bulbs in the holders with correct polarity,etc., for correct LED operation with dimming?

AZ Targa

I was worried about the same thing. When inserting the LED into the holder it did not seem to affect the operation of the led, but sometimes I had to turn the bulb holder 180º. I am not sure if it was polarity or if it was merely a connection problem. There should be no damage to the LED's by inserting them "wrong" superbrightleds.com essentially said, "just, reverse the polarity, or 180º the LED to the connector."

gmorat

What a PITA that was!

First time I took the gauges out and installed the bulbs. Needless to say when reinstalled about half of them were working.

Next time I just pulled them out of the dash with the lights on so I could see which ones were and which ones weren't working and adjusted them till they were.

Rev counter is a NIGHTMARE!!! Such a tight fit and trying to get the gasket in place is nuts.

Glad it's done.

G

Pete Lech

Yep, the tach is a super PIA to get out. I needed to change my OBC back-light. I almost resorted to taking the steering wheel out, but took out the speedo instead so I could push from the back. That and a lot of cursing worked.

I found that the B8d-W was better than the brighter B8D-WHP for the OBC. It was still brighter than stock, so should be highly visible in daylight even with sunglassses on.

If you changed all the bulbs to leds, then the HP probably would dim correctly with the other dash lights.

Bend the tabs to fix the loose fit and check the polarity before you push the gauges back in place! There is no marking as to the correct way to put them in.

Detoxx

Added red leds, here's some pic

At a low dimmer setting


At a higher dimmer setting

bjornebo

FWIW I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but the B8.4D bulbs from superbright LEDs are not working for me. They are not a tight fit and I am not getting good contact between the bulb and gauge housing. However, the solution identified by AZ Targa works like a champ:

I will be replacing all of the instrument lights and also the turn signal and hi-beam indicators.

Detoxx

You just need to bend the tabs slightly to make good contact as suggested in previous posts. The distance between the contacts is slightly greater than the thickness of the pcb that houses the lights. Once I bent the tabs slightly, no more issues

bjornebo

Detoxx,

Thanks. I had missed that step.

bjornebo

I completed the change to LEDs this morning. I started with the fuel/oil level gauge and worked to the right - this allowed me to push the next gauge from behind which made it easy to remove them (Tore's website was very helpful for removing the tach). While I was at it I replaced the turn signal and high-beam indicators with the green and blue versions of the 74-WWHP3 LED from superbright LEDs. My turn signal indicators were especially wimpy - hard to see in the daytime. The LEDs have totally fixed that.

Overall I found this to be a fairly easy DIY, thanks to the great information on RL from those that have already done this.

JV911

That's great, thanks mate

Does anyone know how many or each colour are required for all the warning & accessory lights?

bjornebo

Re warning lights, my manual C4S coupe has 22 (4 orange/amber, 4 green, 1 blue, and 13 red) this total includes the turn signal and high beam indicator lights. Note that the specific number of warning lights that you have depends on how your car is equipped. If you have a C4S or turbo you will have a red brake pressure warning light, otherwise no. And you will have a Tiptronic Emergency Program warning light and/or a convertible top warning light if you have a Tip and/or cabriolet (I don't have either).

As indicated in previous posts there are 11 instrument lights (3 for spedo, 2 for each of the other instruments). I went with the warm white lights recommended by AZ Targa and am very happy with them.

I don't know about the accessory lights.

Spyder_Man

I'm planning on taking on this mod too. Regarding the warning lights are they the same bulb type? I.e. would they all need those same bulb mount adapters from that UK site that was linked earlier for the general dash back lighting?

bjornebo

All of the instrument illumination lights and warning lights have the same bulb mount type. So, yes, all of the instrument lights and warning lights use bulb mount adapters available from the UK site. The only things to watch out for on this mod are which way to insert the LEDs into the holders (take a look at the pictures provided by AZ Targa, they show this) and the need to bend the metal tabs on the holders a bit (the circuit board material on the gauges seems to be thicker than anticipated by the LED holder manufacturer). This was pretty easy to figure out.

bcameron59

Very helpful info, thanks!

I notice that the various bulb implementations have differing brightness levels, ie the B8.4D all-in-one units come in 2 lumen and 6 lumen versions, and the 74-WWHP3 (warm white, require the UK bases) are rated at 25 lumens.

Did you use the brighter version for all lamps, or mix and match? And can you dim the gauge illumination very, very low, for full dark road conditions?

I ask because I am contemplating using the 25 lm 74-WWHP3 for gauge illumination only, but want to make sure they can be dimmed low enough for night driving on the open road.

I am also thinking of using 6 lm B8.4D for all status and warning lights, except I would use the 2 lm for the headlight indicator which is already too bright for my liking in stock form. I assume these would be brighter than stock but not as over the top as the 25 lm version.

Thoughts?

bjornebo

They go pretty low (low enough for me at least).

One approach that you could consider if you are concerned about this would be to buy a couple of the 74-WWHP3 LEDs and install them in the fuel/oil level gauge and see if they go low enough for you. The only difficulty in this would be that you would also need to buy two of the holders and then buy more later if you like them. Or you could buy enough of the holders to do all of your instrument lights in case you like these LEDs (this is what I did - I figured that it was worth $10 to have them if I needed them).

Re the warning lights, you might buy the 2 and 6 lumen versions in amber and red and try them both in the fuel/oil level gauge and oil temp/press gauge to decide which you like better. This was the approach that I took - I bought one of each of the LEDs that I was considering and then followed up with a second order for the ones that I decided I wanted.