lights behind gauge cluster

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:00 pm

okay so the lights behind my gauge cluster are for that most of it, out. that makes it a pita to see while driving - anyway, i'm going to be tearing the car up to get it in better shape to sell ove the next month or so, and i thought i'd replace the lights. Now the real question is this: can i jsut go in there, snip a few wires, and then replace them with LEDS? or is there going to be more to it than that?

someone help? :-p

also chris, whats that forum for the LEDs, i lost it along with all my bookmarks.

Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:17 pm

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewfor ... fb2fe03b55

Look how this guy did his retro.
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewtop ... highlight=

that makes it a ton easier!!

geolemon · Post by **geolemon** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:41 pm

You sure could straight-up replace them with LED's... IF you had 12-15v LED's.

Otherwise, you'll either need to wire them in series or series/parallel to divide the voltage to the proper range (you probably are installing more than one anyway).

And of course you know you'll need to figure out how to aim them so they aren't shining their spotlight beam on just some little spot of the dash, or worse straight into your eyeballs.

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:44 pm

hell yeah it does. i'm going to find those led strips and use some of those.do i just tap into the same place my current wires do?

while i'm in there i can fix the odometer.. ooh,i feel a trip to the junk yard tommarah! specially if i get my credit card in the mail :>

geolemon · Post by **geolemon** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:47 pm

Sure, if it's not difficult to tap - that's the best place. That way, you know you have 12v-14.4v when you are supposed to, and none when you are not.

Oh, watch out though - those LED strips are probably a strip of LED's that are wired in parallel, not series - and that means each LED (or the whole strip) needs to be able to operate on 12v-15v.

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:02 pm

no, they're actually wired in series. i'm abuot to buy a group of four and hopefully do up something simular to what the guy with the eclipse did.

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:17 pm

Funny, mine decided to stop working a couple months ago and I figured it'd be too much work to try to get back there and replace them.
I'll have to check out what work it actually entails and see if my Haynes manual has details on it...

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:17 pm

well its too late for me to do that. i bought the led strips :P shouldn't be too much though. i may buy a spare gauge cluster just to be safe.

shouldn't be too hard of a project.. i am unsure of how to mount them but will find out when i get them huh?