anybody replaced instrument panel bulbs with LEDs?

[adamm]

toying with the idea prior to refitting the instrument panel/dash etc? how did it turn out, where did you get them, which ones did you use? tia

[BarryA]

lighting (at least on older vehicles) relies on "diffused" light, the highly directional nature of LED's would probably not provide enough light "scatter" inside the guage housing if an existing filament type bulb was replaced with a single LED or a small cluster in the original location. Probably the only way to make LED gauge illumination work effectively in older style gauges would be to disassemble the gauge housing and install a ring of LEDs around the inside of the housing so the light would be evenly distributed around the housing.

The exception would be "idiot lights" - a single LED behind the lens of an indicator light would probably work ok, since all that light shines straight out toward the driver.

[polloelastico]

Using PIA bulbs is fairly common, although a bit expensive.

[M42_02]

When I replaces my "wood grain" gauge pod with an earlier one I put led lights in as the backlighting and for all the other lights in the gauge pod as well. I used 194 style wedgebase bulbs, the backlights aren't as bright as I had hoped but not any worse then the orginal bulbs. I used the 1 led wide viewing angle bulb in white as the backlight. I just found the 12 led bulb with wide viewing angle I might have to buy some of those. Heres the website I got the bulbs from. I had no problems ordering from them.http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=CAR&keywords=&cart_id=493394.1498&next=50

[robsanab]

clean the inside of the panel really good and just get the wedge lights that are rated for 5w instead of the stock 3w. It's really nice... the 5 watt upgrade won't overload or overheat anything (do you have an alternator upgrade? that helps with light brightness as well) and much cheaper than the PIAA's (which i believe are 5watt).

[adamm]

thanks all, very interesting - i'll let you know what i decide