I bought some of the replacement lamps last week, went to fit them yesterday and the two holders on the backlights were knackered so I couldn't fit the LEDs in. I blagged a sample of led strip from Maplins last year so cut 2 x 3 module peices soldered some wires on and glued them inside the pod...lit up beautifully now, well chuffed for half an hours work.. If anyone wants the LED lamps - let me know you can have them FOC ..going to dubfreeze so I'll keep them in the glove box.
That's what effect I'm looking for did you just site it up to existing lighting wires? And then earth it somewhere?
Each strip will come with a "+" and "-" marking. They contain limiting resistors, so you don't have to worry about that. Just solder 2 wires to each strip, join all the +ves together, all the -ves together and wire it to the existing dash illumination supply (+ve) and ground (-ve). As you can see from Dazza's pic, you can place the strips to give much better coverage.
I had to re- wire it slightly as someone had bodged it , nothing difficult just a new positive from the correct terminal on the light switch and a negative to a screw on the body work. As snotty says about connecting the strips but I had colour changing strip so I had the option of red, green, blue or white, I tried all different colours and thought anything other than white looked wrong. Simply a case of joining the R,G,B together on the positive and a negative to get white, I guess it would be easy enough to rig it up so I could change the colours manually if desired but in reality I doubt I would want to ..
Would it possible to leave the existing bulbs holders wired up with the dimable bulbs in and add the led strip? The back of my cluster looks all sealed up so I might have to just feed the led strip through the hole where the bulb is located.
Would you happen to have any more lying around? I'd love a few to do my dash and gauges. If you do and you're willing to post happy to cover postage!
I think it'll depend on the forward voltage of the LEDs you use. My white ones dim nicely (to my surprise). I think you'd run the risk of the strips shorting onto the metalwork. Also, you need them pointing in the right direction Can't think why you can't remove the back of your instruments - take the screws out and it'll come off.
You could but I don't see the point of leaving the old lamps in, I'd disconnect them both from the back of the cluster and use one of the holes as the entry point for your new wiring , the cluster is only held together by half a dozen screws and comes apart very easily with the dials still attached to the back plate - it's really easy ,
Can I see if I've got any left after the weekend and go from there - whatever's left (if any) are yours mate
