Sam: Much easier to make dash indicator LED retrofits work except on cars with a single green indicator that serves for both left and right.

Matt: Yes as long as the whole unit is installed and is aligned at the correct horiz and vert angles relative to the axis of the car and the plane of the (level) road.

More detail on both when I have less Germany-lost computer-jetlag stuff on my plate.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I did actually replace some of the bulbs behind my dash. I didn't try the turn signal indicators, because I was mostly interested in more panel illumination. I know what you're talking about with the t/s indicators. I've run into that before, but I would think the 1157 in front would draw enough current to heat up the flasher.

Regardless, I tried a few different 194 bulb replacements in my dash with interesting results. Blue LEDs are hard to see at night. Hyper white means white with purplish tint. I left the hyper whites in and they are just a little brighter, but not a night and day difference.

So now I have some extra 194 LED replacements for 194s. They are the made in China crap, but they're working fine for me. If anyone would like to try some I'll be happy to sell them for what I paid: $1 each. I have 'hyper white' and green. I'm in Long Beach, Ca. PM me if interested.

When experimenting with dashboard illumination, try for a green, yellow, or amber colour. Those are easiest on the eyes and cause the lowest amount of disability glare. What's disability glare? It's light that decreases your visual acuity (ability to see what you need to see). When you're dark-adapted, very small amounts of light cause significant disability glare. The instrument lights cause it, and blue/purple/"hyperwhite" colours greatly aggravate it. Red is least detrimental to night vision, but it's a poor choice for general dash illumination, because red should be reserved for the "danger, warning, hey, look down here and pay attention, you've got an emergency situation developing" colour.

Yes, blue dash illumination is trendy (per VW). It's also the wrong way to do it.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

We talked about just that in a physics class that I took. While discussing the various parts of the spectrum the professor had a WWII story. He claimed that in an effort to reduce the number of planes shot down, all interior cockpit lights were switched to blue. This immediately resulted in even more planes being shot down and another switch was made to red.

I'm not sure that the phenomena was understood at the time, but it didn't stop me from trying blue in my dash. My mother's VW Jetta has some blue and orange gauges that look killer. I didn't achieve quite the effect however...


I'll probably try the green LEDs next. I'm sure everyone is anxiously waiting to hear how that comes out.

Things're getting to a point where you have a wider choice of colour than used to be available in LEDs. If you're experimenting with LEDs (which, as you're finding out, are problematic as dashboard illumination retrofits for bulbs), and want green light, try for a yellow-green rather than a centric green or a blue-green.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

If anyone else is interested, these LED replacements are easily available at Ebay. The price break seems to happen at 10 bulbs. Quality varies and shipping takes time.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

I switched all of my dash lights to LEDs(turn signals too) that I got on eBay. I also used white gauge faces. I like it alot.

Dan has a point about red lights, but I have seen a Mustang at the showroom that came from the factory with red dash illumination ~10 years ago, so I don't think there was any legal restriction on dash illumination colors back then.

Over the years, I've seen red, green, blue, purplish, and white used by the factory. Are there any restrictions now on dash illumination colors?

BTW, I bought some 194-replacement LEDs that come w/ surface mount rectification diodes and current limiting from AutoZone, but haven't tried them yet. The 194 bulb I had used made too much heat for my laser-printer produced legend in front of it, so I used a homemade replacement LED setup that worked ~OK before I saw the off-the-shelf ones at AZ (http://www.tidewatermoparclub.com/TECH/yeehaw4.pdf).

There still isn't.
Nope. Never have been.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I love the look with the white gauge faces.

Did you paint your old faces or what?

No. They are vinyl inserts that adhere to your gauge faces. I found them on eBay. I bought the gauge faces and LEDs from this company.

Thanks for the tips on the saftey of various interior lighting colors. I put illuminated toggle switches on my dash. They are blue, and I did not think anything of it. I can varify that at night, the blue glare from them makes my night drive rear view mirror ineffective because you see the headliner in the mirror instead of the head lights behind you. This was a shock, and surprise. I will eventually go with a different color here I am sure. I am sorry I didn't know this when I bought the switches. It is really not tht hard to change them, and they are not that expensive. But it is a little annoying that this fact is not considered by the manufaturers of such things. I guess they are not required to consider the safety of the products they offer.

Sam

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