.....Plug it in, let it heat up & then solder What could possibly go wrong? [/QUOTE] You could stick it up your nose...
I went into our local VW dealership and just ordered the original lamps and the original dome headed countersunk bolts that hold the binnacle on. Lamps and bolts about 20p each iirc. In my opinion you don't need, or want, bright lights on the dash. All the exciting stuff happens outside when you're driving at night.
Think I'll test how bright the light is at night when it's dark n see if I can brighten up the other two bulbs. Was looking on line for the wee bulbs they seem redily available. Thought about blue lights for the cluster but maybe that would look daft.
The very cheap "white light " yellow square LED bulbs on eBay are all different brightnesses and noticeably different colours, OK if you dont mind a greenish light one side of the speedo and reddish the other side. The clear plastic lensed ones are dim and fire all their light in the wrong direction so end up extra dim. They are also quite temperamental in getting the wires to connect to the bulb holders, at the same time as getting them the right way round as they only light up with the right polarity. And if you twist them too much they short out and burn out wires instead of blowing fuses.. And they do not dim on the headlamp switch very effectively because they draw less current . In many ways, fitting non-blackened new filament bulbs is an easier and effective upgrade.
I tried blue (and red) strips - doesn't look as good IMHO. Advantage of the strips is that you can position them better to give even lighting. VW didn't position the bulbs very well in the original.
I bought cheap LED's off EBay and they only lasted a week. Then I discovered my alternator was pushing out 15.5 volts!
Just received the first ones listed, but they're way too big to fit.... The second lot look good, are they for both the instruments lights AND the cluster illumination?? And do they dim correctly with the VW reostat??
Yep, couldn't agree more. I have changed most of my bulbs to LED but when tried the main beam it lit up the whole cab and was very distracting when driving at night! Even with the blue cover in place, gone back to a bulb on that one.
I don't know tbh Mike. I have only bought the ones that somebody sold on here. I would email the seller.
I've emailed the guy on eBay to ask. I've seen other led bulbs that look like they'd do the job. If I get time today I'm going to take the instrument panel off to see if it's just bulbs I need.
Took a bulb out behind the ok temp guage . Looks like this. It looks bright & does dim but it's not bright when looking through from the front. Can I buy uber bright ones like this?
He`s right you know ... Changed a couple of mine last weekwhich looked suspect and they`re certainly bright enough now
Replaced with new halfords ones. The new ones are no brighter than the Sh*gged ones. Will check it again in the dark. Will probably need to look at wiring up some led's.
