if u look at the refracter/matrix type led bulbs they are designed ith 1 led on top and 4 around the sides, now when u put those in the holders and into the dash the light spread sometimes is uneven due to the direction the bulbs might be pointing in,
i found i had to switch the bulbs around from one holder to the next to get the spread of light i was happy with, the end result is above for all to see, and my bulbs worked for over a year without failure. i just replced them when i fit my new dials,

Man.....this tread should have been written earlier, ive just bought blue leds for my gauges and im not really happy with them. As some says, light is not spread everywhere.....

Well My new idea with my guages are gonna be just get a plain bright white bulb. Paint all my numbers with a translusent red paint. And i'm going to keep my needles white. So the numbers are going to be bright red, and the needle white. I've been trying to get mine perfect. But what i was trying before wasn't working so i came up with a new idea. The best bet would be to get regular bulbs not LED's They don't spread very good.

Work in progress!



The sanding really paid off. I'm putting in the refractor leds next week and painting the needles red

sanded? how do you do that? sand the dials with sand paper?

yea thats how you get the green off the back i guess. If i go to paint the numbers red. What kind of paint do i use to make it glow when the lights turn on?

SvenRG when you sanded them. Did you take all the needles off? if so i know how to reset the spadometer and the RPM but how would you reset the gas and heat needles? Let me know thanks.


This post has been edited by celiracer: Oct 9, 2006 - 5:13 PM

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I'm thinking of using deep red, mixed with clear finishing paint for more transarancy. When I sanded the back of the dials, I did not take them off.. but bended them slightly. Slowly working around it. You will hear the glue pop off now and then, but that's ok. Just be careful not to bend too far. I've had no problems there, and the faces did not stay bended or anything when i finished.

Thanks what is the paint called? And how are you going to paint it with it still on there with the needles?

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Nice! You got the solution to our concerns!

Fitted some refractor leds to fix the hotspots. It sure helps!
I was hoping on some more overall brightness, but this is still pretty damn cool!

You might wanna try swapping a couple of them around, like P5ycho said, to get the light spread a little more evenly.

Few photos from my speedometer...





Sorry for the bad quality..

Damn, my xenon white refractor leds (cheap chines ones form ebay) have developed a problem. The middle one in the gauge cluster keeps breaking down. It worked fine for a month or so, then started flashing like a broken light in a highway restroom I replaced the LED bulb... broken from the start! Replaced with another (yeah i got some spares) and it worked again. But not for long. After a week, the same flashing problem. What do you guys think? Electrical problem or just crappy leds? The outer ones are the same kind and work fine.

By the way, a friend of mine took apart a spare cluster gauge unit he had lying around from his ST205. We looked at the inner workings of the lighting. It's actually a solid clear plastic disc what's behind the gauges, that has a little curved extension to it. And that is where the light bulbs are placed. The light then spreads through the whole disc and illuminates evenly. I think the problem with the LEDs is that they are just too bright for the disc too spread evenly. That's why the multi-direction 5-LED bulbs that I have make no better illumination than single direction ones.

I think I'm gonna try some 5W parking light bulbs - like mentioned on the first page of this topic - before I shell out to get Matrix leds.

This post has been edited by SveNRG: Jan 5, 2007 - 3:57 AM

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nice wut kinda bulbs are those in there.....

any link to where i can get them...my car is dark green and i want to change all my lights to that color green in your pic....

hook me upp