triumphD6

Does anyone have pics of WHITE LED's in their stock SE guages? I want to swap out the bulbs, but fear I may get "hot spots" with the LED's. This happened in my bike with blue LED's. Also, I assume they are standard T1.5 instrument bulbs . . . is this correct, and how many are in there?

s0ber

iTrader: (7)

where #194 bulbs.

white in the guages looks like light blue.

nismomax98

iTrader: (10)

If ur doing the bulbs use 194 and u should be set i think hteree is like 6-7 bulbs. if ur doing the needles too use leds for everything so the color will match and just sand down the top of the led to get better light disbusrtment

triumphD6

So there's seperate bulbs for each of the needles, plus the ones for the faces? I don't want to take it apart just to see what I'm working with . . . but how much clearance is there for the lights? I was thinking of going with these, the WLED-x5, 4th ones down, but I'm not sure they'd fit. Would I be better off going with these because they emit from top and sides, or LED's that shine straight ahead? Would the x5 LED allow me to not have to sand down the top? Should I use a different color for the needles, or just stick with the white ones?

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

Could also try http://www.autolumination.com/. They have inverted bulbs that spread the light. That's where I've been directed. No there are only 6-7 I believe. Those lights behind the gauges light everything as well as needles. There's a mod for adding more LED's directly to the needle to give a different color if wanted.

-Is it true if I get White LED's that it will have a blue effect? How is that possible?
-What kind of bulbs are in the 98 SE? I know it's not 194 so if I can get stock size so I don't have to mod them that would be great.

triumphD6

Is this a CT only thread? Haha. Thanks for the input. I checked out that site (seems identical to superlumination.com), and superbrightleds.com was cheaper. I've dealt with them before too, and I am satisfied with their product. I think I'm gonna change all the guage lights to white LED's, and do my signals and tail lights as well.

To answer your question, a white LED is a true white LED, and it actually appears blue. I white bulb isn't actually white, more of a yellow. Can't give you any further answer as to why though.

incognito903

iTrader: (2)

sorry to break up ur CT party but led tails are just those pcb plates with leds lined up and fed a current? sorry about being such an elec noob im still in class

triumphD6

Im not replacing the whole taillight assembly with an LED one . . . thats expensive and hard to do, seeing as it is a DIY project. I'm just replacing my bulbs with LED bulbs . . . They will still look the same, only they are a little brighter, and never burn out. This is a nice feature latenight on the weekends. Give the cops 1 less excuse to pull you over, if you catch my drift. You have to add inline load resistors to the blinkers so they blink correctly, but other than that, all the bulbs swap right out. I figured doing all 4 tailights and blinkers, including the load resistors, will cost me 72.00 plus s/h.

Motorhead52

I swapped the stock bulbs for white LEDs in my 95. I didnt have any pre made bulbs, i took raw white bulbs, 3 per hole, and glue gunned them into place. For effect, i threw in a diode and a couple capacitors so when i turn off the lights the dash lights gradually fade away.

The only mod i made to the bulb was cut the top convex portion off - this makes the bulb much less focused. At night it looks great, the light distribution isnt as perfect as stock but is quite good. Its not so much of a night blinding intense yellow color like with the stock bulbs as it is a soft, sophistecated white. It had a hint of blue at first but as the bulbs got broken in (or i got used to it???) it turned into a pure white. The only thing i have to add is that the dimmer control is more or less useless for these lights.

triumphD6

I suppose if you did want a DIY all LED taillight project, you could line these up and mount them to the rear of the housing somehow. It would take some ingenuity, but may look cool if you use enough of them.

triumphD6

Thanks for the tip. If I use the 5 LED style I plan on, I'll shave down the 1 at the top so its flat. Where did you ge the capacitors and diodes, and how much were they. The fading seem like a cool effect. Is it easy to do if I'd be using the 194 socket type? What does it entail?

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

So is achieving an actual white light in the gauges not possible?

triumphD6

They may fade a bit like motorhead said, but I'm not sure. It's not really blue though, it will be much closer to white (with a slight tint), if thats what your worried about.

If someone would post pics that would clarify alot.

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

That makes me feel better. I think I'm still gonna go for the change.

95GLEMAXX

iTrader: (15)

sand the actual top of the led bulbs?

triumphD6

sand it, snip it, thats what both Motorhead52 and nismomax98 said.

Brukaz

What type of bulbs do you need for the corner lights and where can I find inline load resistors

IlyaK

iTrader: (47)

I put blue refractor LED's in my gauges that I got on Ebay straight from Japan. 194's obviously. Been like 2 months, no hot spots, and no loss in color (as I experienced with wal-mart/pep boy bulbs)

triumphD6

you need 1156 type bulbs for the signals. superbrightleds.com sells one type (use 24 LED style - they shine forward and back and fill in the whole lens. The 30 LED style just shine straight out, and don't fit into the housing). superlumination.com sells a one of a kind light tower style 1156, which is much better, but it costs 3 times as much. Its up to you which to use. Both sites sell the inine resistors, and they are only like 5-6 bucks a piece.

Motorhead52

If you plan to experiment with it, i would recommend that once you get the cluster out of the car take it into the house and work on it. Mount 5 LEDs here and there, then darken the room and apply power to see what it looks like. The reason i'm saying this is that cutting the top off just one of them might cause hot spots, so you'll have to experiemnt.

As for the fading, i just got the capacitors and diode from some junk electronics i had around ( a blown sony amp). I used 2 4700uF capacitors, which with 3 LEDs per bulb results in about 5 seconds time for it to fully fade. . When it gets dark out i'll snap a pic and post it on here.

Motorhead52

Okay here are the gauges:




My camera is a POS so the contrast is exagerrated and the images are grainy, the light distribution is much more even then these images reveal; though you can see where it is not quite even. There is much less blue then appears in these pics as well. Just a subtle hint of it. Anyways, enjoy while these images are up.