I would do 1 watt probably. And I really doubt it'll get too hot.

 

I agree with Jowo, I don't think these will get to hot at all. I believe Knight used 1 watt for his LEDS. Vleds.com does have some high powered 74 leds that appear to plug right in to the stock 74 bulb holders. However, we won't know how bright they are till someone is the guinea pig using these. Check out Vleds.com and look under 74 leds to see them ones Im speaking of.

 

Yeah, I've had GREAT experiences with v-leds. They're the best quality. If knight did 1 watt, I might even try higher. 2 watt? I think if it's available, you should try higher than 1 watt. I would if they're available on v-leds, and if I hadn't already done my conversion. I like the bluish tint

 

It doesn't look like v-leds have higher than 0.5 watts in the #74. They have a 2watt 194 I'd try that!

 

Yeah, .5 watt probably wouldn't be that bright. How do we know the 2 watt 194 wouldn't get to hot though? Again, I guess someone would have to try them out.

 

Yeah, just try it. I HIGHLY doubt it'd be too hot, and it should look really good.

 

These freaking things are listed are retna burners if you look into them, pretty scary on how bright these must be. They are also very expensive at 20 bucks for a pair. Thats 60 bucks for six bulbs just to SEE if they will work. Im not even sure if they will cause anything to melt or not. Im still looking around for the right bulbs to use. I might just remove the blue film and try out the brightest available 74 NEO LED to ease things a bit. Like I said trial and error.

 

Do you or anyone here know how many .5 74 LED bulbs are needed for the gauge cluster. Iv seen some people say 4 others 5-6. I have an 2001 SE....

 

Looking at the back of my 2001AE edition cluster there are 4 black 74 bulb holders that are for the main lighting of the gauges. So you should need 4 however, I would always buy a couple extras so you have them.

 

http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI....0132043886&bv=

Check out the link.. What do you guys think about using these? Free resisters...though who knows if their the correct ones. They have a 120 deg viewing angle, I was thinking of just using 4 of these (like Knight did) on the stock locations and soldering them in place.

 

very true, on the website, which ones are they, the first ones at $8.99 a pair or the last ones at $3.99 a pair. Only reason I ask is because on the first ones it says "37" bulbs and one the last one it says "24-74" bulbs....

http://www.v-leds.com/24-74-NEO-LED/...orLanding/true

 

Whatever you choose to do, I cannot emphasize enough to MAKE SURE you get high power. I promise regular LEDs won't work. I tried it a couple years ago, and it was really really dim. No matter how awesome they look when you're buying them, they will not light up our gauges unless they're high power.

 

oh ok, cuz I figure the .5 watts SHOULD be brighter than stock and if so, ill be very happy....

 

Yeah, I would think those would work. They're high power. Try 'em and post pics. I'd love to see how it works out.

 

Yeah hopefully within a week or 2 ill get em and post pics, cuz I cant stand how dim my gauges are....

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Only really dim gauges could have motivated me to do my HUGE 109 LED conversion. It was the worst thing ever. It took forever... Worth it in the end, but so frustrating to do.

 

http://www.v-leds.com/Interior-LED/G...22390-1-2.htmlCheck out the link, I would go with the high powered ones like JOWO said. I don't know if anyones else has tried these before. I would get in touch with VLEDS to make sure they plug right into the 74 bulb holder. Also, I would remove the blue filter behind the gauge that way you will have more a true white color than a bluish white with the film in place. We can remove the blue film on our 2001 gauges. Check the link the beginning the thread to see how to remove the film. Please Post pics when your done.

 

a lot of people have mentioned that there are no led options to use in the oem wedge base....this isnt entirely true. the closest bulb size for 02-03 for sure is #24 aka t6.5 leds...not many sellers on ebay carry 6.5 but this is the size.

i am using 4 high powered hyper white 3 smd bulbs that go into the base....bulbs are super bright and on my 03 se te, the blue filter can not be removed as mentioned in the thread....
my biggest issue right now is "hotspots". crazy hotspots. i will attempt sanding, taping, something to try to fix that some...
pics coming when i find my ipod cable
heres the link to the auction i won
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

 

I drilled the #74 slots bigger and put 4 of these back there.
A bit of wiring, solder and tape and this is what I got.

 

Did you use the T 6.5 LEDS like A33_Ridah used? Was it necessary to drill the whole bigger? Im looking for some high power LEDS that will fit in the 74 base with no modifying. Did you put LEDS behind the digital display? What type? Looks really good by the way.

 

Yea my bad those are 194 leds, I had thought I included the link but here it is:

http://www.v-leds.com/Interior-LED/G...-p6638587.html

I made the bulb spots bigger with a knife and stuck it in.

 

Thanks for the link, those look huge! I heard that 194 get to hot for the 5th gen cluster, let me know if you have that problem. When you made the hole bigger, did you soldered the metal leads on the bulb to the board?

 

194 INCANDESCENT bulbs get too hot. LEDs most likely won't, and 194's will light up the gauges better in most cases.

 

Nooo the LEDs dont get hot, but I kinda ghetto rigged the entire thing. Connected the positive and negative leads of the 4 LED bulbs, grounded the negative and connected the positive to the dimmer. I had tried soldering to the appropriate pins on the gauge cluster shown in another DIY but that didn't work for me.

 

yeah I hear ya, soldering them right to the board is a pain in the ****.. did that on my old cluster and melted it a bit around where the bulb twist on the metal contact on the PCB. Im really trying to stay away from soldering anything, I really want some decent 74 LED bulbs so its plug and play.

 

thanks! might have to try itt

 

Old thread from the dead. A much easier way to do this is to buy a led strip with 5050smd's. Cut them into strips of 3. Solder them back together and get this

 

That looks like more work than just drilling the holes in the back and putting bigger led bulbs.

 

no hotspots

 

I've been lurking on this thread for a while and trying to decide if I should bite the bullet or not...

Following up on MetalMax's 194 bulb mod, though, versus single LEDs, I never thought about using some spare 194 LEDs I have laying around and trying it that way... It just might work...

 

Thats also what I was planning to do. I was actually gonna use the 194 led inverted bulbs n put them in. I used those same 194 inverted led in my 4 gen cluster

 

I just completed this tonight. It was pretty annoying. I took a knife and cut the holes in the back of the cluster bigger to fit the 194 leds. Taped the lights in and connected wire to the leads. I connected all positive leads together and all negative leads together. I grounded the negative and taped the red/w yellow in the dimmer to power the leds.

Problem 1
Now if the dash lights are on the climate control lights are out and vice versa. Should I have taped the red/w green in the dimmer?

Problem 2
Its really not blue, its teal... but there's no way to go back to the stock lights now so I'm stuck with it.

The light distribution is pretty nice though, no real hot spots.

 

Hm, not sure where you went wrong unless you ordered the 5k bulbs instead of 6k, the 5k will give a kinda nasty gross blue while the 6k is a nice light blue, for the + wire, just try connecting it to the other wire, I don't remember which I used exactly but the end result is the leds come on with parking lights but dont dim(which I wanted), the other wire there should accomplish that.


very blue

 

The dimmer works for me but some how it reversed the dimming on the digital climate control. I will try the other wire tomorrow after work. I used 6k bulbs. You could call it light blue, its just kind of feminine, its not blue blue. It's still better than stock though.

 

Certainly not a deep blue, but I wouldn't call it teal, anyway uh that wire wont work, just pull it out and tap the other one or you can tap the original illumination wire on one of the plugs, you can see which wire exactly in fsm, that one will be able to dim and stuff.

 

I was testing the lights in the garage with the car off so I had no idea about the wiring issue with the climate control until I moved the car. I'll have to convert the clock and climate control to light blue to see the total look of the new color. You have a link to the fsm? All the ones I could find pointed to some website that doesn't exist anymore.

 

Ill email it to you tomorrow idk the link, send me your email addy

 

Im surprised those big LED 194's cleared everything. Post some pics if you could.

 

I didn't take any pictures but basically the 194 s touch the next layer of plastic so they sit in the widened out holes. I would imagine that's why the incandescent bulbs were melting the plastic. Just cut the holes wider and drop the leds in and they fit.

 

That's where I was getting at, the bulbs melting the plastic. But I think that's because the incandescent get to hot. I guess with the Leds you don't have this problem. I was just guessing that those large bulbs you used from Vleds wouldn't clear the plastic lens.