Dash Illumination lights.

[3X00-Modified]

Simply because I do not have a dash in had and want to purchase something today I figured maybe someone would know or could check.

How many Illumination lights are on a full cluster dash? Illumination only, don't need to know about all of the indicator ones.

[heavywoody]

I have it written down at home, but IIRC it's 4.

There is a spot for a 5th light on the left side (coolant temp side) that works if you scrape off a little of the green coating that covers the copper on the circuitry.

[3X00-Modified]

Thanks.

[berettaboi]

quick ? slightly on topic... back lighting for the hvac controls, 91+, are the bulbs replaceable? small tiny bulb with a weird holder, that i'm not sure comes off.

[DTMAce]

Yes, you get the whole bulb with that holder. They are similar to the ones on the dash actually iirc...

Go to superbrightleds.com. They actually carry LED versions of all the bulbs, including different colors. Sometimes you can change them, but you have to remember that the colors on the panel such as red/blue or whatever are colored plastic so a colored LED may not light it up well or at all or turn ugly. Best bet is to always use natural white with the LED bulbs for the interior stuff. Exterior ones have to match the color to what you are putting it behind, IE red for red, white for white, yellow/amber for amber, etc. I plan to do some experimenting with the internal stuff at some point when I have a moment.

[3X00-Modified]

Already 1 step ahead of you Ace... 5 LED bulbs with the twist bases are in the mail. I'm only testing as well, I may end up getting a different bulb, but at least these are 194 sockets that twist lock into place, so I can put pretty much anything 194 in there.

You get spoiled when you drive a Legacy every day and then you look at your beretta dash and go DAMN how did I ever read that at night.

I also have a high density strip that I'm planning on using in the trunk of my legacy.... I got it free from here at work since we are getting into using stuff like that and I'm just waiting on a 24v inverter... Unfortunately its 24v and I wanted 12, but you can't complain for a free 2ft rope for a trunk light. The inverter was only $6.60 shipped too.

[weba]

I've tried about a dozen different led styles on the cluster, and none of them really provided the results I was looking for, i've also tried colored bulbs. The cluster light desing just completely sucks, it wont light up evenly, or the needles go dark. Adding the fifth bulb makes the RPM counter really bright. Granted that this was with the oddball greenish euro cluster that amplifiers the design flaws.

I'd like to try glow-wire there to make it happen as it should...

The Heater\AC unit uses PC37 bulbs with sockets, I haven't seen any in LED yet, tho it's been a while since i last checked that.

[3X00-Modified]

PC37 is listed as a T-1 3/4 bulb, and superbrightleds.com has T-1.5 socket/bulb combos, Not sure if that will work or not.

[heavywoody]

You get spoiled when you drive a Legacy every day and then you look at your beretta dash and go DAMN how did I ever read that at night.

That's how I felt too lol... and why I started messing with them. I've got a different list of bulbs to try from a couple different sites since a couple of mine stopped working (no heatsinks killed them in a couple years).

[DTMAce]

Dang. Were you using some high power ones or something? Usually the ones I see wouldn't put out that much heat to begin with to require a HS...

I pulled apart the base cluster I had here to take a peek. Problem that I see, is these things use plastic optics to transfer the light to the various areas. LEDs do not radiate in the manner of a bulb, so not near as much of the light will transfer well, hence the need to have to go brighter. If I were to customize these, I would actually mount a standard LED right into the end of each plastic optic, by drilling a hole the same diameter of the LED and then gluing them right in. I would have to make a custom circuit for them when done though. It would be a pain in the ass, but most likely yield better results. Just can't use high wattage ones though with that trick.

I see they basically screened the colors of some of the stuff right on the white areas, so changing the color of the light would make some of it ugly for sure. And if I'm not mistaken, the needles could be changed. They are painted the yellow, with a white backing to make them pop. If that were removed and painted another color (on each needle) they would be a different color when the light hit them. They could be red, or green, etc... But that would be a pain in the ass too.

*sigh

[heavywoody]

The needles still light up a bit... you have to get LED's that fire radially. Ones that have SMT's facing in almost all directions... I might have a pic somewhere at home that shows my previous cluster lit up. I did take the backing off and removed a lot of the white/blue paint on the back of the numbers so the light would shine through white instead of tinted blue.

I wish you could get an indiglo cluster color other than blue or green... white FTW!

[3X00-Modified]

Like these?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... htm#photos

[SummitBalt08]

I'm watching this thread...

I got SS gauges in the Cobalt (badass for factory gauges lol) and I know what you mean about going back to a Beretta..its like ehhh lol.

The 3400 Z has aftermarket gauges that light up blue at night and it does look better than stock. But I would still like to find a way to make the stock gauges in the Quad Z brighter.

[heavywoody]

Kinda like those Jon... I listed some others. I measured the depth of the various illumination holes so I could play around with different length LED setups; Although I do like DTM's idea about drilling small holes into the plastic diffuser. I might need to pick up another cluster when I get a chance...

[woody90gtz]

I put LED bulbs in my Camaro's aftermarket gauges and it made a HUGE difference. Definitely worth it. Some day I've got to do the Beretta too.

I was actually contemplating making my own gauge face out of clear acrylic printed with a Mimaki UJF-3042. That way you could control the font color and style. If I ever get around to it (and we ever actually purchase the printer at work) I could make them custom for everyone. Some assembly required. haha