I have finally gotten around to replacing to my bulbs in the instrument cluster. I noticed that there were three different colors of sockets and each color had a bulb that was specific to it. My question is do I need to maintain this setup or should all of the bulbs and sockets be the same?

 

They should all be 194 bulbs, nothing special that I'm aware of.

 

Thank you man. This is the last step besides registration before getting her on the road again

 

Didn't some bulbs have a different rating too them ?? Weren't some of the "dimmer" and some "brighter" than others ??

I also notice that those little bulbs also tend to have a different color "element" inside them too, some are tan, some are white. or blue,... does that indicate anything ?? ( probably just a different manufacturer I'd assume ? )

Don't know if the color of the sockets makes any kind of difference - but I am always careful to put the socket back in the same hole it came from,.. & to replace sockets using only the same color !!

 

I believe they're all the same. I work for Ford (Ironically) and sometimes colors are used in the factory for added/deleted options. Not sure if GM does the same. I've redone my cluster with all the same bulbs, no problems. I may do LED's next time.

 

On the mobile site so I can't see if yours is a camaro or bird. I was curious about this too but I've read so many different things

 

Firebirds have a small sheath that goes around the bulb that turns the color red. Camaro's don't have this. Go to Autozone, find the 194 bulbs for your dash lights, and use them. Plug and play.

 

Thank you sir! Next I have to try and find all the bolts to get it.out

 

Holy back from the dead Batman!!!
How many bulbs are need to replace all of the Firebird instrument cluster bulbs? any issue using the brighter 168 bulbs?

 

Double post

 

There are a bunch of them, I can't recall the exact number because I went to "Bulbs USA" and bought a couple of boxes of each different type that was specified in the FSM (never hurts to have some spares). Also, I would not use any larger wattage bulb than the factory installed due to the possibility of the excess heat melting the plastic. If you really need them brighter than stock you may want to look into LEDs, at fractions of the wattage (and heat) of the originals they are way brighter than the originals, but of course come with their own nuances as well (must observe polarity, some of them don't dim all that well, some have a very harsh white/blue light) .

 

I don't know about Firebirds, but my Camaro had different wattage bulbs depending on what color the socket was. If it's not too much trouble, it might be best to pull all your gauges and check before buying. Here's my thread where I got it sorted out:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...lb-socket.html

I replaced everything with the same wattage bulb that came out, and can confirm the lighting is even across all the gauges.

 

Yep Komet is right, there are at least two if not three different wattages (I'd have to look at the parts stash to be sure) , and the plastic sockets are color coded as to which bulb goes where

 

OrangeBird, Komet appreciate the insight, I currently have my steering column taken down and thought now might be a good time to swap out the 30 year old bulbs.