Dash Bulb -> LED Conversion

[RobertK]

I'm not sure if this has ever been attempted before but my 50% of the bulbs in my dash are going or completely gone. Before I go out and replace them with the regular 5007s I thought about converting everything over to high intensity LEDs or "Laser" LEDs.

I tested by swapping the rear ashtray light with a white laser LED and it works like a champ. Now before I attempte to replace all my dash bulbs I want to make sure this has not been attempted before with electrical consequences.

The main idea is to replace all the bulbs with white laser LEDs that have been resurfaced to refract their light throughout the entire surface of the LED bulb since laser LEDs tend to put out a more directional bright light. The resurfaced LEDs "should" reproduce a brighter, colder light than the factory 5007 bulb would.

[AndrewBird]

No problem what so ever. The LED will draw less current, so if anything, LED's will help the electrical system by not drawing to much current and frying something (not that normal bulbs would do that).

A lot of MG guys do this and have great results.

[asubimmer]

what about using amber instead of white LED's?

[e30Matt]

what about using amber instead of white LED's?

Well there's already amber diffusers in the cluster, so you don't need to use amber LEDs.

Here's another thought... will you have to custom wire them to make them work with the dimmer?

[asubimmer]

I was just wondering b/c the LED's are prob brighter and so the cluster might look more white w/ bright white LED's. The cannon ones would prob be too bright.

[RobertK]

Well there's already amber diffusers in the cluster, so you don't need to use amber LEDs.

Here's another thought... will you have to custom wire them to make them work with the dimmer?

More than likely I will need to find a way to regulate the voltage going to the LED to make it much lower. Of course I keep my dimmer turned up all the way so it's not that big of a deal.

I guess the best way to deal with the dimmer is to put a resistor on the line?

As far as the color of the LED I may look into a red or amber LED and try to do a comparison.

[asubimmer]

a resistor would help

[cthulu703]

More than likely I will need to find a way to regulate the voltage going to the LED to make it much lower. Of course I keep my dimmer turned up all the way so it's not that big of a deal.

I guess the best way to deal with the dimmer is to put a resistor on the line?

As far as the color of the LED I may look into a red or amber LED and try to do a comparison.

I would probably put the resistor in parallel instead of in series. A screw pot might be a good idea, for fine adjustment.

[benDASHDASH]

I thought about doing the same thing, till I realized that the bulbs aren't hard to replace. I wouldn't want anything brighter anyway.

[turnofftheradio]

screw pot

the picture in my head is priceless. over there, in the corner...