Speedo and rev counter lights

Hi a long time ago i put led lights in my dash , it made  it better some  seem to illuminate  better than others the top left corner seems to be the worst of speedo , also on the light switch , is the dimmer supposed to go right down low , mine only turns down a little and makes me wonder if its not turning up bright .do all new headlight switches have the dimmer ?   I recently saw a photo and it had blue leds , so i went and bought some of them in two styles , its ok but still not that great , i havent looked at earths yet but the interior lights are great , .Cheers Vaughn

Hey Vaughn,

Stupid question, but when you installed the LED lights, did you remove the little blue-ish colored lenses that were in there as well? I have the "Ice Blue" LED's in my dash.

LED's don't put any real load on the wirewound rheostat at the back of the light switch.
And LED's don't ever dim right down. They'll either reach a base level, or they'll go out.

What you really need is a PWM for a dimmer, or you need to purchase other LED's with a lumen output that you like.

Also remove any color filters in the cluster and buy colored LED's.
Light emitting diodes produce light in a very narrow spectrum.
The filters for incandescent bulbs are blocking a huge portion of the light they 'see' and LED's don't have the wide spectrum to get around it.

If you find one portion of the cluster darker than another:

A)Are you sure it's working at all? Diodes (and most LED's) are polarity sensitive, try flipping it around.
B)you might try repainting the diffusers bright white.
C)You can also use a higher lumen LED in that position. There are certainly many to choose from.

/geek

I haven't seen any blue-ish lenses , so they were originally blue  , I had a lens on the headlight /wiper switch , but removing it made it brighter , I definitely have them all going , I knew about the polarity  , I have tried the blue ones this time , always slightly dim ,  definitely  not as good as yours .The blue leds i got were rounded and sealed and the others had more of a head of leds ,  could the headlight switch /dimmer control be worn and not go right up to full bright ? might take it out again tomorrow  and see if it is dusty or clean it with a cotton bud  . Cheers Vaughn.

Not 'worn' but oxidation can build up, because it gets hot.
Like I said the LED's aren't going to put enough load on it for it to be effective anyhow.

NZCOBRA wrote

I haven't seen any blue-ish lenses...

Well, if they are still installed in the instrument cluster, installing LED's instead of the original bulbs won't improve things much. I don't have pictures of them myself, but somebody on here might.

Vaughn - I don't have pics of the filters, but can get them in a bit if you'd like.  They snap into the instrument housing and are domed.

As for LED lighting, I really like the LED's from HiPo Parts.  I did a test of them and posted it here: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Instrument-Lighting-Paint-Testing-tp52526p52839.html.

No , not too worried about the blue lenses , blue leds now , Thanks though Gary , i have to figure out why its a bit dull in that corner , i swapped holders around and by lifting the circuit board a little you can see the  light go then swap it back to top left ,  it is difficuilt to see , i checked the spots of contact with a test light and its ok , still not sure ,   so i will have a go today  . Cheers Vaughn