Andrewvtec

Has any put LEDs in a civic ek cluster? If so would u Plz share some tips on how to do it before I ruin my cluster? thanks

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

A quick search got me this.
https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...hlight=cluster

98civdx

Yes it has been done, my friend did it and it turned out terribly.
There were "hot spots" that were so bright it was hard to look at them and other spots were near 0 light.

I changed all of mine out with normal red light's. Very happy with how it turned out. After a while they fade to a amber color which looks great.

Stick with normal lights.

Libertariat

I've spent about $60 experimenting with various LED bulbs in my cluster, from my experience it doesn't work.

Autolumination.com has some $.99 amber halogen bulbs for the 74 and 194 sizes which I'll be putting in when they get here, I'm positive they'll work much better.

The ONLY solution that I've seen work for LED cluster jobs are the LED strips wired into your harness and laid under the gauges. The normal lighting bulbs are probably removed when you use this application.

It looks 10x better but requires 10x more work and some basic wiring skills.


Really, I've wasted at least $60 on these LED bulbs and I'm super stoked that replacing them with the abmer bulbs only cost me $10 shipped for the bulbs I need.

98civdx

Autolumination.com is great place, that's where I got mine

I also did the CC, which are #24's, if I remember correctly.

V.MoMO

iTrader: (1)

yeah led's look terrible but if u get wide angle led's they will help spread the light some and not get those annoying hot spots, also u can always rig up some aluminum foil on the inside to spread around more light and make it more uniform.

Libertariat

I've spent $60 trying "wide angle" leds.

It hasn't worked.

Also, putting aluminum foil behind the bulbs won't do anything. The wide angle bulbs are directional. Now if you adhered some LED strips on the back of the cluster a few inches below the gauge faces and surrounded them with foil that would work. But with the bulbs the effect would be minimal

98civdx

Actually tried both, both are terrible. The only place I would run led's is in the dome light.

I have seen a thread on here where they used stips with Led's on them, it look like it turned out pretty nice.
I will see if I can find the thread.

V.MoMO

iTrader: (1)

aluminum was just a thought but if u take ur time and place it where it matters most u'll get a more uniform look and not 3 brights areas. i still use leds but now i have a teg cluster, much better since it has a better layout for light to travel. and for fun i run two dark blue/purple bulbs on the outside and one light blue in the middle, i like my different colors.

98civdx

Doesn't show led's but this is how you do it, using normal bulbs.

http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=59115

Andrewvtec

Wow sweet guys. Thank u all very much. I'm going to try this all out and let u all know how t goes

98civdx

Post pics of the led's

Red_Army

not an EK but heres mine in LEDs. its on a post somewhere back a ways.

2 of my lights were not in right when i took the pic.
10-30
and 120 down.

bizzerk89

use wide angle LED. not narrow.... i have a full LED guage cluster i used 120 degree LEDS. you get hot spots when you are special and use 45 or 90 degree bulbs.. i have red back with UV tops, guages look red, and needles glow purple. looks like **** in photos.. the UV look white on my camera

Libertariat

Have you not read the thread?

I've tried several kinds of wide angle LED's and all I get are cold spots all over the cluster. Maybe I haven't tried the perfect LED yet, but like I said, I've pulled my cluster about 10 times now and I'm sick and tired of experimenting with LEDs.

The best LED bulb results I've seen resulted in hacking up the walls on the inside of the cluster and mounting two extra bulbs. A bit more complicated than just swapping out the bulbs.

The new halogen bulbs write-ups that I've seen look a lot better and they're also a lot cheaper.

I'm tired of donating money to superbrightleds.com and autolumination.com.

Fantastic service and quality products, but it's just not working based on the 4 different types of wide angle bulbs I've used.

See below:

bizzerk89

My positive results speak louder than you saying you cant figure it out... and for anyone thinking the LEDs are too bright, you have a dimmer switch for that. The LEDs don"t dim all the way like filliment bulbs, but they do get pretty dim. you also dont need the highest power LEDs you can get, regular power LEDs work just fine.

Libertariat

My problem is certainly not that they're too bright. I and many others have experienced cold spots as I and Red Army with the picture above have experienced. If you'd like to post pictures your experience would be a bit more founded.

If it looks like crap in photos like you mentioned that probably means is looks like crap.

Perhaps you could tell us which exact bulbs you've used, I've probably used them and I have yet to get decent results. Our definitions of "working" might be different. I can't stand not being able to read my mileage and trip meter at night, and certainly not having cold spots on any parts of my cluster.

bizzerk89

re read red army HE PUT TWO BULBS IN BACKWARDS.. thats why there is two spots dim.. LEDs dont work when you reverse the polarity. with the UV lights up top my whole cluster looks like its lit up with a flash light from the front.. when humans see the uv it looks violet but my camera is not human.

bizzerk89

oh he didnt actually say he put them in backwards in this post but in the previous post he did

98civdx

Post pictures!

TwoFaced

Lol yes please.

The cold spots are there for many reasons...

@bizzerk89...Have you taken a second to look at the back of your gauge faces at all? It is designed to work with the original bulbs...and distribute light on the gauge face with their current placement and brightness. It's distributed by textured black spots that fade outwards...the darker spots are primarily directly over the bulb and fade outwards to evenly distribute. I'm sure if you took alot of time and either removed the current paint, and recalculated a way to spread the LED evenly with a different pattern then it might have better results. That takes waaaaaaaaaay too much time and effort for what it's worth. Some of the best clusters I've seen come from pulling the bulb condoms off and painting with testors competition orange paint.

Libertariat

Most of the positive feedback I've seen here and on clubcivic.com on cluster jobs comes from:

1) Sharpie'd halogen bulbs, colored bulbs, condom'd bulbs.

2) LED's with strips and no bulbs or custom mounted bulbs or other fab work inside the cluster by hacking up the walls or re-directing light.

98civdx

I will vouch for the testors paint, I have done it several times. The one thing I dont care for is, it just doesnt seem to last as long as the amber/orange bulbs that I was buying from autolumniation.


The best way I can think of, Is by far not the cheapest but you could buy new 99-00 Si bulbs, you get amber, and dont have to worry about them fading. However it is EXPENSIVE to do it this way. Last time I looked it they were 3-5 per bulb.

Take a quick look at majestic honda, they will likely have them cheaper.

TwoFaced

3-5 a bulb? Damn...can't beat OEM though. The only LEDs I have in my dash are in my climate control...the 3 buttons on the bottom...mine were almost completely dead so I replaced the amber and green with red LEDs from radioshack...couple of bucks...little bit of fun...and a little less tacky in my opinion.

98civdx

Those were for 99-00 SI, and you will also be getting the amber condom thingy.
Im sure the bulbs are the same thing you would be getting if you bought from autozone or something. Remember they are just bulbs lol.

The only thing that is special is the cover(condom thingy)