I want pure red lighting in my gauges, so I went to NAPA and bought a full set of their brand of instrument cluster bulbs, in pure red.

It was great! Perfect pure red that looks seriously cool, and doesn't affect your night vision.

However, after a couple months I notice they're not pure red any more. The gauges are gradually taking on the old amber appearance. The coloring in the bulbs is apparently fading with time.

• Has anybody else gone pure red in their gauges?
• If so, did they stay red?
• If so, what bulbs did you buy?
• What about the colored rubber booties that slip over the bulbs? Has anyone tried those?

Thanks.

 

Not really sure if they would work but LED's last almost forever and never lose thier color. Thier light might be a little too focused though. Just a thought.

 

I used to have blue-coated bulbs for the interior lights and the same thing happened. The coating eventually burned off or faded from the heat and light of the bulbs. I tried the rubber covers for the bulbs and they just make the lights too dim.

Best option is to get LED-bulb replacements. Some auto-stores sell them but you're better off finding some on ebay because they would be cheaper on ebay.

 

I have the red LED in the a/c-heater control panel & shifter indicator, I'm disappointed in the brightness (not very). I'm going to switch either to green or blue.
This is where I purchased the bulbs:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...gi?product=CAR

 

LED's don't project light like bulbs do.They "glow".To get the birghter effect ya use clusters of LED's Like in the 18 wheelers trailer lights,or 3rd eye brake lights.When ya see them it's straight on so they glow real bright.But they don't brodcast a beam like headlights do or bulbs do.Yer clusters are lit up thru brodcast light.Light hits the clear lens behind the cluster and is spread out thru the lens to light up the cluster as a whole.LED's only glow so don't project the light into/thru the lens .They work great as pinpoints or if ya can put some kind of focousing (like ) mirror to direct the glow into the lens .Otherwise ya have bright spots where the led is and dim everywhere eklse.It explains it better on the sites that sell LED's .Now there ARE LED's that are set up with lens to almost project and led's with multible led's in em that work good as replacements for bulbs in dash but ya have to read the tech on it all to realy understand.

 

I just bought some blue light blub covers on E-bay. Autometer sells some at:
http://www.autometer.com/cat_accessories.aspx?sid=51

I haven't installed them yet but it wasn't much money.

 

Go look at what the all of the 4th gen guys are doing for custom illuminated gauges. CamaroZ28.com and LS1tech.com's forums. They use LEDs.

LEDs can be made to spread light 180 degrees if you're looking straight at it, thats just as effective as light spread in a lightbulb. Not all LEDs have that wide of an angle for spreading light though.

 

I have an led replacement (6 leds in 1 socket) for the HVAC unit and it still isn't bright enough.

 

hey man, I just ordered some 194's from http://www.besthongkong.com/ , not expensive at all, but take close to 3 weeks to recieve. I should be getting mine this coming week, and I let you know how everything turns out.

 

Advance and Auto zone have the rubber covers for the bulbs too.At least here in TN they do i imagine same everywhere else.Also wal-mart has red,blu,grn,amber 194's as well.

 

follow up...I ordered my red 194 led's from beshongkong.com, I ordered them not last monday, but the monday before and recieved them today so all together it was about 10 buisness days to get. I'm going to be installing them hopefully this weekend if things don't get too crazy, and I'll update how everything went, and give some pics.

 

im in the procces of this mod i did the shift lite, hvwc contorles and passenger and driver foot aera yet to do the gauge cluser to to dead alt and batt and being sick for the past week i went with red 194 and they light up good. i also painted the metal gague circals red it will make it look cooler

 

I just got around to installing my l.e.d's yesterday, and like frank89iroc, I'm dissapointed aswell. I like the way it looks and basic idea of it, but they just do not light up enough for me, they are to dimm. I'm going to invest in the bulbs from walmart or something to change, b/c I do like the red just not the way it came out.

 

i went with 194's from pepp boys i enjo there illumanation and there bright ness and its not the bulbs with the bs plastic on em

 

Do you remeber how much it cost around for all the bulbs?

 

Might try the 168 bulbs with the slip on covers. A brighter bulb, but the trade off is a shorter life. This bulb is usually used for the indicator lamps.