Hi Guys,

I have a quick question, which hopefully has a simple answer (yeah right!!)

The dash display on my 1987 is what I would call "inconsistent" in terms of the brightness - the right section of the central dash display (where coolant temp, volts etc is displayed) is noticeably dimmer than the rest of that section and the speedo and Tacho.
It seems to be mainly the upper right as well

I've done some googling and I'm none too the wiser other than it may be a fading issue on the film?
or a bulb gone?

Any suggestions as to the casue would be warmly welcomed - thanks!

 

Sounds like a bulb. I converted the bulbs and sockets to xeons a couple of years ago but I think you can go LED's now. Not a very difficult job to do. Hardest part was disconnecting the electrical harness, not much room to get to it.

 

Thanks,

I did a search and it seems like you can get at the bulbs from the front?
Just remove the Plastic bezel?

sounds simple :/

 

You can change from the front using the standard halogen bulbs. I had to change sockets also because the halogens get hot and damaged one of the sockets. Just buy one bulb for a burned out one and hope it lights up.

 

Take the dash bezel off and you will be able to see if the bulbs are all working.

I switched to LEDs myself. The only problem I've seen is that the colors are a little funny because they were designed for yellow light from incandescent bulbs instead of white light from LEDs.

 

Thanks,

some further research has varying claims regarding LED's - something about needing resistors?

Other posts on changing the bulbs suggest not replacing the "882", but use a G4 5W 12V T2-1/4 (whatever that means lol)
Apparently they give off less heat and are approximately the same color.

looks like the go-to guy on this is at www.batee.com

Ill have to check on the bulb issue - and if it is simply a blown globe, I'll change them out.

 

Bryan at Batee.com is the go-to guy on C4 instrument clusters. I had him repair mine last winter and among other thing had him put in Xenon bulbs while it was apart. They do work good.

On replacing the 4 main bulbs, yes you can do that without removing the instrument cluster (your 87 should be like my 86). You have to remove the bezel over the cluster and you should be able to get it off with a little looking on the web for instructions. Once off, there are 4 metal plugs on the front of the cluster. Remove them and you can get to any of those 4 main illumination bulbs, the problem you will have is getting ahold of them to remove and replace them.

I have several tools for dealing with bulbs but the best one I've found is this one. Fits through the hole easily, grabs the bulb securely and lets you remove and insert the bulb cleanly. Only thing is you have to use bulbs with the same base as the one that comes out. Some have 2 straight pins (called bi-pin) while the others are wrapped around the bottom of the bulb (that's the type that Batee uses)

 

batee.com

 

Just an update on this one, got bulbs from Batee, was done in a couple of hours, quite simple job to do
Easier to do if you take the dash top out.

Much improved dash visibility now..

My advice to anyone thinking of doing this......stop hesitating, do it!
You won't regret it!