Discussion
Take the speedo out. It's the only way to get at the bulb (mine didn't work from the day I picked it up from the dealer, and couldn't be bothered taking it back). You need to undo the "knurled nuts" ooo eeer on the back of the speedo under the dash, and the speedo lifts out. It helps to have very small hands, or you'll have very grazed knuckles. Oh, and you need to lie on your back in the footwell to see what you're doing.
Paul,
No need to wedge yourself in the footwell. Sitting on the door sill facing the back of the car with your right arm behind the dash is all that is required.
Get a spare bulb beforehand though from either the factory or CAI who make the gauges as they use an extended '286' bulb that you wont be able to get from Halfords etc... If you replace it with a standard 286 wedge it won't illuminate as brightly as the Rev Counter. My advice - replace both the speedo and rev counter at the same time. Don't bother with the fuel and temp guages which have a different and much larger 501 bulb.
There's a big design flaw with the CAI guages in my opinion as the big guages use a tiny bulb and the small guages use a mahoosive one !!!!! DOH !!!! - end result is that the illumination is yellow on the big dials and yellow/white on the small ones !!!
Graham
>> Edited by broad on Monday 16th January 17:44
No need to wedge yourself in the footwell. Sitting on the door sill facing the back of the car with your right arm behind the dash is all that is required.
Get a spare bulb beforehand though from either the factory or CAI who make the gauges as they use an extended '286' bulb that you wont be able to get from Halfords etc... If you replace it with a standard 286 wedge it won't illuminate as brightly as the Rev Counter. My advice - replace both the speedo and rev counter at the same time. Don't bother with the fuel and temp guages which have a different and much larger 501 bulb.
There's a big design flaw with the CAI guages in my opinion as the big guages use a tiny bulb and the small guages use a mahoosive one !!!!! DOH !!!! - end result is that the illumination is yellow on the big dials and yellow/white on the small ones !!!
Graham
>> Edited by broad on Monday 16th January 17:44
broad said:
Paul,
No need to wedge yourself in the footwell. Sitting on the door sill facing the back of the car with your right arm behind the dash is all that is required.
Get a spare bulb beforehand though from either the factory or CAI who make the gauges as they use an extended '286' bulb that you wont be able to get from Halfords etc... If you replace it with a standard 286 wedge it won't illuminate as brightly as the Rev Counter. My advice - replace both the speedo and rev counter at the same time. Don't bother with the fuel and temp guages which have a different and much larger 501 bulb.
There's a big design flaw with the CAI guages in my opinion as the big guages use a tiny bulb and the small guages use a mahoosive one !!!!! DOH !!!! - end result is that the illumination is yellow on the big dials and yellow/white on the small ones !!!
Graham
>> Edited by broad on Monday 16th January 17:44
And the boost gauge in mine illuminates differently (much softer glow - can't see it in the dark easily!) to the other two small one's - factory said it was "normal".
broad said:
end result is that the illumination is yellow on the big dials and yellow/white on the small ones !!!
That's odd, as my rev counter and speedo are brilliant white, and the smaller gauages are differing tones of cream. Hmmm new bulbs all round I think. Sort of fancy red back lights, al la aircraft so night vision is better. Oh and that damn main beam blue warning is nearly blinding......
amg merc - the boost guage has yet another different type of bulb in it !!! - its a BA7 and about a 20% of the size of the fuel / temp guages !!! Bonkers isn't it
silversix - wouldn't bother with the colour change if I were you. I've tried coloured bulbs and leds from manufacturers all around the world without success. The problem is that changeing to a coloured bulb will only exacerbate the colour difference between the guages. Worst still the speedo / rev counter become almost unreadable at night. I've got bulbs and leds galore here if you want to try it for yourself but I know you'll be disappointed !
Graham
silversix - wouldn't bother with the colour change if I were you. I've tried coloured bulbs and leds from manufacturers all around the world without success. The problem is that changeing to a coloured bulb will only exacerbate the colour difference between the guages. Worst still the speedo / rev counter become almost unreadable at night. I've got bulbs and leds galore here if you want to try it for yourself but I know you'll be disappointed !
Graham
broad said:
amg merc - the boost guage has yet another different type of bulb in it !!! - its a BA7 and about a 20% of the size of the fuel / temp guages !!! Bonkers isn't it
Graham
Thanks Graham, the poor boost gauge illumination used to bother me but to be honest I don't look at it much anyomore!
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