LED's for an early car

trailpimp33 · 12-28-2008, 12:44 AM

I ordered a few different led bulbs to try out in the 83'. Just got the bulbs yesterday and have to say that the difference is amazing. I tried taking photos but they are not even close to show the difference.
The oil press. gauge is using a standard stock regular bulb, the clock is using the LED bulb. Notice how much brighter everything is? The bluish color shows up as more white in real life while the reddish color of the stock bulb shows more amber colored. Also, notice how bright the climate control is, I never really was able to see most of this with the regular bulb. Next I am relplacing all the gauge lights with LED's, really curious to see how much it affects the power draw. If I run the fan, lights, radio, and rear defroster you can just see the battery light start to barely glow.

924RACR · 12-28-2008, 05:57 AM

The batt light glowing might be more due to wiring, not so much an actual draw on the batt.

Nice job!

Do me a favor; please post source and type of replacement LED for the bayonet-style lights in the gauges? I've swapped out the direct plug-in style, but haven't found an exact match for the ones in my combo gauge; will have to solder those in (and haven't got around to it yet, a year or two later!)...

flash968 · 12-28-2008, 07:54 AM

the problem with the LEDs is that they are too bright - from what i gather from the conversions i've seen, there is no way to dim them - that reduces visual acuity at night - there is a huge study on this - dangerous stuff

it took me a while, but i finally convinced my better half to all but turn off the dash lights - she was amazed at how much better she could see at night without that glare in her face

i do NOT recommend making such a change without the ability to dim them, no matter how "cool" they look - at night what is important to see is what is in front of the car, not the dash

mattdavis11 · 08:07 AM

http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html They are type 74. They replace the sylvania 2721. You get them with or without the bases.

Flash, the dimmer switch becomes useless?

trailpimp33 · 12-28-2008, 12:04 PM

The dimmer switch DOES work, it will darken them a bit. I think that the weak glow of the stock dash is more dangerous than the mild glow of the LED as you have to look longer at the gauge to read it vs. the LED>

flash968 · 12-28-2008, 01:32 PM

lol - stop looking at the dash - what do you need that for anyway?

seriously though, the time it takes for the pupils to recover from the dash glare reduces the acuity of the night vision - it takes a few minutes - basically, just as your eyes are recovering, you then glance at the dash again, and re-blind yourself

human eyes are not good at night vision - it's a rods and cones thing - light emanating from the dash makes it worse - the best thing you can do, if you can't turn them off altogether, is to dim them as much as you possibly can and still see them

red is a better color for human eye night vision too - blue is the worst - too bad we can't have yellow headlights - they are the best color for night vision for humans

if you want a quick demonstration of night vision issues for yourself, go drive for 15 minutes with the dash lights off - look at the things at the side of the road in your peripheral vision - then turn the dash lights back on - you will be stunned when you find that those things are gone from your vision - that could mean the difference between having an accident and not

or, you could just ask a pilot

p.s. - another night driving tip - do not look at the oncoming headlights (not as easy as you think)- keep your eyes focused more toward the right side of the road, away from the glare

also, stay out of the left lane - see above reason - it makes a HUGE difference

as for the dimmer and LEDs, i know that it doesn't work at all in a number of the conversions, but it did a little bit with the plug-in LEDs - not a lot though, and not enough for me

trailpimp33 · 12-28-2008, 04:12 PM

I hear all that your saying, and while I do agree with you on many points as I drive ALOT at night for work in the summer months, (different vehicle) I only drive this one in town and really don't even need headlights to see the road. I posted this up for those of us with the early cars and wanting some info about refreshing the early dash. I ordered a few different color leds, so far I like the white best, but have not tried the red yet. Blue was OK, UV was pretty cool too.

flash968 · 12-28-2008, 05:15 PM

understood - i tried them myself on my 968 - i was hoping for a more even light that could be then dimmed back down - i was terribly disappointed - the bulbs went in the box with the rest of the collection of failed attempts of plug in "solutions" - lol - the good news is that i think i am about ready to make my own xmas lights

curveto · 01-06-2009, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html They are type 74. They replace the sylvania 2721. You get them with or without the bases.

Any problems with heat (the "bulb" ... if you will ... itself)? Not from circuit / current, per se ... just heat.

Let us know if you decide to do the outside markers & such.

JR