Gauge cluster bulbs - LED replacements?

Aracheon

New member
Search didn't turn up much on the subject - does anyone know the bulb sizes in the gauge cluster, and if they can be replaced by LED drop-ins?
 

QIK_GT4

New member
i'm planning to use the new 1w leds which are 10x more powerful than normal leds and have a 180 degree sweep..

just wondering if anyone can help by telling me how many bulbs are required? (pulled the cluster out jsut the other day forgot to count the bulbs and cant be fucked to pull it out again...
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Okay, I hope no one minds, but I'm going to extend this thread and need your opinions.

I was looking at my dash lights and notice they are kind of...dim. Yeah, maybe new bulbs could help that, but they just don't show up as brightly or clear as the newer cars. I was actually told my dash lights is a big factor why my car seems older.

So, i was searching around this forum and what not and all I really have read (unless i missed it), is how to convert to a different color. What I'm really wanting to know is, what can we do to make the dash brighter? There's two solutions I found. A) Get brighter bulbs or B) Use LEDS.

A) I feel this is a good solution, however, what are the risks doing this? I hear this can damage gauges, but also melt sockets and thus lead to shorts, etc. Is this true? If certain brighter bulbs are safe to use, which ones? Where can i find these?

B) I know it seems like thread jacking up to this point, but here's where the correlation comes in to the original post. Do LEDs really work well? My bro tried LEDs (from a site that sells them, superbrightleds.com i believe), and they didn't disperse very well. Like stated above, they just have bright spots and dark area around it. QIK_GT4, what's this 1w leds you are talking about? Have more information about it? Where can I buy them at?

The color changing i'm not too worried about, as I know how i can go about that in several ways. I'm just really curious as to how to brighten things up. i saw the thread Chris D made on celicatech.com for the red dash light conversion, but again, the light is different color, though unfortunately, it's the same 'brightness'.

Thanks for any input!

QIK_GT4, I don't know how many bulbs, but I will be taking out my cluster as soon as I find out what I can do about the brighter bulbs, and let you know how many there are.

Bryan
 

toayoztan

Moderator
QIK_GT4":2pazxty4 said:
i'm planning to use the new 1w leds which are 10x more powerful than normal leds and have a 180 degree sweep..

just wondering if anyone can help by telling me how many bulbs are required? (pulled the cluster out jsut the other day forgot to count the bulbs and cant be fucked to pull it out again...

There's 5 194 and 1 unknown. Here's a pic for you. FYI, the smaller bulb does have a green condom on it, i took it off to check something out.



Bryan
 

Snyder

New member
I converted all my interior lights to blue leds. Here is the store you need:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

The gauge clusters # 194

the key light, cigaritte light, glovebox light are # 74

These are 12V direct fit bulbs and they can only go in one way. If they don't lite, flip the bulb around.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Those seem to be a wideangle straightforward focused beam. It may work, you'd just have to try it. What you need to get is multidirectional LED bulbs. It has LEDs facing sideways too. Those may work better.

What I plan to do is just try a bunch of different setups. I have the time and boredom to do so. I'll be taking pics and letting you know how it all goes, depending if I do go LED or not.

Bryan
 

TheRealDealGT4

New member
hey good looks with the led sizes QIK_GT4 . im deff gonna get around to doing that soon. this was something i was interested in but never really looked into, thanks
 

Simba

New member
Well, I'll throw my two cents in.

First, there are 19 total lights in the cluster. 6 of these are for backlighting the gauges. Five of them are #194 wedge bulbs, and the other is a #73 microbulb. There is also a 6th #194 for the fuel warning light.

The remaining 12 are #73 microbulbs for: Seatbelt, Door/hatch warning, oil pressure, battery, brake, signal lights, high beam, cruise, check engine, air bag, abs.

Now, so far as replacing them goes:

First, replacing the bulbs with higher wattage bulbs would be an especially bad idea in my opinion. The plastic/copper IC on the back of the cluster is only rated for so much current, and significantly increasing the load on it could lead to burnt traces, or even a fire.

For the six "backlight" bulbs-- these are very difficult to replace with LEDs as they require 180 degree output (like an ID bulb) to work properly. They do not shine directly through the cluster, but rather are there to illuminate a plastic backing behind the gauges. Replacing these with LEDs would probably result in worse lighting overall, unless you managed to find a very broad beam LED. The widest I know of are ~50 degrees or so, which is not enough for these locations without some kind of reflector. Even worse, most "superbright" LEDs are 15 degree.

For the caution and warning lights, these are "straight through" instrument lights, and replacing them with LEDs should work very well. For the record you'd need: 2 Green, 2 Blue, 6 Red and 3 Amber. Replacing these with LEDs is probably a good idea, regardless, as they would be quite a bit brighter, and use much less current, which would ultimately leave more current for the backlight bulbs.

Back to the backlight bulbs: It's possible you could fabricate a LED "bulb" for this purpose with three or four small white LEDs, and aim them in a 180 degree circle around the axis. This would provide sufficient light coverage. However, one should note that if you replace the backlight bulbs with LEDs, your dimmer will no longer work. LEDs do not dim well at all.

Now, if you were going to do it properly, one would have to change out all of the other LEDs as well, including those in the HVAC controls, glove box, et al.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
See, I changed out all the ones in the HVAC, fog light button, door switch, ignition halo, and cig lighter.

The problems with HVAC, fog light button, ign halo, and cig lighter is they use microbulbs. What would you recommend for those? Finding 194 bulbs in any color is relatively easy for the gauge cluster, etc. I'm having a problem finding any bulb that would work with the micro bulbs. As you have explained, LEDs would be useless b/c there are only 5 bulbs or so to illuminate the HVAC (which isn't much, considering they have to spread). So, any kind of bulb you recommend? If not, i'm probably going to order fresh bulbs from 1sttoyotaparts and just convert back to Green. I currently have red.

I even replaced all the leds in the hvac and door switch to red LEDs.

Anyone know any Toyota that ran white microbulbs??

Bryan
 

Simba

New member
The microbulbs should be white to begin with, just with a green wrapper over it to change the color. It's possible you could find other colors, or colored microbulbs, but I don't know of a LED solution.

Alternatively you could completely rip them apart and put a LED behind each switch, but that'd be quite a PITA.
 

bigacuralvr

New member
Ah, funny that I finally have a GOOD solution.....

www.partsexpress.com has bulb "condoms" I think they are called bulb covers. They are literally a red/green/blue/yellow cover that rols over the bulb. I did this in my 4Runner to change everything to RED. It works great, and was fairly easy to do. I plan on doing it on the AllTrac as well. I did a double layer of the covers, to get that deep red color...and it looks really good. I have a crappy pic of my Runner. The speedo gauges are wierd b/c I used the wrong sized covers, so they tore and let some white through. BUT the HVAC is what it should look like....

OutWithFriends019.jpg


Oh, and my HID's on the Runner....

HIDs001.jpg


Enjoy.
Brett
 

Denver_whiteST185

New member
hey brett, not to be a downer, but i think they want brighter or white light, not the ability to change the color. however i really like how you modded up your 4runner. it looks really good in person.
 
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