i did the blue led bulb swap in the gauge cluster , shifter housing, and in my doors. it looks really good except for on the tach 7000 and up is not lit very well. i got the custom console with the monitor from damax and will get everything(dvd,speakers,and monitor) put in at the end of may. i got a bunch of news pictures of all this stuff on my cardomain site. so check it out.

charlie

<<<<<<<link to homepage

 

looks nice....i have the same issues with the leds behind my gauges to.

 

incorrect focus/pattern on the LED bulbs.

 

how do i fix that?

 

try different LED bulbs

 

is there a link or how-to site for swappin' the bulbs to blue, I have a bright blue day/night panasonic deck, so i'd like to swap my bulbs over so they matched.

 

after i heard you talking about this like 2 years ago, i changed mine and they looked great. I did have the blotchy spots i guess. Thanks danny

 

FINALLY...someone listens!

 

its easy u only have to remove line 20 screws. but i can do anyone can do it.

 

what's the part number of the "right" bulb, where are they available? and do they have to be soldered in or is it like replacing the climate control lights? thanks

 

Err arent they just 194s?

 

which the climate control lights or the blue led's?

 

I know this is an old thread, but I'm in the process of doing the LED swap as well. Was wondering which LEDs work best: the ones with a focused light pattern or the one with a dispersed pattern? I bought some cheapo 194 type blue ricer bulbs, and it looked like crap. Hopefully LEDs will look much better.

 

if you dont like the focused nature of the LEDs simply defuse them by scuffing up the tip of them with sand paper.

 

Or hit them a bit on a grinder.

 

that works too

 

bwahahahah you have my original 5 inch monitor!! lol! DA- MAX sold it to you? hehe..

 

Ok, I did a RED swap with standard wal-mart special cheapo 194's, and they look pretty good on my GXE with black guage face, but I dont know how they'd look on an SE..I've got pics taken on this disp. camera, just have a couple more to take to fill it up, then in a couple of days I'll get them developed and get them up asap...I don't have any pics of the process, but you can see the guages pretty well..

Oh, if you want blue, wal-mart sells Xenon 194s in blue that you might try..they're like $5 a pair, but you can buy 2 pair, try 1 pair, and if you don't like them, take atleast 1 set back..

 

that's what i did with the autozone 194s. i changed out all the stock 194s with the autozone blue 194s, yet only the speedo was blue. the tach and the left gauges were still white

 

The stock bulbs are already 194's so it'll be somewhat of a direct swap?

 

go here for nice LED replacements - http://www.superbrightleds.com

 

hm, I have no idea why yours are showing up white..there are 4 bulbs you have to change..you might try the xenon bulbs I described..I wanted red initially, although I would rather have red in the speedo and blue in the rest now, but I'm sure there would be an issue with colors blending since 1 bulb lights half the tach and half the speedo..

 

yeah, i changed out those 4 bulbs to the blue ones. then that night i turned them on and it was, from left to right: white-blue-white

the blue didn't show up well either. so i'm now going with some superwhite LEDs.

 

i bought some red bulbs from autozone and they work just fine for me. sorry, the picture is kind of crappy.

 

that looks nice. you just changed out the four 194 bulbs back there right? i prolly just bought two sets of wrong bulbs. one being "hyperwhite" and other being just blue. that's the only explanation i can think of.

how did you get your needles to be blue?

 

yeah, i put 4 red 194's in there. the blue needles are intelliglow leds from www.importintelligence.com

 

ah cool. thanks for that link. and thanks Mr. Gone about for that tip about sanding the LEDs

 

There's a pic of my gauges with some red 194 bulbs. Pretty even if you ask me.

 

you suck at the intarweb, dave

 

fosgate fan.

 

You do too, clogging up this board with your senseless posts.


Btw, you should tell everyone how bad it is to Sharpie your current white gauge lights blue.

 

2nd page ownage btw.

 

oh yeah

dont color your stock bulbs blue, it makes a really nice color, but its just not bright enough

still a nice color though. plus its kind of hard to keep the ink to stick to the bulb. Its just easier to buy new bulbs, even if your poor like me (even though I'm planning on using LEDs)

 

The red reminds me of my bonnevile's gauges!

 

Alright - so I can go to Autozone or WalMart and buy some blue #194 bulbs... They will swap out to the back of the instrument cluster and in the Auto indicator, so everything will light up blue??
What about for the Auto climate control buttons?
I just got a set of blue glow gauges - I'd love to have nearly everything match...

 

yeah just change the 194 bulbs out to your colored ones.

 

How do you get to the ones by the shifter? Also, is there a way to do the one around the cig lighter?

 

the shifter i'm not sure. didn't go explorering in that area yet. but you have to pop that trim around the shifter off. i use a small flat head screw driver and gently pry the bottom portion of the piece and it pops off (to reinstall, insert the top part first, then push down on the bottom til it snaps back in place.)

 

Thats basically it. Pop off the trim and you'll see the plastic housing with the indicator in it. It's got some screws and you take those off to get easy access to the #194 socket below. You can do it without undoing the screws, but it's kinda hard to get your hands under there.

 

yep, he pretty much summed it up..I did mine in blue with cheap wal-mart special blue bulbs, and it turned out a REALLY dark blueish purple, which looks pretty good..