Looking for an experienced opinion on what plug and play led's would be best bang for the buck for quality and looks for a 3rd Gen se white faced cluster. As far as I know there are polarity sensitive bulbs but I'm thinking something error free, plug and play and maybe in a nice blue. I've seen some bulbs on eBay but unsure and a little hesitant. If someone knowledgeable with led's could give me a link to the best option or what i should be looking for would be much appreciated too. Thanks

 

Stay classy and get diffused LED's, whatever you do.

 

Thanks Hectic. Could you elaborate? Im not much of an LED guru hense why im asking for a little advise. What are diffused LED's?

 

I'm no LED guru either. I don't really like LED lighting, but they do come in handy for some applications.

Diffused LED's are probably not what you had in mind, they are the old school type with the cloudy housing that looks like a hot glue stick. They are not super bright, or crystal clear, which is usually what people want with LED mods. The beam pattern is much more appealling in my opinion, and you won't suffer from as many bright spots.

Or you could get multi directional LED's with surface mounts on all sides. You're probably going to shell out a lot of money for those when all is said and done though.

 

Thanks Hectic, I believe the type you described are what the previous owner had in this se cluster i just replaced in my gxe. I should have tested it. All the gauges work fine but obviously i was swapping it during the day then noticed when it got dark i went out for a drive and noticed most of the cluster was without light. I actually have some 194 wedge style led's with some of the lights on the sides i got on ebayand they're not too crazy expensive and are apparently error free so it doesn't matter which way they're plugged in. I was thinking of trying them but they're a bright white and im not sure how they would look on a white faced cluster so i was thinking blue would be nice. Hopefully someone who has done the swap on their se can post some pics. so i could get an idea of what would look good though i know everyone has their own opinion.

 

Its all personal preference and idk the look your trying to go for. I had cool white bulbs from superbrightleds.com they were kinda riced not to mention it had some hot spots meaning some spots were brighter. I switched to warm white and it was a nice suttle look still bright tho. Superbrightleds make good bulb. I think your gonna need 5 194 bulbs.

 

ac max, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking with this thread. Are you wanting input on what brand LED or something?

Otherwise, you just need whichever LED type our cluster lights take. Just get the cheapest ones you can get on eBay. Who cares if they're polarity specific? Just light up your cluster and verify they all work before totally installing. The ones that don't work just pull them out and reverse them before putting your cluster cover and all that back together.

I have pure white LED cluster lights in my Civic. I just got the cheapest ones on eBay I could find. It's been a few months so I can't remember all the different nomenclature, but you just need to figure out which type it is (like "T5 wedge" is one that I do remember, for example) and then search out and buy however many you need. If you buy some "kit" somewhere it's going to be A LOT more money. I want to say the Civic/CRX "kit" is like 30 bucks, when you can buy them all separately for like $2-3 total.

I really don't care to add LED's to my Maximas though because the SE cluster is already gorgeous IMO. White face with black lettering during the day, black face with white lettering at night. Nissan really hit that out of the park.

White LED's on black gauges is the only way to go at night. I actually hate red or blue gauges. Blue is actually very hard to see at night. Not sure if BMW still does it but their interiors used to be a sea of red lights. I guess most people find that classy and elegant but I think it's hideous.

 

I know the factory bulbs are 194 but i don't know alot about led's but do think they look good from what ive seen. From what i see yes they are t5 wedges but i wasn't 100% and being i always had my vg cluster with the green light i was just wondering and looking for opinions on what looks best with the ve clusters. I think you may be right with the white though James. I was also just wondering if anyone has done a subtle blue like an ice blue and how it would look. When i did the ve cluster swap i found that it almost had no light at all so now i gotta take it apart again to change the 4 bulbs so i was just looking for some opinions.

 

So the factory gauge cluster bulbs are 194? That's bigger than I figured they would be. The Civic ones are pretty small

 

[QUOTE=James92SE;9059778]So the factory gauge cluster bulbs are 194? That's bigger than I figured they would be. The Civic ones are pretty small[/QUOTE

Yes sir 194's same size as the amber bulbs in the corner lights. I now have some T5 wedge led's in white so I'll give em a go and see how they look. Im guessing the stock cluster bulbs in the ve are white aswell? When I got the cluster it already had led's but just my luck after putting it in I found the cluster was hardly lit up. I know the vg cluster lights have the green rubbers over them. Im thinking you may be right James in the fact it may be best to stick with white being the gauges go white on black at night. I've never owned a ve so I never knew how the cluster worked changing from day and night. Though I may have heard about it once upon a time and my memory just sucks lol.

 

Wait, The bulbs in a cluster gauge are not the same as the ambers in the corners. The ones in the cluster is smaller that the tip joint of my pinky.

 

warm white 194 bulbs from superbrightleds.com call it a day!!

 

That's what I was thinking

I was surprised to hear that the cluster gauge could have bulbs as large as the corner lights

 

The cluster lights ie. Gas light brake light etc. are smaller but the 4 bulbs for the gauges themselves are 194's

 

All my cluster bulbs and switches are sporting blue LEDs. The cluster is 194 but you do have to be careful of the length when purchasing the LEDs. The first set I bought - on eBay - would touched when I tried to put the sockets back in. I did find some that were perfect and I absolutely love the blue in the se cluster. The switches are t3 but you will have to remove the leds from the socket and fit them into the OEM ones. I don't know how to do pictures here but I think you would love it if I could could show what mine looks like.
In fact, if you did a search ther should be an orger that did all his interior lighting. Think he jbon or something like that.

 

360* LED = very important or you will be stuck with hotspots

 

Well i got somewhite led's and they look great though they seem a little long and was a really tight fit but as far as i know the led's don't get hot so i guess i should be good. Thanks for the help and recommendations guys