LED Gauge Update Kit
 

I found on EBay an upgrade kit where you swap out the exsiting incandescent bulbs in the gauges for red LEDs. I need to replace a number of burnt out bulbs anyhow and would not mind brighter lighting. I know a number of folks have played with LED upgrades, just wondering if it this sounds legit and is useful.

Ebay # 8039016803

Gary, I believe the consensus is that changing incandescent over to LED did not improve performance. In fact one or two mentioned they felt the lighting was less effective with the LEDs.

I can't speak for the performance of this particular product, but I am an architectural lighting consultant and I can say that the performance of commercially available LED products has seen amazing leaps in light output. Many LED sources generally described as "super-bright" are putting out 5 to 10 times the light as products from as recent as a year or two ago. Be aware that some of the increased output is just due to the fact that the manufacturers are learning to package higher wattage LEDs into the small packages. You don't get something for nothing.

The only way to guage if they will be brighter is if the lumen output is listed, which it is not. The red color will also have an affect on the precieved brighness.

That's all I can offer...might not even be worth $.02.

Good Luck

i also work with architectural lighting LED systems in the nightclub industry. i've found that the blue and green leds seem brighter because our eyes are more sensitive to that spectrum, red seems less bright even though they are putting out the same lumens. red is a little hard to read by. white LEDs would be best for guages i think.

My understanding is that the LED bulbs in the gauge application can't disperse the light in a wide enough pattern, so the light is not uniform across the gauge. If there are LED's that have addressed the wide angle problem, then it would be interesting.

Do a search here on the Board. There have been several efforts at swapping out the incandescent bulbs and replacing them with LEDs. The nearly unanimous opinion is that the currently-available LEDs simply do not put out sufficient light in the current bulb array.

North Hollywood Speedo can install LED lighting in your gauges. My understanding is that they put in a new array, and do not just use the existing sockets. I saw their work at last year's German Auto Fest....and the gauges look fantastic with their LED upgrade.

I put blue LED in the guages of my SC. While they are not brighter than the incandescent, they are easier to read at night with less glare (IMHO). Cleaning both side of the lenses made the biggest difference.

If I create some backlit gauges like these, that would retain factory dimmer functionality, would their be any interest?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1140062051.jpg

I think there'd be a lot of interest. Can you elaborate on your idea?

Brandon, if you can then I will be very interested....

The guy on Ebay is posting white. I may get some just to give them a try. Here's the email he sent me:

"This auction is for red only.I will post auction for white today.I also have blue."

I did the super whites, slightly better then the 'yellowish' factory bulbs but of course the vintage vibe is lost. Took me awhile to get use to the different look. In the end its not enough of an improvement for me. The worst guage is the clock..which has the bulb or led mounted in a long tube.

Does anyone know the operating voltage and amperage at one bulb?
If not could someone who's swapping bulbs out check for me?

TIA

i really like the look of LED bulbs, do you think this would work well???

I installed the blue LED's from karstuff.com a couple weeks ago for fun. They look alright, similar to the pictures on the karstuff site. I would be interested in Brandon's option above.

Rick, I'm pretty sure bulb is Ba7s 12v 2 watt.

P=VA
2=12X

X=A=.166amps ??

Guys, before you buy the bulbs, do some research here on the board. I think you'll find that most people were not satisfied the results of simply replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDs.

Scott

That is true, and i would not be interested in just replacing the bulbs with LEDs, but if Brandon can do as he is suggesting, and still keep the original VDO look, then I would be very interested in his solution. Is not upgrading to the 993 gages going to give the same result??

I'll be one who is not satisfied. All of my gauges except for the tach have LED's in them. My tach bulbs are old incandescent bulbs, because I couldnt get the tach out, hitting the steering colum. My tach is still brighter. I'm going back to incandescent.

Matt, I know the bulb ratings as I was involved in more than one bulb sourcing exercise. What I'd like to know are actual readings in operation. Thanks for the reply.

there was talk about some 3 watt BA7 bulbs a while back. I think the results were also disappointing. There was also someone who was looking into a different style bulb and holder..never heard anymore on that project. The other solution is to line the inside with flexible LED strips which is what I think one of the Speedo repair shops is offering at some big bucks. Seems like its more the labor then the cost of parts that makes that an expensive upgrade..but it might make it a great DIY project.
Brandon you might want to give that option a try since you have the gauge open.