hi guys i replaced my speedo lights with LEDS didn't see the problem some of
you were having with it lighting up specific areas like a spotlight.
I used these LEDS that I found they have concave lenses, which helps disribute the light more evenly then the regular ones that are avaliable.
This picture shows the bulb near a piece of perspex, from how I see it the light beam hits the perspex and then is re-directed into the area of the speedo.
There are 4 LEDS that can be replaced with 3 that are used to light up the speedo area and a 4th one which is used for the battery light. I only replaced the 3 that are used for the speedo.
I used red LEDS but you can also find them in yellow, green and blue I purchased mine from Pep's Auto but you can get them from Autobarn aswell.
They are rougly around $10-12 for 2 LEDS, they are like a wedge style globe - the same as the ones that go in your indicators. One point to remember if your thinking of doing this is to undo your speedo cable from the engine bay.



While I had everything out I also decided to paint my speedo surround. I used a plastic primer, then several coats of colour and a clear just to give it a glossier, brighter look.



This is everything all put back together, and lit up at night.





OK had a day off so thought i would pull my dash apart agen...
because i got a new tacho and it looked
tops but my red dash did not match so i wanted to try the white LEDS...
and took some pic ..
the is the speedo cable some people were asking about..

the brassy looking thing is what you have to undo..

now went looking in my garage and pulled out a white pack i had from awhile ago
there was only 2 so went looking in my bag of trick and fond a convex one
so i got some 80 grit sand paper and ruffed it up (so the light would distribute better)

then put it all back 1 point i will make is when you put the LEDS in BEFORE you put all the dash back together make shore the LEDS work if there not working all you have to do is turn them around.
all finished and only took about 1/2 hr


this is the new tacho in the custom cup i made..

Can I suggest setting out the first paragraph a bit more. Tad unclear to read and make's it confusing

But looks quite good, prefer the red - it seems to illuminate everything evenly

Interesting read

ROCK ON
R~R

tried it on my car.. its not bright at all!!!

was it dark??
i cant see mine in the day but at night.....

cheers for the guide man but why undo speed cable? just curious

puzzle man: couple month back i did the same thing you did, i think its also on the same kind of car yours is AE92 corolla right?? anyway i had it blue but its not bright so i put it back normal
i think your speedo would look better in red cos it will match with your dash

Kevin: other wise the speedo wont come out

ok. if you notice, he said the red ones distributed more evenly because of the concave lenses on them. the white ones didnt have the concave lens.

if you get some concave white ones, then they would distribute just as well. i think i recall somewhere bout modifying them to be concave, but dont quote me on that.

ive got some blue ones in my AE82 rolla... theyre convex though, and dont distribute... ill fix em up wen i get time

looks awesome in the red. ima give it a go myself. if i don't write back in three days call the ambulances...

hey man were did u get that tacho from it looks sick did u get a custon install or somthing done on the tach or is it just some universal fit

sweet job really like is not to big perfect spot for it well donee mate

are they a spesific type of bulb??? like will these work? http://cgi.ebay.com.au/100pcs-Electronic-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

They wont go straight in but you could fabricate a bulb out of them and the old bulb, but that would be a lot of work and quite fidily and just really not worth it. They're a specific type of bulb. Check out the 5th pic from the top, thats the type of bulb your looking for. Just go to autobarn or supercheap, they sell them.

i noticed, in my 99 lancer, i tried changing the bulbs but it did nothing, i didnt use leds, but yeah... it was the same because there were these huge orange sorta bulbs, just two of them, is that wat disconecting the cable from the engine bay does? or will using leds take over this orange light?

uh oh.. u cant see past 140km on the speedo with the tacho there...not that u need to on the street.. if you got the concave white bulbs it will look better, nice work. how do you take the dash parts out to do that.. i have an 88 camry, so id imagine its fairly similar 2 the rolla

being a sparky i know a bit about lights and concave bulbs arent the only thing u can use u can actaully use a diffuser off a fluro light (its the plastic bumpy cover)

it works but hitting the smoth side and passing through and when it hits the ruff part(facing away from the bulb) it spreads it out.

i had a mazda 626 82 and it used to have that discusting yellowish suposed to be white lights then put a single blue straight led in middle and got the diffuser off a 4 foot fluro cut it up and it worked a treat

peace out good luck

Thats a nice job, rather red but, should of kept it, looks mean. But also finding interesting is Quigga's methods, but i wouldnt have a clue wat he means by "diffuser off a 4 foot fluro cut it up and it worked a treat" where da hell can i find that in a fluro? i am keen on lookin into it if u can give me more specific info Quigga plz!!

The diffuser is the actual cover for a fluro. The bit that goes over the top of the whole fluro assembly, or as he said (with a few extra wordS), the plastic bumpy ouchy hurty thing.

ROCK ON
R~R

Is is legal and non detectable to change the stock colours of your lights? wouldnt mind doing this in blue

yes it is legal to do it this is a pic of mine in blue on my civic


note* its all blue now


theese are the bulbs i used>

i have 2 white ones and a blue one left over if any1 wants em

the red looks good man

noticed you didn't mention the use of current limiting resistor/s. LED's are a DIODE and must have some form of current protection, if not they will either blow straight away (within like 30 sec) or seriously reduce lifetime (but, they will be brighter - at this cost)

LED's only require about 30mA of current, for a standard LED.
The equation for working out the resistor value is

RL = (Vs - VLed) / I

Where RL is resistor value,
Vs is the source voltage (13.8v battery),
V Led is voltage drop across the LED (1.8v)
and I is the current we want (30mA)

So,

(13.8-1.8) / 30mA = 400 ohms *Note: 30mA is 0.03A

this is the resistor you will need in series with each LED, otherwise risk blowing the LED's up!

nice work mate

so they fit straight in yeah?

Well i believe these have built-in resistors and diodes (as you can see in that T5 bulb photo)



Yeah, these a plug and play.

The AE82 AE86 AE92 LED Dash kits on e-bay are amazing, never seen anything like them.

Thanks for this first bit, cant wait to give it a try now.