Finally, after 140k miles I had a light burn out behind the instrument cluster. I assumed that bulbs hidden away like this were LED's but they are not. So I would like to make it right and replace them with LED bulbs that will never burn out again. They are #74 base I believe, and I was thinking of ordering from superbright leds.com. They have many choices, though and I was wondering if anyone has done this before which bulbs did you use and did you have a satisfactory result? I am not interested in changing the color of the light, and I have heard that I should get "natural white" instead of cool or warm white.
I've had good experiences with superbright LED's but it was buying LED strips for something non-car related (yeah, I got red LED mood lights around the bed, so what?). I found them for cheaper at ledlight.com but they were backordered for a couple of months. I never did get the cluster bulbs but I did do the research. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2328470&highlight=led+cluster reading through that, it tells you exactly how many and what kind. I came to the conclusion that using the 3 LED bulbs was good for the main guages and HVAC controls, while single bulbs were desirable for the Odometer and other areas like the glovebox and ashtray so they aren't so bright. edit: forgot the LED link for ledlight.com http://www.ledlight.com/t5-74-automotive-led-lights.aspx
I replaced my cluster and HVAC bulbs with red LEDs. I ordered a 15 pack of #74 bulbs with 1 SMD chip LED on top off of ebay for ~$7. The bulbs are about the same brightness as stock, the lighting isn't as evenly spread because the LEDs are directional. The stock gauges have a green film behind them so if you want the factory look just buy white LEDs. If you want the gauges to light up white, you'll need to remove the green film from behind the gauges with some nail polish remover.
Yeah, from what I've read, the single LED #74 bulbs are about the same brightness as stock, with the 3 LED #74 bulbs coming in much brighter. Got some pics? I'd love to see the results.
I think the future Volvo owner wagunz pwn has a thread about his LED experience with pics. check it out and the link I posted is the #74's I used on my build. Still working out some harness issues so no pics on my part.
searching their company name alone in google produces 3 pages of bad reviews of the company. have you been using them? whats your impressions of the company?
so to make sure they look 'right', i guess the idea is to take into consideration what kind of cover or 'lense' is over that particular bulb. i'm worried I'll get an led thats super bright... but only for a 30 degree cone on the top. most of the dashboard/panel lights have a cover that 'washes' the light evenly thru some kind of plastic prism or somesuch, right? so, if that lense needs light coming out of every direction from the bulb to look right, i don't want to spend $60 on interior lights that look.... knock-offish because of that.