Dash lights

Lotuss7 said:
Not sure of options in this application but LEDs are now being offered in a variety of heat ranges. The heat range effects the color of the light. So...the blue white color often associated with LEDs is somewhere near 8500k where an incandescent bulb is closer to 3000k. Halogen 3500-4000k.

Many manufactures now have options. All my landscaping LEDs are 3500k. And interior lighting in table lamps etc. are 3000k. Unlikey anyone can tell they are not tradition halogen or incandescent sources.

Want that warm yellow light order near 3000k.

John
Click to expand...

John,
incandescent interior warm white LED is 2700k. 3000 is a cooler white ... 3500 is really white. the most important thing about getting an LED light for the interior of a car is to be dimmable ... and this is not easy to do with small bulbs.
 
HB Chris said:
With LEDs you may miss that warm yellow glow of an incandescent bulb, LED is bright blue/white. I went with 4w instead of 2w bulbs and cleaned the glass and I have plenty of light.
Click to expand...

I have done the same, with the exception of the instrument lighting because I was unsure if it would be too hot over a long period. Oil pressure, hand brake, direction light, fuel level alarm and generator however is 4w.
 
rsporsche said:
John,
incandescent interior warm white LED is 2700k. 3000 is a cooler white ... 3500 is really white. the most important thing about getting an LED light for the interior of a car is to be dimmable ... and this is not easy to do with small bulbs.
Click to expand...

Scott

You are correct at 2700k. I personally find the 2700k led bulbs to be too warm...warmer than quality incandescent sources so I error the the white side. Just a matter of taste...
 
Does anyone know the specification of the standard bulbs that go into the dash board? The ones I got out of heater controllights are tiny, push fit. A web search suggets sthat they could be 504 which is the fitting 12v 4w.
Are the dash lights the same fitting and size?

If I can't find out I will need to take the clocks out, find a bulb and take it to relevant shop.

Thanks
C
 
Sylvania 3893 T4W bulbs work, original are 2 watt but heck energy is cheap lately..
 
in europe i would by osram bulbs ... a bit better than sylvania and more prevalent. same bulb type ... and i agree that 4w is a better + brighter choice
 
Old thread, but I just wanted to discuss one thing I noticed with my car.
I put 4W incandescent bulbs in my gauges, everything worked fine and looked good. But now after fiddling around alot with the electrics in my car, we noticed that the light switch overheats every now and then, it gets HOT!
This has occured a couple of times, and we pulled the battery cable instantly the few times we have noticed it, we just could not figure out why the switch was overheating, everything checks out ok.

But this weekend I investigated a bit more, it turns out the switch won't overheat if the gauge lights are on, say 70% - 100%, but as soon as I dim the gauge lights a bit more with the switch the heat builds up very fast, to the point that I can't touch the metal part of the switch with my hands.

Now, I don't know if this is occuring only on my car (bad switch?) or if is this caused by replacing all the bulbs with 4W instead of 2W? If the later, I would be seriously afraid of driving around using 4W bulbs.

I'll replace mine with 2W bulbs and report back, but can anyone else with 4W bulbs go out to their car and dim the lights and check if the same overheating occurs?

Cheers,
 
I'm an incurable automotive romantic. I love the warm, dim glow of the incandescent 2W bulbs. Same goes for the dim 4W city light glow. I have fond memories of pre-LED/Xenon days where European cities would be populated at night by large headlight globes faintly illuminated by the city lights. And regarding dash lights, 4W bulbs were available in the 60's when our cars were designed. The Citroen 2CV goes as far as specifying a 6V bulb (in a 12V car) for the lone speedometer illumination source. Judging from what I see on other period cars, car makers took very seriously the matter of too much nighttime brightness in the cabin diminishing night vision sensitivity. This culminated with BMW and Audi's red instrumentation lighting in the 80s.

I'm not suggesting these are bad upgrades. I just want to keep driving in my 70's time machine (although I did upgrade the brake lights to the Stanley Honda bulbs...) However, on my daily driver, I do want as much high powered LED/Xenon candlepower as I can get :)
 
Last edited:
I think it is your switch, I have 4w bulbs and have never had that problem. You can jump the wires to bypass the rheostat, I think they are the two across from each other at the end of the switch. I have never dimmed the instrument lights, I think that feature is useless, I want to see.
 
I have 4w gauge bulbs, they are perfect brightness and work with the rheostat. I'm with Luis, I like the period glow.
 
The bulbs dim because of the resistance of the rheostat in the dimmer. As you dim the lights, there is more power absorbed by the rheostat which then turns into heat. If there is too much draw from the bulbs, it could cause the dimmer to heat up enough to melt things, or age the wiring at the least.
Hard to say if the heat that Gransin encountered is dirty contacts (giving greater resistance) or something anyone would encounter (rheostat not designed for that power rating) when using the high power bulbs. Further tests are needed.

I'm also partial to the glow of incandescents, but want LEDs for my brake and tail lights to keep soccer moms at a distance.

Ian
 
The Honda/Stanley bulbs are way brighter than any LED I could find. Perfect for stop lights and soccer moms. Not recommended for tail lights.

mulberryworks said:
I'm also partial to the glow of incandescents, but want LEDs for my brake and tail lights to keep soccer moms at a distance.

Ian
Click to expand...
 
mulberryworks said:
The bulbs dim because of the resistance of the rheostat in the dimmer. As you dim the lights, there is more power absorbed by the rheostat which then turns into heat. If there is too much draw from the bulbs, it could cause the dimmer to heat up enough to melt things, or age the wiring at the least.
Hard to say if the heat that Gransin encountered is dirty contacts (giving greater resistance) or something anyone would encounter (rheostat not designed for that power rating) when using the high power bulbs. Further tests are needed.

Ian
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking, I don't think I would have ever noticed it if the switch wouldn't be hanging loose like it is doing in my car right now, and while doing other tests touching it with my arms to realise the switch is very hot.
I do understand that I just might have a bad switch, but if this is happening to someone else it could be heating/aging the cables that run to and from the switch and in the long run causing the insulation to melt = potential fire starter.
So, have any of you actually touched the rear of the switch after having your 4W gauge lights dimmed for, say, over a minute?

I just got a little bit worried is all, and it's easy to check.

Cheers,
 
My turn signal light is not working and I thought i could get to it without removing binnacle or dash, but any secrets. Its fallen down in there now
 
Do the lights themselves work and it’s just the indicator light on the dashboard that does not work? You should be able to reach reach them on the back of speedo gauge from the hood latch release lower dash door. I think sometimes the dash bulbs are still ok but won’t blink if the emergency flasher isn’t working.
 
Yes the lights work. What happened was originally when i went out driving one day i noticed that the green signal indicator dash light was not bright. Upon closer inspection, it looked as it only the bottom half of the green plastic indicator was lighting up ( almost like a bulb had dropped down below the plastic insert). I assumed maybe the bulb had come loose, or perhaps there was a double filament and something had burned out. Didnt think much about it. I did attempt to remove the lamp and I think I did but when I went try and change the bulb and examine without replacing in dash, the light didnt appear to work at all. Maybe a bad bulb, maybe a blown fuse ( which I still need to check). I just wondered in case if there was an easier way to access this area, and in doing so I have been reading about LED replacements and figured maybe I would do that as well. My mechanic says removing the dash is a PIA however, so I am not sure what to do
 
I know this thread began long ago, 2017BC (Before Corona). Can someone tell me the number etc for the heater panel lights? A while back someone was kind enough to share and Ebay seller who was selling complete Osram sets of dash lights which I jumped on. My heater panel lights work but age is ? and since I got access to them now, want to change them too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top