The left side of my tachometer light, from about 1k-3k, is burnt out. Obviously I'm going to take apart the dash and change the bulbs, but I just wanted to go ahead and change them to LED's along with the clock and climate lights.

Where can I go to find out which LED bulbs I need and also is there a write-up on here of how to get behind the instrument cluster?

I saw the DIY on the clock light, so I know how to remove that part of the dash, but when it comes to getting to the bulbs behind the cluster, I'm lost. I just want a little heads up before I spend all afternoon tearing it apart.

Thanks

 

Well once you take off that part of the dash, the cluster will just be sitting there. Four screws are holding it in, so just take them out.

Total of 6 screws including the 2 to remove the dash.

The bulbs are on the back of the cluster. Just twist out, and twist in.

What color do you want? There's a blue film on the gauges. You will have to remove that unless you want blue.

 

I just want something to match the rest of the LED's that I have in my car (like the dome light). What do you mean there is a blue film on gauges? They are kinda yellowish lights now behind the gauges.

Also, where can I purchase the replacement LED's? I've ordered from V-LEDs before, can I go there?

 

I've replaced my clock light and many other lights back there and it's relatively easy if you are patient and have a helper with small hands. That just involves removing the large plastic "front" of the dash. But to get behind the gauge cluster, you'll have to remove the cluster itself as Karanx7 mentioned. I actually would like to figure out how to get the plastic away from the gauges sometime so I can extract a dead gnat. So let me know what you find with respect to accessing the gauge faces. I would love to get that gnat out of there but don't want to waste my time if the plastic is not separable.

 

I'd imagine it's sealed to the housing. You would probably have to heat it up, separate, remove old sealant, and laying down new sealant.

But you gotta always thing...if it's sealed that tough, how did that gnat ever get in there?

 

The cluster isn't sealed. The plastic cover is held in by clips. There's maybe 6 of them. It's all plastic and the clips can break somewhat easily if you're not careful. I broke 1 or 2 when taking mine apart but it's still holding together just fine so you wouldn't be screwed if you broke a couple.

 

Hmmm...easier than I thought.

 

All the bulbs on the TL are regular bulbs (not LEDs). Those bulbs light up yellowish like you said. However, the retarded designers of the TL decided, "Let's make our gauge color vomit green."

So they added a blue film to the gauges. Blue film + Yellow bulbs = Vomit green color.

So if you want red or something, you will end up with a purplish (red + blue = purple). If you want blue, you don't have to mess with the film. Keep in mind, you will get a light blue if you install white LEDs.

If you have a TL-P, I can guide you through the blue film removal. If you have a Type-S, your probably gonna break it, so I'd rather you didn't try.
Yea, it's not sealed. You shouldn't break any clips if you are careful. Actually, I would go as far as to say that you would need to be reckless. How did you break those clips? You must have just went at it 100% brute lol.

 

I don't know dudeShit just broke. I wouldn't say I was completely reckless, just was using a flathead and bent the plastic a biiit too much, once or twice. I might have been anxious and went too fast.

There's a video from OntarioTL which shows how to clear the film off. If you were curious.
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...cluster&page=6

 

Thanks for the info. I have a Type S and I really don't care about the blue film, I'll just leave it there. All I really want to know is what are the bulbs I need to buy and what LED will fit in its place.

 

Any info on what type of bulb to replace it with?

 

They are the 74 type bulb. You can get them either at:

Ledautomotive.com
Autolumination.com

 

seeing as i just broke my hand yesterday, i probably wont fix this anytime soon. but do these bulbs just plug in? or is there soldering required? also, how many bulbs are behind the cluster