VQuick

iTrader: (17)

There are millions of threads on LED gauges in 4th gens. We've had pioneers like Metal Maxima (5th gen) and meanbean who have made custom LED gauge lighting with great results, and many others have done less ambitious projects with good results.

I want good-looking LED gauges but I don't want anything insane like Metal Max did. I just want to replace the stock bulbs with LEDs. It seems that most of the plug-and-play LED "bulbs" sold by sites such as superbrightleds.com and autolumination.com are undesirable for gauges (some of their newer products claim to be designed for gauges with wide-viewing angle and bright output, but they are several dollars EACH). They also seem to burn out prematurely. So I'm willing to custom wire/solder LEDs into the stock housings in the interest of getting bright (but NOT blinding) output and the most even light distribution possible.

My question is, should I be looking at superflux LEDs, SMT LEDs, regular 3 or 5mm LEDs, or something else? The first too seem great but there isn't much information on how they would fit in the 4th gen cluster and how to wire them. So I'd like to hear from people experienced in LED lighting, especially the newer superflux and SMT LEDs, how easy it would be to install these into the gauge cluster. Note that I don't want to fab up custom panels with a million LEDs on them; I just want to replace the 5 (?) main bulbs in the cluster with LEDs.

These prewired 4-chip superflux LEDs look compact and very bright (maybe too bright). http://www.oznium.com/prewired-superflux

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

Those 4-chip leds look cool but they seem to be for smaller aplication than gauges. Maybe for needles and other parts of the car (I would like to use those in ACC,Bose,switches,etc). They would fit well, says the person on that site. I'd say you'd need to go with regular plug and play bulbs for the clusters if you dont want to make custom panels or whatnot. Other led's will be small and not shine correctly on the gauges to cause hotspots (my $.02 at least). I havnt worked with led's yet but that's the idea I've been going by. I plan on using some type of wide-angle led for the gauges just because it will hopefully cause the least amount of hotspots. But as you said, we've all seen some jobs people have done and they just don't come out as nice as expected. I guess you just gotta jump into it and switch things up if it doesnt look right.

4x4Max

iTrader: (12)

Sorry this is slightly off topic, but what kind of bulbs are in the gauges? I don't want to mess with LED-ing the whole thing, i just want to change the color to something else. 194?

LiGhtSoUt

iTrader: (6)

since you have a 99 you have 74's and u need 4 for the gauges

juani

iTrader: (15)

installing any kind of bulb on the stock gauge bulb location will create hot spot. You will have to custom install LED behind your gauges to get great result w/o any hotspot. I have about 35-40 5mm LEDs behind my gauge.

natty99

iTrader: (6)

^^^^jesus christ man....it must look like a club behind your gauges.

I have a 98 with some 194 wide-angle LEDS, hot spots are hard to see, if at all.

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

Yeah I don't agree that you'll always see hotspots. There are enough guys that did the work without 40 leds. Good wide-angle leds will probably not create noticable hotspots.

lilaclucymaxima

iTrader: (16)

I had single-wedge red led's I bought off of ebay a year ago. There was one led in each bulb. There were no hot spots, but I ended up removing them because they weren't that bright.

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

What brand/type of 194 bulb do you have? They make so many kinds now with different numbers of LEDs and arrangements.

I know in another thread, someone with Polarg 194 (regular, non LED) bulbs in his '99 gauges has minor hotspots. Since the 194 bulbs are larger than the stock 74 bulbs, I think the light is aimed at the diffuser pieces properly. So I'm thinking that regular 74 bulbs in the "super white" or "extreme white" color might be the best bet for me. I don't want any fancy colors, just a purer white to match the rest of the white LEDs in my interior. Only thing is, 74 bulbs seem hard to come by and I'm not sure anyone makes them in the super white color.

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

These look pretty good for 194 bulbs. 180° output claimed, and very bright. They seem to have the newer chip style LEDs that are really bright.

http://frickinbrite.com/catalog/prod...roducts_id=141

Autolumination has 74 bulbs with 3 LEDs and a claimed 140° output, as well as some SMT 194 bulbs. So many options, and it's not the kind of thing you can experiment with much due to the issue of taking out the dash and the relatively high cost of these LED bulbs.

natty99

iTrader: (6)

hey vquick....i'm using the wide-angle white LEDs from velocity LEDs on ebay. Don't have a camera, but I'll try and get a pic to you. the ones you linked seem like they'd have some hot spots, but give em a try and let us know, I was actually considering those as well.

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

If you dont care about having a big jump in brightness go for the 74 bulbs. I would think they'd have less chance of hotspot becuase they are stock bulb size. Of course they have more power but the angle of them should throw good light. I would try those. How much did you find them for?

Blackwind

iTrader: (9)

ill pay someone to led my guages.

ethnic6

iTrader: (5)

they say that this one doesn't give out hot spots, it comes in different colors too

aznprid972

iTrader: (26)

I'm interested in doing this as well. I currently replaced my guage bulbs with some hyper white ones but for some reason, the Speedo guage and temp guage have a slight hint of purple through them. The other two guages are nice and white. Is this a '95-97 issue?

loverholic

iTrader: (3)

where did you buy yours? and what color are they?

t65k3

iTrader: (3)

I happened to see some wide angle LEDs not too long ago as 194. Maybe you could work with this so-called surface mount LEDs. They should give a wider angle of light. I think.... Never tried yet. Could be my next project.....

2 MaXiMuS 4

iTrader: (5)

just to let you know, any type of white led you put behind the gauges will come out blue. I've used 10k mcd 5mm white led's, and even those expensive *** superstar bulbs from autolumination, and the light was blue with hotspotting....

i know metal maxima sanded the back of the gauges to remove the tint to allow more light through, and that should also make the light output whiter.

natty99

iTrader: (6)

you must've missed post #11 there, slick

loverholic

iTrader: (3)

lol i guess i did... i wanted to know if they were the same ones i was kinda skeptical about buying....

so how bright are they?
i have the regular ones from AZ and i want to go a lil brighter

LiGhtSoUt

iTrader: (6)

to remove the tint of blue do as 2 maximus 4 did and remove the gauges and sand the backs taking the blue tint off and it will be white with no hint of blue pics will be up soon of mine

i 'll take pics of the output tonight

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Thanks for the info on sanding, I assume you used a pretty fine grit?

LiGhtSoUt

iTrader: (6)

actually it was 100 grit as u can see ucan see from the back the front so you see how much more light will transfer through now im redoing mine with 194's this week right now ihave standard white led 74 bulbs in there

natty99

iTrader: (6)

for those guys that keep on asking for how bright....I'll def post pics soon, I'm sorry to make all these claims and not be able to show you guys pics...I need to get a digital camera...

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Hmm, I'd really rather not remove the needles because I've heard it's a pain to get them back on properly. Do you have to remove the needles to sand? Shouldn't need to sand the middle, just where the numbers are.

LiGhtSoUt

iTrader: (6)

you can get away with leaving the needle on just have to the move piece around thats all on my first i did it like that second set i took the needles off only because ireplaced them with white ones

aznprid972

iTrader: (26)

THANK YOU! Been looking for a solution for some time now.

DJ420

iTrader: (77)

I changed my 194 guage cluster bulbs as well, to the ones found on eBay. They are LED converts, with inverted tip for max wide angle output. There ARE noticable hot spots, but thats not even as bad as the fact that they are not bright enough for me. Looking for a better solution myself!!



DJ

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

Why the blue tint in the first place? Is there a reason why nissan put blue tint instead of just having white bulbs? It's odd to me. Wondering how much dissasembly is required to get to that film as well. What # paper is used?

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Yes. The blue tint is there to make the output look "whiter". Without the blue tint, and with the stock filament bulbs, the light output would be a warm yellowish look and these days that looks pretty old-fashioned in a car interior. But with white LEDs, the color is already very blue with no trace of yellow/red so the blue tint just makes them blueish.

If you've noticed, all the "super white" headlight bulbs have a dark blue coating on them for the same reason. It cuts down the warmer wavelengths and leads to a cooler white color.

Cdg2125

iTrader: (7)

Ah yes thats makes perfect sense. How bout taking the gauges apart? what's involved with taking out the blue tint part?

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

http://www.geocities.com/amixam69/ni...ash/index.html

This shows you how to remove that part of the dash and get the cluster out. I think it's pretty easy to take off each instrument but I haven't done it yet.

t65k3

iTrader: (3)

FYI

I actually did some experiments on how to make no hot spots using one regular LED. I sand it to make the whole thing not clear, cut it like angle eyes, sand portions of it off that leaves several facets (kind of like sharpen it).

Number three is actually the winner.

DJ420

iTrader: (77)

When I did mine, I used blue LED converts because I am looking for blue guage output as an end result, to match my pillar guages and other LED conversions in the interior. My ride is a 96. Are you saying that if I use WHITE LEDs, I will still get the blue output that I'm looking for due to that blue tint from the factory? Does ANYONE who has done this already, with WHITE LED converts, have pics?? I'd appreciate a look at them.. I DO have hot spots, but not SO bad. However it just isnt as bright as I'd like! The blue is an excellent match though, and I dont wanna turn it sky blue looking.. I like the hue of blue I have just wish it was brighter than it is..

DJ

2 MaXiMuS 4

iTrader: (5)

if you use white led's, you will have more visible hotspots and a less instense color blue.

DJ420

iTrader: (77)

yep, thats what I figured.. I like the way mine looks, I'd just like to make it brighter. thinkin about leaving the converts in, and adding LEDs with resistors along the perimeter, facing in at an angle, to provide more light, and just tapping into the parking light circuit for power.. I dont need it as bright as Metal Maximas, just maybe twice as bright as it is now!
DJ

loverholic

iTrader: (3)

where are the pics people?

2 MaXiMuS 4

iTrader: (5)

Some pics of my setup are in my thread here: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=460124