Found some inverted LED bulbs in blue to install behind my stock gauges. Those should be bright enuf eh? How many is the question ?? I just ordered one so far... Dont wanna have to take that sucker apart w/o having the exact quantity to just plug n play..Im assuming one for each gauge right ??

 

you'll need 3 for clusters

 

Six actually. Two for the cluster, one for the odometer, two for the turn signals, and one for the hazard. Check ym homepage for a write up on how to change this...

 

Check "ym" homepage?? Who or what is that? A write up would help for sure ! Never done it before .. So ill be ordering 6 bulbs ...

 

I think he meant "my" instead of "ym"

 

gotcha ... SOMEONE was paying attention ... hehe..

 

Busta ..so the stock gauges come with 74 even tho you modded them with 194 ?? Id rather just pop them right on if theyre 74s....

 

doubt 74s are as bright as 194s

 

well the 74's ill be gettin are an inverted LED bulbs...should be brighter than the stock bulbs ....

 

Will this write up apply to the 2003 Max's too? One of my LED's is out and I can't see my speedo at night.

 

actually, some have 3 gauge illumination lights, some have 4 (my original one had 3, my new one has 4)....

 

Irish ..what size were the bulbs originally ?? 74 ??

 

Hey there BigLou, where can I get some blue inverted-LED bulbs? By the way how did the project turn out? My guages-on a 2k2 SE-are so dim and unevenly illuminated.

 

Any high brightness will NOT do any good UNLESS you sand/remove the white backing film behind the guages. If you don't, no matter what wattage bulbs you use, the light will not illumunate any brighter. I've been there, done that. Yes, the bulbs are #74 aftermarket, but are slightly smaller than stock. The stocks are quite pricey from the dealer because they include the holder with them. I have some superbright #74's if anyone is interested.

 

I might mention, taking the cluster apart to access the film backing is not fun...taking it off is messy (using paint stripper) and there's a good chance you'll ruin the servos that operate the gauge needles if you're not EXTREMELY careful taking the needles off/putting them back on. I did, and ended up buying a new gauge cluster. Lesson learned.

 

Mixxmax is right....I tried putting in brighter bulbs and it doesnt do ****. Dont waste your money.

 

It begs the question is there a painless solution, i.e., other than stripping the white/blue film off back of the gauge-plate??? Or did everyone else go through the ardous task removing the film...

 

Thanks peeps .. saved me another mission. sometimes things are just better off original ...nuff said

 

Unfortunatley, no...there is not. I have tried to emply many different solutions to this problem, and there is no easy way to do this, at least none that I have found. A 74 bulb is not nearly as white, and even if you do wind up using a 194 hyper white bulb, the blue is really noticable.

I am currently awaiting the arrival of a set of 18,000MCD LEDs...I am going to try and make the cluster even BRIGHTER by cutting a peice of breadboard to fit behind the cluster with a series of LEDs...this should make it well...the brightest cluster out there, period.

 

Ugh, sorry, dude. What haappened?

 

Yo Rey .. i found the bulbs on eBay ..heres the link... #74 Inverted LED Bulbs .. i did a search again for them, however i dont think hes taking anymore bids. you may just wanna contact him about doing so, just click on his member name for info..warden_jp..somethin like that .. in any case i refuse to go thru that hecticity on takin the gauges down ..im going to just replace my ignition ring light with the regular blue bulb i plugged in before.. the regular 74 bulb in blue doesnt seem to illuminate it much anyway ..the LED should do the trick ...10-4

 

Thanx BigLou.