Swapped my gauge cluster incandescent bulbs for LED, wow!

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Oct 11, 2004
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Gigantic difference. T10 LED bulbs with built in chipset so you can't reverse polarity by mistake. $7 for 10. Needed 5 for the cluster. Used 2 more for the plate bulbs out back. Huge difference on the '98 Stang.
 
Glad that you got good results. There are so many poor LED replacement products available, often times the results are less than ideal and color temperature/color rendition index is often very poor.
 
Originally Posted by Cujet
There are so many poor LED replacement products available, often times the results are less than ideal and color temperature/color rendition index is often very poor.

Exactly.

OP - if you don't mind me asking, what brand of T10 LED replacements did you use?
 
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Originally Posted by Cujet
Glad that you got good results. There are so many poor LED replacement products available, often times the results are less than ideal and color temperature/color rendition index is often very poor.



100%. Often times "better" just means a white or bluish light vs quality with these 'upgrades'. I'm glad the OP got good results from his.
 
Umm, it seems like they were JUST replaced recently, so we have no idea if they are quality bulbs or will dim or burn out in tens of hours. Don't believe for one second, lofty claims of tens of thousands of hours lifespan that some garbage products make. Then again it is entirely possible to make long lasting LED bulbs, and they are usually dimmer than the incan bulbs they replaced when forced to fit in a small form factor as a retrofit.

A link would help. "Chipset" is not how they guard against reverse polarity in something that tiny, it is probably nothing more than a diode rectifier, which is fine, but says nothing about how overdriven the LEDs are for the amount of heatsinking present, vs brittleness of lead free solder, etc.

If they are brighter or bluer then I'd consider them a downgrade. Regardless of the lifespan, optimal night visibility is attained with less than fully bright dash lights and the more they get away from cold white (blue) and into the red spectrum, the better. That won't matter so much for the plate bulbs unless they are glaring into the eyes of the driver behind you, but is it an improvement if others can see your plate better?
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My dash was lit up green with 194's inside a green plastic housing.

I wanted a red dash, so bought red LEDs replaced them and removed the green plastic housing. Way too bright, and they would not dim properly going from 100% too brightness to 85% which was still way too bright, then shutting off completely. Balls. Tried to live with it, but could not. Was not going to wire up a PWM LED dimmer just for the dash bulbs.

Replaced red T10 LEDs with red 194 incandescent, and no green plastic. All is well.

At same time, Replaced turn signal indicators with green Leds. Very bright, fine for daytime but switching lanes on the highway at night and they were too bright and would screw with my night vision. One started flickering within 2 years. Replaced with incandescent 194's. All is well.

High beam indicator also got replaced with a blue LED. Was blindingly bright. Too much work involved in taking apart dash just to swap it back, and I used 3 layers of 35% window tint to tame it down, and more recently replaced it back with a 194 incandescent. All is well.

The red LEDs I bought I employ elsewhere for non exterior signalling duty. They put out more heat than the 194 incandescents for similar current draw, and have all started flickering or failed outright with little use.

I tried some 1157 LEDs in my taillights. They had proper brightness difference between low and high 'filaments' and were slightly brighter than 1157 and seemed a genuine improvement initially.

Lasted less than 2 years before one failed completely and the other would start flickering once it heated up. Replaced with 3496 incandescent. All is well.

I wish I had all that money (and time) back I invested in LEDs only to return the incandescent.

Granted these were LEDs from a few years ago and LED's keep getting better, but still, I'll not be revisiting them again.
 
Originally Posted by dwcopple
Originally Posted by E150GT
Do they dim?

Yes. Here's what I bought:
SEE HERE CLICK ME

Cool. Thanks for that. Something I'll have to check into this week while i'm off work.
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Umm, it seems like they were JUST replaced recently, so we have no idea if they are quality bulbs or will dim or burn out in tens of hours. Don't believe for one second, lofty claims of tens of thousands of hours lifespan that some garbage products make. Then again it is entirely possible to make long lasting LED bulbs, and they are usually dimmer than the incan bulbs they replaced when forced to fit in a small form factor as a retrofit.

A link would help. "Chipset" is not how they guard against reverse polarity in something that tiny, it is probably nothing more than a diode rectifier, which is fine, but says nothing about how overdriven the LEDs are for the amount of heatsinking present, vs brittleness of lead free solder, etc.

If they are brighter or bluer then I'd consider them a downgrade. Regardless of the lifespan, optimal night visibility is attained with less than fully bright dash lights and the more they get away from cold white (blue) and into the red spectrum, the better. That won't matter so much for the plate bulbs unless they are glaring into the eyes of the driver behind you, but is it an improvement if others can see your plate better?
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Car forums can be quite handy for stuff like that.
Often times, I'd found popular mods were easy to find. Other owners listed project details, photos, tips, etc... They rated how well it worked out or listed specifics to what was used and where they purchased,, even best prices too. This could be anything from modded exhaust systems, complete interior/exterior lighting and LED's, engine tunes / re-flash or turbo's , dyno tuning - on and on.
There is plenty of info out there by others who've already been there. Diode dynamics or CarID were some popular sources on Nissan Infiinti forums for projects on the 350 / 370Z or G-series. I think lighting is popular because it's almost pennies on the dollar for costs versus other projects.
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I did LED on my G going by others information and your point about the type and direction of plate lights is accurate. If the flood of hyper white is not on the plate or even too bright, you won't get the desired benefit. Blinding traffic behind you isn't a desired benefit either. Knowing these details before you buy is vital unless you have time and money to burn.
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vast majority of the led drop in replacements are poor quality.
either they dont last,have poor light distribution,poor color rendering,or all the above at once.
i repair lots of clusters and other vehicle controls and when i do a led upgrade i use quality leds and install them permanently.
they will dim and cast no ugly bright spots on the instrument faces.
i take out lots of those plug in led things and some are only a few months old but totally cooked.
ones from recognized brands are just"ok".
but they even run too hot for good lifespan.
 
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