If you haven't seen these yet, companies now make sealed LED and COB LED replacement T10/168 lamps that fit the stock twist sockets on our cars.



Saw them at Autozone and got the idea of converting over my dimly, half-lit gauge cluster completely over to LEDs (and the interior as well). Had to buy about 18 of them for the conversion for my 88 from Amazon. They are also POLARIZED since they are light emitting diodes. Knew this ahead of time, and the T10's had a blue line for the anode (+). To install them properly, you will need to examine the flex board on the back of the cluster and determine where the grounds are. The opposite contact will then be your positive. Usually they are shared between the lamps and the gauges, but actually trying them out will be necessary.

I tried "bench testing" my cluster and after testing a few circuits got an unwelcome answer to a nagging question I always had: wonder how bad it is to have to repair a burnt trace on that flex board? Despite the bit of extra unplanned soldering, the results are nice. Gauges that I can actually SEE at night!

 

Great find, that price though.

 

There's something like eleven bulbs in the cluster. Add another two for the shift quadrant and the HVAC control and that's 13 bulbs. There are a few more for the warning lights and turn signal indicators as well.

+$150 just for bulbs??



Since they're Philips, I guess the trade-off is you'll probably never get any DOA's out of the package and they'll probably last longer than the car.

I've purchased LED replacements for 194/168's from Superbright and I've gotten a few DOA's and some that fail after a short while.

 

I had a similar experience with the 194 LEDs. Lots of doa's

 

The price is a killer with the Phillips. My conversion actually used 18 total lamps to do all the indicators as well. I wanted to get the non-polarized ones that work both ways, but those are $15 per bulb, so I had to settle for the cheaper polarized ones. No DOAs, tho, and they are potted and sealed so I dont have to worry about them taking a dump later on. Phillips says they last 12 years or so. The only complaint I have is that obviously the dimmer no longer works due to the light load. Its full brilliance all the way or nothing. If I want dimming, I'll have to build a PWM control circuit to dim them.