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So I went out on a limb and puchased a new style of leds for the instrument cluster. They are 2x brighter than the sbl 5led for the most part, tell you why down the page.

Here is a pic showing the two.



Both contain 5 leds, the only differance is the newer style has smt style leds.


Here we have the new ones installed and lit.
(daytime pic)



And this is where the flaw of these leds come out, not really the leds fault though. The light from the smt style leds just isn't reaching the lower limits in the cluster board, I would blame this on the design of the cluster since the light to illumintae down their is right under the turn signal lights.

I will be experimenting putting maybe a different style of led there in the future but for now, i put one of the sbl leds there and you can really tell the differance between the two styles..








Unfortunatly I will have no night pictures soon, I have burnt some type of chip on the board and i had to put my black old cluster in the car. (don't worry its not related to these leds..)

it almost looks like the LEDs for the center of the two gauges isn't working.

The new ones are bright as hell though

Danteneon wrote: it almost looks like the LEDs for the center of the two gauges isn't working.

The new ones are bright as hell though

I know, I thought at first I had the bulb reversed but nope.

I just tested one of my 5led, tower style in the cluster and it just barely fit. This led is identical in size to the 9led tower that i just put in the license plate light. So I may test this out first.

One other idea i have is to custimize the socket for the bulb. As in having the led bulb point 90 degrees to where it sits now, aiming it at the bottom of the board.

I have plenty of time though since i have to search for a new cluster.

I may just go outside now and check them out...

Looks like 4 more leds is all it needed. I swapped the 9 led towers from my license plate light and stuck it in there, very snug if i may add. Looks like it solved the problem.







SO as of right now the cluster consists of:
2 sbl red 5leds (turn signals) unchanged
5 smt 5 led white
1 tower smt 9 led white.

I cannot wait until it gets dark out and I see how bright these puppies really are

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought the tower SMTs would fit in there. Good to know.

Is it dark yet?

Well I havn't tried putting them in any other location other than that plug.

This is what the tower looks, like.



Its only slightly larger than the leds in the cluster.

SO through my experiences, no led wider than 11mm(or.433in) will fit throught the cluster opening.( except for the sbl 5leds)

If all the depths are the same on the cluster, I'll test this later, than nothing longer than 32mm (or1.259in) will fit in their..

If the smt towers were cheaper I would do the whole cluster with em but for 10 bucks a pop, nah...

I hear ya about the price. I used the tower 25 in my 3rd brake lamp. Awesome light, but it's a good thing it only takes 1 $75.00 for LEDs in my brake lamps alone

Honestly they don't look any different than how mine are lit other than you have more dark spots than I do. I know you had issues with yours but I'm not impressed with the SMD's at all enough to swap to them. It looks like the center is very dull even with the tower compared to the outside.

LilSparkPlug wrote:Honestly they don't look any different than how mine are lit other than you have more dark spots than I do. I know you had issues with yours but I'm not impressed with the SMD's at all enough to swap to them. It looks like the center is very dull even with the tower compared to the outside.

'

i think yours look the best so far, his are a deeper blue. Although i cant wait to see them at nite

There is only really one dark spot on the whole cluster which is the large gaping center.



I don't think its aweful looking but It could use some work.



Needle illumintaion is awesome and the gas and coolant gauges are perfect.

I think I have the solution to lighting the center of the board.

Now that I will have a spare cluster to work with, I will have alot of fun and maybe try taking it apart.

the 80mph to 120mph brightness is exactly what my sbl's were, in contrast...

You can find my sbl picture in my led thread, these pics were taken with the same camera.....

If you can fix that...it will be on point

I think, if I can somehow get the tower led in the socket hole and have it 90 degrees facing the bottom of the cluster, that there would be no dim spots. Now I know if this works that most people would stray from these leds, But I"ll be happy with my bright ass cluster..

I still blame the cluster and not the leds, lol..

Are you sure it'd the cluster design that is causing that? The reason I ask is...





And that is "only" a Vamp kit. I have no dark spots there

Had to put the scapegoat on something, lol..

In a way, yes the cluster is at fault but so are the leds. I am going to play around with them tonight when it gets darker.. Like twisting them around so the light shines where it needs to and see where I"m at...

Hmmm !! I like this !!
So from the picture which one is the good one ?
The right one or the other !?
My guess is the right one !! Stupid question ! lol..lol..!

warriorr wrote:Hmmm !! I like this !!
So from the picture which one is the good one ?
The right one or the other !?
My guess is the right one !! Stupid question ! lol..lol..!

As of right now based on other peoples experiences, the sbl 5leds are winning....

But I may become victorious!!!!

Stay tuned, I am plying doctor and the cluster is my patient.... Having too much fun, lol

I'll get pictures up later if my "upgrades" work....

Mwhaha..

Almost there. just needs a little more tweaking...

I have fixed it!


Srry for the blur this camera isn't good for night pics on that setting.


This is what I had to do in order to get it to work.



I took alot of plastic away and added another 5led in there, I wired them both up to the that socket and it worked. It took alot of time to get the positioning of the leds right but, it works.

The results are ok, there is still a small differnence across the board.

I may try putting one of these in place on the new cluster. Like I said, this one is now my experimentation cluster.

LOL Wow you are a determined little shit aren't you!?

LilSparkPlug wrote:LOL Wow you are a determined little shit aren't you!?

Looks good!

LilSparkPlug wrote:LOL Wow you are a determined little shit aren't you!?

I got a good laugh out of that Thank you!

I may be getting the 25 smt board on thursday. That should fix my dim issues

And I have to email auto lumination about this:

"The Widest, Brightest and Best 194 168 W5W 2825 Ever Made!

Outfitted with 5X of the latest Super High-Flux low profile Leds.

Aluminum heat sink keeps them cool in hot & smaller housings to avoid heat related failure

Designed especially for gauges, and applications requiring extra cooling - 1x forward + 4x side facing leds

11mm diameter x 23mm overall"

I was just looking them over and they only have 3 side facing leds and 1 on top.. hmm no wonder I had problems...

Got a reply from autolumination.

HI Ryan-

Sorry--That desciption is a mistake.

I need to fix it.

We do not actually have any with 4 side facing leds.

Now those sobs have an angry email...

I'll still use them since I got them to work but, maybe I can get something out of them.

One more thing, I was looking at some pics with my sbl's and the two styles have just about the same dark spots.



Except for the center.

About that I figured out why the smt style didn't light there. I put that spare in my license plate and the foward facing smt was pretty much dead, it would glow very dim..

So now I have to put a working one of those in the center and see what that looks like. Although I am exetremely happy with the way my butchered cluster looks

i really like the blue