miguey310

has anyone ever make there cluster lighting brighter ?? cause my cluster lighting sucks and it all dark ?

Je2RiT

you can replace the bulbs with LED's. Seen that done before.
Looks good.

grog

yeah I've experimented with alot of different LED's and the brightest and most durable ones were the matrix 2 LED's but they have some brand new 1 watt bulbs that look bright, but they probably dont disperse the light that well, which is a drawback of LED's but anyway the matrix 2 bulbs disperse the light great,
keep in mind that these bulbs in this link are 74's meant for 90-91's, the 88-89 clusters use 194's and 74's. check to see which you have because people switch them sometimes. DONT buy the tri power ones they burn out too fast plus the matrix bulbs are much brighter.

http://autolumination.com/74.htm

these are the matrix 2's
http://superlumination.com/images/au...trix2_w_wm.jpg

this site also has some really bright dome lights that I highly recommend, a bit of modification is required to make this fit. look through the festoon bulb section (you would need the smallest size festoon)

http://superlumination.com/images/au...array_w_wm.jpg

Radim

iTrader: (4)

Turn on the cluster and look up inside the cluster, there is an amber plastic you can take off that has two bulbs in there.. if you take off the amber plastic the cluster will be lit up completely.

grog

DO NOT DO THIS.

Sorry for the caps but i've seen and tried this suggestion before and its Terrible it makes it so the needles aren't illuminated. instead the whole cluster is drowned in light from above making it harder to see, This overhead lighting is meant solely to illuminate the needles. What you want is light from behind to brighted to gauges.
take my word for it you dont want to do this.

radim no offence but if your cluster is setup like that i recommend switching it back to see the difference.

Eighty-Nyne

Are you talking about housing bulbs or in PCB of the gauges themselves?

miguey310

does anyone have pics?

miguey310

something like this or a lil more brighter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pietzuch/87657778/
or like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF-NkAWHxKU

grog

the first picture in the link is what it should look like.
the video illustrates perfectly why you shouldnt do what radim suggested with the overhead light. I will post a picture of the LED's in my cluster later on when its dark out.

Je2RiT

yes. I made that mistake before. taking that cover out.
it sucks. I wanna get LEDs for the back of the cluster.
then mark my needles with a highlighter and get Blacklight bulbs for the top.
that'd be DOPE!!... at least im hoping. lol.

E-AT_me

did you try the adjustment on the left side of the cluster? just sayin..

grog

Okay i dont have my camera but I have this older pic with tri power LED's that aren't as good as what I have now (the matrix bulbs).

its rice I know but now they are white, which I recommend.



http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t...ed.jpg&newest=

iheartteal

x2
lol i was wondering when some was gonna suggest this

miguey310

yes i did

miguey310

that looks good but in white =] which bulbs did you change ?

AndThenYouSay

I'm replacing my bulbs tomorrow! ordered some blue bulbs from autoillumination.com. Gonna try them out, if I like, then I'll go with the LEDs. if I don't like I'll try white bulbs. If your not sure which color is best, then buy the cheapo bulbs and try it out different ones like I am. eventually I'll get LEDs in the color I'm happy with.

grog

remove the cluster and it will be obvious, just replace the backlighting bulbs (not the blinker or check engine light bulbs) the smaller bulbs are 74's and the larger ones are 194's, which are only in 88-89's mixed along with 74's.
90-91's use just 74's , and you need to figure out how many you need, so you should look before ordering anything.

can you rephrase that? i don't understand what you're asking.

make sure to check your cluster(remove and inspect it) before you order. the clusters for 88-89 are different than 90-91's
white is a nice safe choice, you'll never get sick of it. I got sick of mine being blue pretty fast.
anyway its your choice.

biggee

This will be the brightest cluster you have ever seen. It almost sucks cause it is soooo bright. I used two very short neon tubes mounted up where that amber plastic thing used to be. Also the cluster is airbrushed.

grog

that looks so terrible sorry but i have to be honest. lets see night pics to see how bad it really is.
for the $ you spent on that you could have bought the right bulbs, in green, which is what you should do, eventually.

I hope you arent recommending this method, its like shining a flashlight directly at the cluster, it makes the cluster harder to see and it just looks lifeless. backlighting is the only way to do it. the overhead lighting is solely meant to illuminate the needles what you've done makes seeing the needles even harder at night (keep in mind those pics are in daylight).

miguey310

[QUOTE=grog;41272719]remove the cluster and it will be obvious, just replace the backlighting bulbs (not the blinker or check engine light bulbs) the smaller bulbs are 74's and the larger ones are 194's, which are only in 88-89's mixed along with 74's.
90-91's use just 74's , and you need to figure out how many you need, so you should look before ordering anything.

ok here's a pic of a cluster now which would be changed ?

miguey310

it kinda does

ALLxMOTOR EG

That green cluster light is too bright.

I rather have it dim then bright.

grog

that looks like an 88-89 btw, Sorry i cant mark the bulbs in the pic I'm not on a computer, but if you could like number the bulbs in the pic and post that i will identify them.

once you have the cluster out it really is easy. Pull the bulbs out (they twist) to see what they shine on and just replace the ones that are behind the speedo and tach.
Wait this is even easier, get a small flashlight and shine it into the empty bulb location to identify the right slots.

biggee

I said it was almost too bright. I did it 7 years ago. the needles are lit up very very well. I tried green bulbs, which just faded to a puke colour, then LED bulbs (7 years ago) which had a terrible pattern of light and made my cluster next to impossible to see. I even tried wiring in my own LEDs and it still wasnt good. I still have all the factory back lighting in place and you wont find a brighter cluster then this. Also the lights are cheap. I wanna say under ten bucks. LED bulbs were much much more expensive.

He said he wanted bright. This is bright. You don't like it, wear sunglasses!

miguey310

yeah but that's TO bright