I finally dug into my dash, took the proper voltage readings, and heat formed 350,000 MCD worth of pure white led's into my dash. This is a completely raw build, with resistors and uncut led's. I wanted to spread the light a very certain way.

Considering I do this stuff for a living you'd think I would have done it sooner, but I hate working on german car dashes. They are a PITA to work on inside the cluster.

Anywho, I know these pics aren't the best, but it's 5:20 am and I have been working all night on it. I'm going to sleep!

 

nice job hope i can try it when I have the time but did you get any "lamp defective" error messages from the screen??

Anyways i'm waiting for a diagram of the LEDs so I can get cracking

 

Looks excellent. Now you need white needles.

 

wow! nice work!

 

It doesn't look as good as you think, it is very bland.

You can see all the different ways I have built led units here for example:

http://lextech.org/gallery/index.php

I think this is about the best combination for my taste, nice and clean. This is the white on white below. Too bland for me.

 

1- error messages are for exterior bulbs, not interior.

2- you don't need a diagram it is just 4 bulb sockets and they are easy. You have to aim many led's a certain way or the cluster will spot up badly. It's a matter of crossing the led's the right way to achieve a solid and flat light with no bright spots. It's more trial and error than anything until you get a feel for it, there is not a way to teach that it - is all technique.

The two outer bulb holes are + down and - up if looking at the rear. The 2 inner bulb holes are the reverse - down and + up.

You can stuff three led's per hole and angle them in there to achieve the best light spread. I used 20k MCD pure white led's and you can use whatever resistors are compatible with the particular led's you purchase.

You cannot go buy these screw in led's. You have to solder in raw led's so you can angle them. If you just pop in 4 screw in led's the cluster will spot horribly and look like a ghetto honda.

 

Looks real nice just like my S-Class! Quick question? I have a 1995 Nissan Quest the dash lights have mostly gone out any tips on DIY to replace them. Thanks for all the info!

 

You just need to take voltage readings and go from there. Every cluster is different inside. In the end what makes the difference between a DIY amateur job and a pro job is the technique involved in the finished product. Aiming is critical. Clusters spot up by nature, working the dim and bright spots out is like working bondo and paint...... it's all technique. A pro can whip it out in an hour, a DIY project may take a backyard guy all day. Just keep working until it's right.

I have about half the job done on this, and I'll be back in it later tonight finishing up the little odds and ends.

 

Love it, great job man.

 

Since the white looks too bland (and I'd agree) why didn't you try another color? I looked for yellow gauges on your site but I didn't find any. Is there a reason for that or did I not look hard enough?

 

White on white is bland, yellow on white is clean.

 

Could you explain how you did this in simpler terms? lol im kind of lost here. Did you just check the voltage and switch out the bulbs?

 

that is beautiful....are you going to do the rest of the car? ie center console, the seat control area on the door?

 

very nice...good work

 

Honestly it takes a little bit of electrical experience to do this and if those instructions didn't do much for you, I'd only be hurting your chances of success by going any further.

At the moment. hope to be done tomorrow.

 

nice...wish you lived closer so you can help me do mine!

 

Mad Props!!!

-Michael

 

interesting way of getting it done.

I heard that the gauge faces are tinted in amber which means no matter what color LEDs you put you will still get an amber tint but I guess I was proven wrong

 

Well the consistency looks top-notch. Usually there is a lot of light dropoff but your's looks very even and professional. As far as bland, maybe the chrome rings would help it out.

 

Yes, I have been wanting to use the rings! I will order them right after I get ahold of my new flex coupler for my BMW's drive shaft.

 

understated elegance

 

Looks very nice. Since you have lots of knowledge on the subject I was wondering if you could help me out with bulb sizes and the amount of bulbs needed for me to do the same but with replacement bulbs in a color of my choice but in many areas of the interior.

1. What is the code for the bulbs ( is it 194 ) needed on the cluster and how many are there?

2. What is the code for the bulbs on the a/c panel and how many are there?

3. What is the code for the bulbs on the center consol and how many are there to complete the entire thing?

Thanks.

 

No idea bub, I've never replaced the bulbs with bulbs, and I've only done the cluster so far with led's which do not have numbers, they are raw.