LED Gauge Bulbs

[GEMELLI]

I've done quite a bit of research on this subject, both here and elsewhere. I know what bulbs and how many of each, but I'm curious about the colors people are choosing for their stock gauges. I'm leaning towards red, but let's see some pictures and descriptions of what you did.

 

[fauXGT]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

There is a stock light blue tint to the gauges, so whatever color bulb you put in will be effected by that. I pulled the cluster apart to try and change that. No go.
I just put in bright white LEDs, and now it shows off the blue color more. Just sent off my Speedhut pod gauges back to have the night color changed to light blue to match the factory cluster. They are a bit more expensive, but I have heard nothing but great things about them & their products. Plus the setup looks almost factory. But the change to a different color was only $15 per gauge + shipping.

 

[GEMELLI]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

My factory gauges are so washed out, I didn't realize they were supposed to be blue. Thank you for that info. I don't think I'd want to end up with purple gauges. :rainbow: I really like the Speedhut faces too, but it bothers me that their name has to be on them.

 

[Flyin Ryan]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

used blue and switched out to white.. blue was too dim and white gave it that new car type look

 

[Logan]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Sean Krupa has a build thread on his Ty and he did the LED cluster with white bulbs if I remember correctly and his cluster looks on-point. It has the blue-ish hue to it but is bright as hell and gives the interior an updated look.

 

[GEMELLI]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

I've looked at both Sean's, and yours Ryan, and they definitely look better than stock, but I was hoping to get a look at someone who has changed the color of their stock gauges. It sounds like blue would need to be fairly powerful to make up for the lack of mcd of the blue led vs a white or even a red or green. I'll search around a bit more tonight, but I'm still leaning towards red. Thank you for the replies so far!

 

[Cronic fatigue]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Bubba might have some pics!!!

 

[fauXGT]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

When I get my Speedhut pod gauges back & in, I'll post a pick of the new look.

 

[Mephisto]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

I've done quite a bit of research on this subject, both here and elsewhere. I know what bulbs and how many of each, but I'm curious about the colors people are choosing for their stock gauges. I'm leaning towards red, but let's see some pictures and descriptions of what you did.

if you're keeping the stock gauge faces and plan to go with red LEDs, then as earlier stated you might see a bit of a purple hue to them... If you want white numbers, get the warm white LEDs, if you want a bit of blue then get cool white LEDs, and if you want blue numbers get blue LEDs.

These guys have pretty much everything you could need and I've yet to get a bad bulb from them which is more than can be said about the crap on ebay.

I bought the NR Auto (no longer available) white face gauges with red numbers and went with red LEDs. I originally had white LEDs but it washed out the red and made the numbers look pink (can't have any of that) so I went with red.

I'll post some pics when I can, but like most gauge pics they'll probably look like shit.

 

[GEMELLI]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Bubba might have some pics!!!

I highly doubt Bubba has any idea what LEDs even are. :roll:

When I get my Speedhut pod gauges back & in, I'll post a pick of the new look.

That would be great. Thank you!

if you're keeping the stock gauge faces and plan to go with red LEDs, then as earlier stated you might see a bit of a purple hue to them... If you want white numbers, get the warm white LEDs, if you want a bit of blue then get cool white LEDs, and if you want blue numbers get blue LEDs.

These guys have pretty much everything you could need and I've yet to get a bad bulb from them which is more than can be said about the crap on ebay.

I bought the NR Auto (no longer available) white face gauges with red numbers and went with red LEDs. I originally had white LEDs but it washed out the red and made the numbers look pink (can't have any of that) so I went with red.

I'll post some pics when I can, but like most gauge pics they'll probably look like shit.

I've looked all over eBay, but I think I'm going with superbrightleds. For the extra money, it's worth the peace of mind. Thank you for your input. I look forward to seeing your pictures.

 

[Mephisto]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

here's a not so good photo of my gauges with red LEDs

 

[Logan]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

How did the red turn out n your opinion? Any suggestions or things to differently. Red looks pretty nice.

 

[Flyin Ryan]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

here's a not so good photo of my gauges with red LEDs

I'd suggest going up to a 15 smd or higher bulb to cut down on the hot spot look unless it's the camera giving off that look

 

[Mephisto]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

I'd suggest going up to a 15 smd or higher bulb to cut down on the hot spot look unless it's the camera giving off that look

it's a little bit of both... it's a little bit brighter in that one spot, but you barely notice it at night... the camera brings it out quite a bit.

 

[InvisiBill]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

I'll probably be putting LEDs in 0187 when I get to worrying about that level of stuff... I hate taking the cluster out, so anything that helps me not have to do that is great in my book.


It's not exactly the same, but here are my Ninja's gauges with the 3 stock bulbs and white LED "bulbs" swapped in.

OEM

LED

It's really amazing how much cleaner and crisper the gauges look with just swapping from incandescent bulbs to LED bulbs - they look old and faded right from the factory. Other people took the whole cluster apart and put little LED boards in to minimize hotspots and illuminate areas better, and removed some of the heat shields, but I'm really happy with just these three PnP LED 194 bulbs. They were ~$10 on eBay - you can get decent ones online if you know exactly what to search for (and the seller is actually honest about what they have).

The ones I got were 5-SMD (5050) units, with 4 around the sides and 1 on the top.

If you've got a hotspot from an LED, one ghetto way to diffuse it a bit is to just put a glob of hot glue on the top. It won't block too much light, but will help kill a bit of that laser-beam effect.

 

[fauXGT]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Got the pod gauges back today.
Really like the look now.
Looks pretty close to factory.

 

[GEMELLI]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

I really appreciate all the responses! ^^ These look great!

I'm not sure why, but I can't see your picture, Mephisto. I know it's there, but I can't see it. Can you pm it to me? I'm not sure why that might help, but I'd really like to see your results.

 

[InvisiBill]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Got the pod gauges back today.
Really like the look now.
Looks pretty close to factory.

That's with bright white LEDs installed? It really does look quite blue (compared to my Ninja gauges with bright white LEDs above).

 

[fauXGT]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

Yep. didn't think it would be that blue, so I pulled it all apart to see if I could eliminate the blue. Gauge faces have a laminate with the blue tint. So I decided to convert the pod gauges to the light blue @ Speedhut. $15 per gauge to convert.

The 15 LED bulb

 

[Ruddell]

Re: LED Gauge Bulbs

If you want white numbers, get the warm white LEDs, if you want a bit of blue then get cool white LEDs,

If the cool white LEDs make the gauges look blue would that not be caused from the bulb giving off a white light? White LEDs should mean white gauges but it sounds like it comes out blue tinted. I am thinking about the fact that the factory color has that distinctive sea greenish look. The stock bulbs would give off that regular old amber/yellowish, or more suited as a warm light. Would the warm white LED really make the gauges look white or would they actually come out looking more like that original sea green type color? I have considered doing this upgrade before but was hesitant because ive oldly always liked the sea green color as came stock.