i spent this past weekend doing this mod with a friend and it's been a P.I.T.A to put it lightly. i almost got everything done right, but i have a few problem areas. first off, my needles aren't nearly bright enough. as you can see here...

i tried shinning white leds into the needle when i had the gauge faces off, but i found that red leds lit it up better. but after messing around with it, i found that the red was mixing with parts of the blue in some areas and it looked bad. so next weekend i'm going to switch out the red leds for white ones. if i hover the gauge faces over the leds w/o actually mounting them, i can get the needles to light up really bright though with the red leds. secondly, my climate control display is SLIGHTLY brighter on one end than the other, you may not be able to tell in the picture below, but its a bit brighter on the left side. is there a filter that i should remove for that display (the climate control is actually more blue than what it looks like in the picture)

one more problem is that the clock display isn't as bright as the climate control (i removed the filter from the clock already) i guess i can try and mess with the bending of the clock led to get it brighter?

so can any of you guys give me any tips on how to fix the problem with the uneven brightness (i already shaved the led tips to disperse the light more evenly) on the climate control and how to get the needles to light up brighter w/o the white mixing in with the blue? also, i tried putting in white leds for the odometer but it didn't work (possibly because it wasn't drawing enough voltage) so i put the stock bulbs back in, but now the right side is kind of dim. any tips on any of these issues would really help. here are a few more misc. pictures...

 

Well, I have no help for you whatsoever. I would like to say, from the looks of it, should look pretty damn cool when all is said and done! I give you an "A" for effort. One down side... Radio, shift gate...

 

I had the same problem-- my solution was to use bigger LED's. The "bright spot" of the LED needs to be at the same position as the filament of the light bulb being replaced-- the needles have a plastic lens that is focused at that point, so if you do not have the light soure at the right point, you'll get poor needle illumination.

Here at the LED's I used...
8mm 13 Lumen White LED (They come in other colors too... but what is important to notice is the forward current of these diodes is 150mA, versus 25mA for a standard 5mm LED... i.e. these LEDs are MUCH brighter than anything you can get in a 3 or 5mm package(

I sanded down the tops of them to get rid of hotspots...

I tried several other smaller LEDs and bundles of smaller LEDs with generally unsatisfactory results...


_Larry

 

lol, my cd changer is broken anyway...so when i have enough money, i'm gonna get a new headunit that matches the interior. i haven't gotten around to the shifter plate yet, but i will

 

leroix, i was wondering what you thought of the possibility of using the pure blue radial led on ledautomotive.com for the cluster and then using a 3mm white led pointed in the direction of the plastic lens that focuses on the needle?

 

They may work-- the ledautomotive.com website is pretty short on the technical details about the radial LEDs... and I'm not sure that you could easily modify it to replace the center one. And since they're all 3mm LEDs im SURE they wont be bright enough, perhaps cumulatively, but I think you could get a much better beam quality using better/bigger LEDs...

Illuminating red plastic with a blue LED is basically impossible, but I guess you won't get the effect you're looking for without using blue LEDs...

Here is a picture of my gauges... the center gauge is illuminated by TWO of the LEDs from the link in the previous post... The blue tint of the numbers comes from the blueish paint on the back sides of the gauges... the needles are *very* bright (I have the gauge dimmer knob at about 2/3's...)






_Larry

 

damn you people, that looks awesome. Anyone have a how-to on it?

 

wow very nice work i want to do this real bad do you think you'll have a DIY guide coming in the future?

 

looks really good, however as you said before i'm going for the darker blue color. hopefully this will work out

 

i've spent about 18 hours on this project already...its a real pain in the ass, but hopefully i'll get everything perfect. ledautomotive.com has a how-to on doing basically the whole interior already.

 

I agree... this project is a real PITA... damn Acura for painting the back of the gauges with the blue paint, it really muddles the pure light coming from the LEDs. I don't have the courage to try and strip them...

I wish there were reverse indiglo gauges for the CL-S 6 cluster...

_Larry

 

hey leroix, i redid my gauges today using the pure blue led's i got from ledautomotive and i'm almost 100% happy with them. i also used some white led's and pointed them on the plastic piece that illuminates the needles, they're not quite as bright as i want them to be but they'll do for now. i might try using red led's in a few months from now instead of the white ones. i was wondering though if you have any problems with the white light from your led's leaking into the "P, R, N, D5, etc." display on your tachometer? i have a little bit of blue and white leaking onto that area and it kind of bugs me...i tried builing a wall with some tape, but it hasn't worked too well. any suggestions? lastly, have you tried doing your shift gate yet? i heard it's a bigger PITA to open it than the rest of the project.

 

leroix would you be willing to do the same to my car for a fee?

 

I have a 6-spd so, no P-N-R-D or shift gate on my car but I dont have any light leaks into the other indicators...

and robeanee, I'm *over* doing LED conversions, IMO its more work than its worth... but if you have any questions or get stuck, send me a msg.

_Larry

 

how long would you predict for the whole process to take? i have a 5AT by the way, so please take into consideration the shift gate as well.

 

man, you're so lucky...since u dont have the P-N-R-D indicator you dont have any light leaks! damn you!!!

 

do you have any soldering experience? i'd say if you prepare everything ahead of time by buying extra bulb holders and soldering the resistors onto the led's and then sticking them onto the bulb holders during your spare time here and there...it should only take a few hours to pull the dash and plug the new leds in. if you don't buy new bulb holders and just pull the dash, it'll take a lot longer in one sitting. i dont know about the shift gate because i haven't tried to take it off to get to the bulbs yet...i might not get to it for a few months though, i start pharmacy school in a few weeks and it is HOT AS HELL down here in houston! if you do attempt to do it, just PM me or leroix and we'll give you some helpful tips to cut down on the time it takes to do this project. i wish i had someone to tell me about all the problems i ran into before it happened...