mymaxi41691

my cars fuel gauge light is out, and is impossible to see at night. every other light in the gauge cluster works. You think its the bulb? and how hard would it be to replace it?

MIXXMAX

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, the bulb probably burned out. What year is your Max? It's not that difficult to take the cluster out. I believe there is a write-up on this. Once you get the cluster out, I would suggest you change out all the bulbs. I think there is 4-5 #74 bulbs all together, depending on the year. Good luck!

mymaxi41691

its a 2000 se with 65k miles on it. eh i guess i can live without looking at how much gas i have left. better for the mind.

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

Time to change to LEDs. They drop right in.



http://forums.maxima.org/6009258-post7.html

its my quick writeup on how to do it.

mymaxi41691

awesome, thanks guys

mymaxi41691

hmmm 15 minutes sounds good. what are some common things that go wrong doing this mod

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

your light bulb might be in wrong (LEDs have polarity) but thats it, they drop in like a regular bulb

Feldman

iTrader: (1)

Are the LED's brighter than the stock bulbs? My gauge us almost unviewable at times. It is ok when it is dark out and the stock bulbs are on and i am fine when it is bright outside but the in between times of dusk and dawn i cant see s!#t.

Does anybody else have this problem? And yes my dimmer switch is all the way up.

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

Yes the white and bulb LEDs are supposedly brighter, the red I did is pretty bright as well.

I should mention that if you are manual you can forget about this mod, it doesn't light up the gauges enough, manual gauge clusters have 3 bulbs and the auto clusters have 4

besides auto>manual

nsnrider

iTrader: (59)

changing bulbs in the cluster is fairly straight forward, not too much you can do to mess it up beside braking the cluster trim when trying to remove it or when reinstalling it. Changing the bulbs with bright LEDS would defenitly be the way to go.

mymaxi41691

oh man, i have a manual trans. Should i just replace the three with regular bulbs? But i don't get why three leds wouldn't be as bright as 3 bulbs. aren't leds brighter?

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

they are but leds are directional, they don't radiate the light, hence why we mention hot spots. since manuals only cover three locations the light does not pass through to the spots neccessary. I would reccomend regular bulbs, unless you want to be creative and wire 2 extra LEDs, which requires cracking open the gauge cluster itself, its no big deal, I've done it several times.

mymaxi41691

how about this style of led? its supposed to emit light from every direction. what do you think

mymaxi41691

jeez i always forget to post the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UV-BL...7668QQtcZphoto

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

Don't see a picture, but I believe the one in the link I gave you are about the only ones that fit the wedge style that are meant to fit our gauges.

mymaxi41691

i think what i will do is buy 3 of each. try the leds, see if they are bright enough. If not i can just switch to the bulbs. its worth a shot

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

the 74 bulbs are too small...you need the #24 bulb

but I only know of the autolumination bulbs working for us, if you find a wide angle #24 bulb you can give them a try