Show Us Your Pilot Seat Lightshow

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Due to the wonders of cheap LEDs from china, I set about changing a few blown dash lights, only to go ahead and replace about 35 bulbs in the dash, climate control, cigarette lighter and shift lever. The results are quite impressive, I just hope these chinese ones dont blow prematurely. These are white LEDs, which make the gauges appear blue, the yellow lights (such as 4WD, synchro, defrost etc) have a touch more green in the colour (a little strange looking I admit), the red lights appear more pink, while the green lights just appear more vibrant.

If I had to do them in future, I would probably use white for gauges and green lights, red for red lights, warm white for yellow lights.

Also don't use an LED in the low fuel warning light. The circuit always has current running through it and it will constantly light an LED.

[sleeper_gtr]

Hi SAUers,

This is my new dash I installed over the weekend. Pretty happy with it but was thinking of installing new Led bulbs to make it a little brighter.

What y'all think?

[Leroy Peterson]

Are all those just pop-out type LED's or did you have to re-solder some of them?

Most of mine on the gloria require soldering, which I dont mind doing. But the interior pieces are just such a pain in the arse to remove. afraid im gonna break some.

[GH05T]

not my stag but i do like the LED gauges, should always be done imo

did both my 32s

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Are all those just pop-out type LED's or did you have to re-solder some of them?

Most of mine on the gloria require soldering, which I dont mind doing. But the interior pieces are just such a pain in the arse to remove. afraid im gonna break some.

The lights in the dash cluster are all accessible from the back of the cluster (which obviously means removal of a few interior pieces...annoying I admit). There are T5 sockets on the back of the cluster which twist out and accept a T5 wedge bulb.

[Leroy Peterson]

I meant more for radio surround and the shifter LEDs

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I have an aftermarket head unit with its own internal lighting, which I didn't change.

The climate control unit has a number of "neo wedge" bulbs. Normally they take tiny "grain of wheat" incandescent bulbs. I think they are 5mm. You can get LED replacement sets on ebay, however I found that they did not screw in, and so I had to retrofit the SMD LED and resistor into the existing plastic bulb holder. It would be important to use SMD LEDs in the screen area, as you want maximum light dispersion. A regular lensed led will point the light directly downwards, but they may work OK in the lights for the buttons.

The ashtray light takes a T5 wedge bulb, and takes a little effort to dismantle.

The shifter light takes a T10 wedge bulb, but it must be a short one otherwise it wont screw in. I ended up adding a resistor to dull the light, as it was too bright.

Pro level: lastly I replaced the blown "grain of wheat" bulbs in the auto transmission power/snow switch. That requires dismantling the switch itself and creatively shoehorning both an led and resistor in each bulb slot.

[GH05T]

yeah gauges need the wide spread leds otherwise they look shit.

[YangLIU]

Full LED gauge with customised facelift

[Daleo]

Full LED gauge with customised facelift

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I do like that color in the dials; is that just bulb upgrade in a standard dash?

[Dmyze_]

I don't think it could be, there are resistance issues using normal LEDs in the M35 cluster, I'm interested to see how he did it as well.

[YangLIU]

I do like that color in the dials; is that just bulb upgrade in a standard dash?

it is not simple LED bulb upgrade. i can't figure out how does it work, but there is LED control unit box out side the cluster. also there is a switch to control the LED brightness.

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Some additional control of the led lights would be ideal in most cases, for brightness etc. If I had some spare time and money I would probably use an arduino to take care of the speedo, tacho fuel and temp gauge. I had to rebuild my tachometer circuitry, but it can't be correctly calibrated without some additional mapping, which the arduino could provide.

[Daleo]

it is not simple LED bulb upgrade. i can't figure out how does it work, but there is LED control unit box out side the cluster. also there is a switch to control the LED brightness.

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This makes sense now; it's also a complete overlay of the dash face as well.