Dim Dash Instruments

[Jabbah]

My instrument lights had all been replaced with LEDs by the previous owner. I've always found them far too dim at night especially the speedo and revs. I've tried upgrading them to higher intensity ones as recommended on other threads here but still not quite bright enough. Has anyone tried putting a strip of LEDs in such as these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/warm-white-12v-ip65-5cm-...

I think they would fit just inside the metal back cover and might work quite well?

[sweeper]

Hopefully someone in the knows will answer the question.

Having converted mine to LED I am not happy with the light spread really... the LED strips may solve this but I have now clue how those would have to be fitted.

[morebeanz]

When you did the conversion, did you specifically look for wide angle leds? A lot of the cheaper led bulbs have a narrow angle of output which will certainly give you issues.

When this topic first came up a few years ago, there was a strong recommendation to ensure wide angles leds were ordered...

[sweeper]

Thanks, yes I have wide angle bulbs. It's not all too bad but the source of the light is of course still visible.

The light spread would surely be more uniform with the above.

[morebeanz]

I'm a bit surprised then, as I have leds fitted against black face plates and the light spread and amount is fine.

To get led strips fitted in an oem fashion, you would need to rebuild the clocks, which is a drag! Otherwise you might be able to hide them under the lip of the cowl with some modification?

[sweeper]

Gotcha. Looks like I am a bit of a nitpicker then.

Since I wanted to try going with white instead of the blue bulbs anyway I will just check and see if the LED strips may fit as well. Cheers.

[LincsCerb]

Jabbah said:

My instrument lights had all been replaced with LEDs by the previous owner. I've always found them far too dim at night especially the speedo and revs. I've tried upgrading them to higher intensity ones as recommended on other threads here but still not quite bright enough. Has anyone tried putting a strip of LEDs in such as these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/warm-white-12v-ip65-5cm-...

I think they would fit just inside the metal back cover and might work quite well?

Hi I think if you were to remove the speedometer and look inside the hole where the bulb goes you will most likely see a bunch of wires that are directly in front of the bulb. They should be stuck to centre of the speedometer with some sticky tape and what happens is the tape gradually comes off with the heat from the bulb and the wires then block the light.
The same had happened on mine, I noticed it when I had the speedometer apart to do a repair on the motor.

[Jabbah]

LincsCerb said:

Hi I think if you were to remove the speedometer and look inside the hole where the bulb goes you will most likely see a bunch of wires that are directly in front of the bulb. They should be stuck to centre of the speedometer with some sticky tape and what happens is the tape gradually comes off with the heat from the bulb and the wires then block the light.
The same had happened on mine, I noticed it when I had the speedometer apart to do a repair on the motor.

Thanks, I'll have a play this weekend so if I can get the existing ones any better. I thought you could take the metal back off the speedo, but that's not the case is it? Would certainly make putting a strip of LEDs in more difficult!

[LincsCerb]

To get it apart you put the speedometer face down and carefully bend the edges of the aluminum ring at the rear just enough to get the body of the speedometer away from the glass. When you put it back together just bend the edges back into place and from the front it looks untouched.

[Jabbah]

I had a look inside the speedo and no wires to prevent the light going anywhere so went ahead and tried the LED strips:







If anything it might be too bright now! Might need to add a dimmer switch lol.

[gruffalo]

Great result well done.

How long did this take to do, I have the black dials in my car, you can only really read the speedo between around 70 and 190 which would be fine if not illegal:-(

[Jabbah]

Not long at all, the RPM dial took less than an hour. The most time taken up is carefully bending the back of the aluminium ring to get the case off. I already had a couple of 12v wires from previous LED mod that I could use to power these as well though.

[Jabbah]

No danger of not seeing these at night. Time to think about a dimmer... It's a crappy camera phone pic so it's not actually that bad in person but still, could be distracting.

ETA: Changed second pic for one with headlights on.

Edited by Jabbah on Sunday 8th March 19:41

[gruffalo]

Cool haw many strips do I buy for both dials?

[Jabbah]

I bought a 40cm strip using 20cm for each, you can cut them every 5cm. Cost just under £9.

[sweeper]

Excellent result, thanks for the update. Added this to my list of needed upgrades.

[Jabbah]

Added a dimmer:

Edited by Jabbah on Saturday 14th March 19:45

[Gazzab]

Excellent job.

[Mr Cerbera]

Excellent thread. Leaves me with Bulb envy though.

Jabbah, any chance of detailing what you did to include a fader for a numpty like me ??

Ta !

PJ

[Jhonno]

Jabbah said:

Added a dimmer:

Edited by Jabbah on Saturday 14th March 19:45

Superb! Good work..