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    LED instrument panel bulbs

    guys,
    half of my instrument panel lighting is out. i am about to remove it and change all the bulbs... i thought i saw on here that someone has installed LEDs... seems like it might be a nice addition...

    is it possible? is it just plug and play or do i need other stuff ??
    will they still be able to dim with the light knob??

    where do i get the bulbs? what size are they and are they all the same?

    any help please...
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    '90 325i sedan daily driven
    '85 325e coupe also a daily

    #2
    Why bother? Stock bulbs are plenty bright enough and are cheap. LEDs can be hard to find that are any brighter and you have to deal with getting the correct color temp to look right.

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      #3
      Makes sense.... Not sure I was thinking straight there...

      Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      '90 325i sedan daily driven
      '85 325e coupe also a daily

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        #4
        The only bulbs you can replace with LED are the two wedge type bulbs that do the majority of the backlighting on the cluster. The others have an oem proprietary base which isn't likely to be updated to an LED.

        LED's in general last much longer than standard incandescent and they don't get nearly as hot. As an incandescent bulb ages, it burns hotter than normal, and the two big ones in the cluster can cause the orange plastic around them to bubble and lose their translucency.

        With LEDs you just need to find some in 605nm orange (same color as the e30 cluster) with a wide viewing angle, in the correct size.

        At the very least, if one bulb is out, replace all of them, because they're cheap and the rest aren't too far behind.


        it's a Kenny Powers quote on wheels

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          #5
          Thanks for that info man.... Makes good sense now...

          Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          '90 325i sedan daily driven
          '85 325e coupe also a daily

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            #6
            These are the LEDs that I used for my cluster. I got the LEDs from Super Bright LEDs. You can check my thread (post 37) on my sig for a little bit more info.

            Gauge Cluster LEDs
            Illumination 2x --- 2821(194)
            Wedge for CEL and anti lock 2x --- 2721(74)
            Plastic Wedge for other lights 8x --- 2721MF(B8.5D) (I only got 8 for the lights that I'm keeping)
            Last edited by z28; 05-12-2017, 12:11 PM.
            First e30 - 1991 318i 4 door

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