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Dash LED lights

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Old Nov 25, 2012 | 07:37 PM
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Default Dash LED lights

I had an led equivalent of a 194 bulb laying around, and tried it in the dash. Here what i got. This mind you, is just the top right one. The other three are 882's still.I wish i had three more, I would have changed them all.
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 12:22 PM
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I have to pull my dash again. The lower left is dull like yours....

Do you have a description of what it was that you used? Does it fit right into the socket? and where did you get it?
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 02:53 PM
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Would love to hear more on LED dash bulbs.
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 09:53 PM
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I only had one, and I think I got it at autozone. I went to buy some more, and can no longer find them. The bulbs behind the gauges come from the factory with 882 bulbs in them which are these.

The bulb does Not remove from the base, and there is no LED equivalent of them. However while I was modifying the info center to LCD I found these.

Which do come apart like this.

Which is a base into which a 194 bulb will easily push into. They both have the same base. So I ordered 4 LED's which are equivalent to the 194 which will push into the green base and twist right into the holes behind the gauges.
I don' know if all early c4's are like this or not, or if I just got lucky.
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 10:33 PM
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Originally Posted by phlounda
I only had one, and I think I got it at autozone. I went to buy some more, and can no longer find them. The bulbs behind the gauges come from the factory with 882 bulbs in them which are these.
The bulb does Not remove from the base, and there is no LED equivalent of them. However while I was modifying the info center to LCD I found these.
Which do come apart like this.
Which is a base into which a 194 bulb will easily push into. They both have the same base. So I ordered 4 LED's which are equivalent to the 194 which will push into the green base and twist right into the holes behind the gauges.
I don' know if all early c4's are like this or not, or if I just got lucky.

The 882 does come out of the base, but you can't use this base. Pick up new bases for 194 and use the LED of your choice. I chose these. The "Volts and Instant" are the old style (882), rest are LED. I am very impressed and helped an American company. Use the 360 degree bulbs. The cheap single LED are not near bright enough. Oh, and HELLO fellow Vette owners.

Last edited by Midlife87; Nov 26, 2012 at 10:37 PM. Reason: dummy doesn't know how to spell
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 10:38 PM
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Here are the two base styles I got. The white one will not accept a 194.
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 11:09 PM
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NAPA has the base and bulb to go with 194s....I did that last time.

not sure if anyone experienced it, but, hotter bulbs will make the crystals move to one side causing a false illumination,.

The 194s were too hot....I had to block off the photocell with a spit-wad to fool it into dimming the display so the heat didn't have the 83-85MPH bars show
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 11:10 PM
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I'm going to try those LEDs, but LEDs are hot as well. I'll have to check it out....maybe add a heat sink to the back or something .
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Old Nov 26, 2012 | 11:38 PM
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Actually, LED's are cool to the touch.
My local auto-parts store wanted almost $5, while superbright wants $1.19 for each base socket. Big difference. 4 needed for the instrument cluster, not sure about information cluster.
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Old Nov 27, 2012 | 12:13 AM
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They may be cool in the front where an incandescent bulb would be hot.....but check the back.

One of the constant battles in the LED world is heat distribution and if you are working with a certain light wave the heat load can change the wave frequency, creating an undesired light wave
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Old Nov 27, 2012 | 08:48 AM
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I understand that there is substantially different quality in LED drivers used. If I were going to use an LED in a closed compact environment or in a PC type socket I believe I'd wire a socket and run the LED for an hour or so to confirm the temperature generated.

Do NOT assume that all LED's would be similar - I'd check anytime I thought I might want to do a different branded LED or bulb type replacement ie 194, 74, 906 1156 etc

Originally Posted by jhammons01
One of the constant battles in the LED world is heat distribution and if you are working with a certain light wave the heat load can change the wave frequency, creating an undesired light wave
That's quite a "statement" !!!

Last edited by WVZR-1; Nov 27, 2012 at 08:58 AM.
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Old Nov 27, 2012 | 10:34 AM
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^^I was going to get into the Laser end of the topic, but then decided to just make a generic "statement light" and not get into a "full bodied Statement"

But if you like, when emitting a certain desired frequency in Laser or detection, you need to make sure the signature emitted is a constant. Heat loads or variation in therms can distort the emitter and therefore give you false readings on the detection side of things.

I used to have a sample kit that had pots where I could change the input of RGB and give you whatever color (Light frequency)you wanted....that thing had a huge heat sink on it.

Last edited by jhammons01; Nov 27, 2012 at 10:37 AM.
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Old Nov 27, 2012 | 01:06 PM
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I read that they use 89 xenon lamps now
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