Hey everyone, I plan on re-doing my interior lighting this week, changing it from stock into probably a red/white theme. I'm probably just going to replace everything when the dash is all apart for the sake of having all new bulbs. I painted my dash about a week ago, but forgot to check on some of the bulb types while everything was apart and would prefer if someone could tell me what the following are just so I dont have to disassemble the dash more times than necessary (trying to reduce wear and tear here).

So.....I know the bulbs that illuminate the speedo, tach, etc... are 194 bulbs. But how about the smaller bulbs like CEL, highbeams, blinkers, etc? I THINK they are probably 74 (T1) bulbs (1/8" diameter) but maybe they could be 24 (T2) bulbs (1/4" diameter).

Also how about the bulbs that illuminate the Bose stereo buttons? Probably 74 (T1)?

I appreciate any help on this. Sorry I had to ask instead of ripping my dash apart again and checking for myself but I'd rather keep the risk of breaking anything to a minimum and only remove things once more when i'm ready to replace the bulbs. Thanks!

 

The Bose is illuminated my 3mm Leds, tenious but can be soldered out and new ones placed in.

As for the little bulbs in the guages I honnestly dont know and have been wondering for sometime now.

 

Thanks man I was picking up some 3mm leds anyway to do my window switches, so I'll make sure I get extra for doing the Bose unit.

I'll wait a few more hours to see if anyone else has any info on the instrument cluster lights. If not I'm just going to have to rip it out later and see for myself, though I'd prefer not to until I have all the bulbs I need

 

same happened to me, I bought a bad of 25 3mm leds and have plenty left over to do the bose and climate control etc. I'm waiting to find out too cause I will order all my bulbs (getting new guage bulbs) at the same time.

 

Thanks looks like no one else is jumping in so I'm going to just rip everything apart and take a look. I'll let you know what the bulbs are after looking

 

74's iirc
10 char

 

yea its a #74 because i just changed my gas light today lol

 

Thanks for jumpin in! I was going to check within the next 30 min and now I dont have to! So it looks like I'm buying five 194s and lord knows how many 74s...I THINK 18 of them. Damn this is gonna be more expensive than I thought

 

wow, 18 for all guages hopefully bulbs are less that $1 each for around $20 shipped sounds alright (minus 194s)

 

Yeah I believe there are about 18 of the 74s and then 5 of the 194s. I can get the 74s for 99cents each but good 194s are expensive for being such little boogers! Like $5 each! I already spent $20 today for 100 3mm leds and 10 resistors (it was REALLY hard to find 82 ohm resistors that could handle 2 watts). But wow after I get the 74s and 194s I'm going to be up to $60-$70 just to replace those little lights. That's an ebay strut bar and a blehmco grounding kit right there!

 

wow ebay there is a guy that sells about 25 3mm leds for .01 and like $8 shipping, or $1.00 for 100 3 mm leds and about $8 shipping (he's in hong kong, order from his twice excellent)

www.superbrightleds.com has much cheaper bulbs the 194 bulbs are about $2.79 per bulbs and the #74 I belive are $.85 not too sure. Wow you would have spent a lot by the time your done, but should look fantastic.

 

I'm not too savy in electrical and haven't pulled the Dash apart, but would you have to solder the leds. And what's up with the resistors. I guess a nice write up would be cool.

 

If you were trying to replace a normal bulb with an led, then you would need a resistor soldered onto the positive lead or else the led won't last long.

Leds usually use around 3-4v. The normal bulbs in our car (194s, 74s, etc) use 12v. So just pluggin in an led would cause it to overload and burn out.

Usually when you buy leds from guys on ebay (especially the hong kong sellers) they include matching resistors as a 'gift'.

Now some of the lights in our cars are already leds, so replacing these with a different color led would not require a resistor.

Replacing lights with leds will most definitely require soldering skill to remove and install. Just order extra leds and practice on some old electronic parts. After 20 or 30 times you'll be a pro.

Look in the HOW TOs > Interior section for writeups and pictures.

 

Led's are 3.3 Volts, You going to need the Resistor all the time.

 

Thanks for the info. I need to get brave enough now to do this. I remember I used to solder resistors for my RC-10 back in the days so I imagine its the same. Just need to get a soldering gun. Any recommendations?

 

Any ol soldering iron should do. Make sure it has a very fine tip for detailed work.
Maybe get one of those solder sucker things too for removing old solder.

I was tempted to get that cold heat solder iron a few weeks ago, but managed to get the climate controls done with my old iron.

Oh, and make sure you get 3mm leds. They'll fit anywhere.

 

Yeah I got the leds off of ebay from a guy in hong kong as well. I actually got a better deal than what you mentioned though. You mentioned about $8 for 25 3mm leds, but I paid $10.00 (including shipping and insurance) for 100 3mm leds! Yes I will have a ton of extra, but I'm sure I'll find a project to use the extras for and if not then I'll have extras to give away as my free gift to you fellow orgers Thanks for the link to superbrightleds though, I'll check them out before ordering the other bulbs.

Speed Racer - Any soldering gun should do. I picked up a standard Weller (also came with solder and 3 different tips) from Home Depot for about $12

 

100 leds for 10 bucks?? That sounds like a deal. What was the MCD on those and what color? I spent last week going LED crazy and just about finished with what I wanted to do. I could use a few extra to complete my guages.

 

Hey man, 5000mcd and they were red leds. Not sure if you're looking for 3mm or 5mm leds but I'll assume 3mm since they're easier to work with. Here are a few links if you'd like to take a look
Red - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...90741&tc=photo
Blue (more expensive, no free shipping on these) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...29509&tc=photo
White (twice what I paid for the red ones but free shipping, white always seem to be the most expensive not sure why) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...29509&tc=photo

Hope these help you find the leds you need

 

the 5000mcd shines quite nicely. My stock green was barely noticable but when I got the oranges in . . . wow, very bright but not enough to be distracting.

 

I used some 14000mcd white ones and those are blinding me but its better than the nasty green before.

 

Yeah. For most of the lights about 4000-5000mcd is good enough.

Brighter than that might get a bit blinding at night.