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I finally installed LED instrument cluster illuminating bulbs, in place of the dim and blinking factory 194s, and WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!
It's like a new car, brighter far than Saab's original at its best and just immensely pleasing.
If you have no lights there now, or only one, or bulbs that go on and off, do this as soon as you can. You won't regret it.
I used 5-LED clusters, the WLED-5 bulbs, from superbrightleds on the web, which come mounted with a wedge base that fits the standard bulbholder.
Right now I have one white and one green one in, which I'll explain later. The white side of the dash has a little more snap to it, not annoyingly bright though. The green side is a little subdued, maybe more for those bothered by bright dash lighting. Because the dimmer doesn't work with LEDs, these can't be turned down. (If you want dimmer, I think they sell 3-LED clusters instead.)
A few tips:
These LEDs have polarity, they only light if the +12V goes to the correct lead. And they don't come with any indication of which lead that is. So I put the bulb into its holder and clipped the leads of a battery trickle charger to the little metal contacts that stick out. When I found which way the bulb worked, I marked the positive side, using a soft-lead push-push pencil to draw a couple "+" marks on the plastic bulb holder near it.
Do this for both bulbs.
I was lucky, I had the gauge cluster out of the car, and I cleaned the contact patches on the printed circuit film with a pencil eraser to brighten them. You could see, following the circuits on the sheet of film, that the tracks led from the dash light rheostat to the TOP contact patch for each bulbholder, so I decided that must be +12V, and I was right.
These things are so hard to get in and out with the gauges in the car, that's helpful to know. Put the contact marked + in pointed to the right side of the car, then when it's twisted in it will be on top.
I didn't turn them all the way to the stop as I wanted to avoid the patch on the circuit board that the old bulbs had been sitting at. The plastic housing softens, deforms and moves around some from the longterm effect of the always-on light bulbs' heat; it won't budge any more from my new cool LEDs tho.
If you're working thru your speaker grill opening you can see where you'll find the bulbs by looking at the top of the cluster - - they're centered all by themselves behind the little black shade strips, at either side of the speedo, way up high. Turn holder 90 degrees CCW and bulb should pull out. Look in from outside of windshield to get the lay of the land. Would a mirror help? Maybe if someone held a big one.
The bulb on left is pretty easy to get at, the one on the right is way over from the speaker hole and no fun at all.
(The older bulb holders, blue and round, have ribs all around and will fit inside one of my 1/4" sockets and can be turned lightly with a 1/4" ratchet handle. The later, square holders I haven't tried a socket on.)
You could find the bummer that someone has pinched the contacts tight and torn the printed circuit board on your car, and if so it probly means pulling the fascia and the cluster to get at it, then making up a hard wired patch. But I'd try to get the LED to seat first.
You won't see the light from these till nighttime, or in deep shade, so it's a little hard to test on installing.
Why I wound up with one white LED and one green one is, I originally bought two of each. But when I tested them before installing I could only make two of the four work.
I had dawdled an awful long time with these in my possession and on the shelf, and technically they were past any warranty. But Mat, the nice guy at superbrightleds, made an exception for me. He warned me, and I warn you all, TEST the bulbs as soon as you get them. Otherwise, if they're no good, you own them.
They're probably made in China and there seems to be a failure rate; anyway, don't trust them, verify, or you could be sorry.
(Why I didn't test them when I first got them was I figured putting them in the car would be the testing. But the first one in didn't work, and the second one too, and I trusted my pretty new bulbs and I had so many other variables to blame - - not knowing polarity, bad contacts in car, the difficulty working upside down, backwards and blind, with cramped hands, etc., and put it all off to another day, a real late day as it happened.)
Anyways, DO THIS NOW FOR YOUR CAR, you won't be sorry.
posted by 70.105.24...
, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:22:19, Sun, 5 Oct 2008 18:55:16, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:23:26, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:03:12, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:19:14
, Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:15:31, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:20:45, Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:20:45
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