Advice on converting dash lights to blue?
10-01-2003, 10:31 AM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 62
Advice on converting dash lights to blue?
My friend has a 2000 Passat and his dash display are in blue ... which looks awesome. I was wondering what it would take to convert mine to have the blue display. Is it possible to do without buying the Indiglow Gauge kits? I have a 98 GLE with white numbers, etc. on a black background. I would just want to change the white lighting to blue, if possible. Is there lighting filaments throughout there or is it simple LED's or something?
Would a product like this do the job?
Product ID: EG-INV-02 Category: Indiglow Gauge-Universal Inverter
Inverter for Indiglow Gauge
Description: Universal Indiglow replacement transformer with ON/OFF Switch and 2 Color Intensity Adjustment
Price: $14.95
Or does anyone have another "simple" way to convert the display lights from white to blue?
Forgive me for being a
but I would appreciate any guidance that you can give me. TIA - Phil
Would a product like this do the job?
Product ID: EG-INV-02 Category: Indiglow Gauge-Universal Inverter
Inverter for Indiglow Gauge
Description: Universal Indiglow replacement transformer with ON/OFF Switch and 2 Color Intensity Adjustment
Price: $14.95
Or does anyone have another "simple" way to convert the display lights from white to blue?
Forgive me for being a
but I would appreciate any guidance that you can give me. TIA - Phil
10-01-2003, 11:03 AM
#2
Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 52
I'm not really sure on the 98s, but I know on my 97 the gagues are back lit by a little light bulbs that have a little rubber blue cover over it. They're just little light bulbs that you twist and they pop off, so the inverter wouldn't do much, that's only for indiglos, because those actually layover the stock gagues.
What you can do if all you want is to make the white numbers blue is take out all the bulbs or a few of em anyways and put some LEDs in, but that takes some precise soldering and aiming because they don't light very well to the sides just out the top. Plus it's not just popping the LEDs in you have to wire them in series with a resistor (probalby 330 ohm) and then attach to power otherwise you'll burn the LED almost instantly. Like I said it may be different for a 98 but I know that's how it is or would be for my 97.
I'd personally say just go with some reverse EL gagues to layover your stock gagues, you can find em on e-bay or I believe custommaxima has em too. Although e-bay would be cheaper.
Hope that helped some.
What you can do if all you want is to make the white numbers blue is take out all the bulbs or a few of em anyways and put some LEDs in, but that takes some precise soldering and aiming because they don't light very well to the sides just out the top. Plus it's not just popping the LEDs in you have to wire them in series with a resistor (probalby 330 ohm) and then attach to power otherwise you'll burn the LED almost instantly. Like I said it may be different for a 98 but I know that's how it is or would be for my 97.
I'd personally say just go with some reverse EL gagues to layover your stock gagues, you can find em on e-bay or I believe custommaxima has em too. Although e-bay would be cheaper.
Hope that helped some.
10-01-2003, 04:30 PM
#3
Originally Posted by tszymans
I'm not really sure on the 98s, but I know on my 97 the gagues are back lit by a little light bulbs that have a little rubber blue cover over it. They're just little light bulbs that you twist and they pop off, so the inverter wouldn't do much, that's only for indiglos, because those actually layover the stock gagues.
What you can do if all you want is to make the white numbers blue is take out all the bulbs or a few of em anyways and put some LEDs in, but that takes some precise soldering and aiming because they don't light very well to the sides just out the top. Plus it's not just popping the LEDs in you have to wire them in series with a resistor (probalby 330 ohm) and then attach to power otherwise you'll burn the LED almost instantly. Like I said it may be different for a 98 but I know that's how it is or would be for my 97.
I'd personally say just go with some reverse EL gagues to layover your stock gagues, you can find em on e-bay or I believe custommaxima has em too. Although e-bay would be cheaper.
Hope that helped some.
What you can do if all you want is to make the white numbers blue is take out all the bulbs or a few of em anyways and put some LEDs in, but that takes some precise soldering and aiming because they don't light very well to the sides just out the top. Plus it's not just popping the LEDs in you have to wire them in series with a resistor (probalby 330 ohm) and then attach to power otherwise you'll burn the LED almost instantly. Like I said it may be different for a 98 but I know that's how it is or would be for my 97.
I'd personally say just go with some reverse EL gagues to layover your stock gagues, you can find em on e-bay or I believe custommaxima has em too. Although e-bay would be cheaper.
Hope that helped some.
11-15-2003, 10:18 PM
#4
Supporting Maxima.org Member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 88
Blue gauge lights are easy!!!
1st, pull out the gauge cluster.
2nd, Twist the base of the five main gauge bulb holders and pull out the bulbs.
3rd, take some very fine sand paper and lightly buff each bulb.
4th, use a blue sharpee permenant marker to color the bulbs.
The more coats the darker and more intense e color will become.
5th, if you screw up a bulb, you can get Sylvania #24 bulbs to replace them with.
2nd, Twist the base of the five main gauge bulb holders and pull out the bulbs.
3rd, take some very fine sand paper and lightly buff each bulb.
4th, use a blue sharpee permenant marker to color the bulbs.
The more coats the darker and more intense e color will become.
5th, if you screw up a bulb, you can get Sylvania #24 bulbs to replace them with.
11-16-2003, 09:07 PM
#5
Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Seattle,WA.
Posts: 76
I thought about doing the same thing in my car. But I thought about doing the WHOLE interior in blue. I took the AC controller apart and realized there was no way for me to change that to blue and gave up. JMTC- I would not change the cluster to blue and leave everything else green.
11-17-2003, 06:01 AM
#6
Pizda Boy
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2,794
Originally Posted by scoobs96gxe
I thought about doing the same thing in my car. But I thought about doing the WHOLE interior in blue. I took the AC controller apart and realized there was no way for me to change that to blue and gave up. JMTC- I would not change the cluster to blue and leave everything else green.
11-17-2003, 07:23 AM
#7
Learn how to solder and you are all set. Opening everything up and getting the resistor and LED to fit in some spots is tricky as well, but I figured it out pretty quick. In the end yours can look like this too:
-Tony
-Tony
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