Changing lights on 99
 

I tried posting it in the thread for wrx's on how to change the lights but got no reply, so I'll try making it its own thread to get an answer. I probably missed something and apologize ahead of time. I know you did this on the wrx. Now that thats out of the way, I have a couple questions. I figured the bulb sizes and stuff would be the same, and ordered the recommended bulbs. When doing it however, the 194's were too big for the HVAC, and the 74's shine out the top and therefore wouldn't light the fiber optics though the right size. Any ideas? Also the speedo stuff was very wierd. Firstly, I backlit the clock with blue, and it looks awesome!!! however, the rest didn't work, one of the bulbs i bought for the HVAC, the 194, fit into 1 spot perfectly. However the 74s were too small for the spots behind the speedo and tach, and don't produce a lot of light, making the gauges way to dark at night. The 194s however wouldn't even fit in the hole. Any ideas? Anyone know where I could by bulbs halfway between the two sizes, autoluminations only sells those two sizes (i think)? Any help would be aprreciated. Oh yea, I have a '99 OBS, so if anyone else has done it, what did you use. Or am I just crazy and missing something. Thank you

Hey
I PM'd you about what you did with the clock cause i am curious. First of all, i have 2003 wrx, so things may be different.
About the dash, for the speedo stuff, i used the opaque 74 sized leds and it looks pretty damm sweet. Plenty bright if turned up past half brightness. However, i had some trouble getting the bulbs to fit into the sockets...for this, i took a razor blade and shaved a little plastic off the lower part of the bulb. Also, the sockets that come out of the speedo become slightly too large in diameter with the new leds installed...so, l shaved a little bit of plastic off the socket. This was on the edge around the part that first needs to clear the holes in the speedo before the sockets will screw back in. Both of this shaving helped A LOT. Be careful, however, not to shave too much off the bulbs or their structural integrity will be compromised. The shaving on the sockets is more beneficial. For everything else i used condoms, it is not exactly the same color blue, but it looks pretty darn good. If you want to get back to me about the clock, or have any questions, please get back to me. Again, i hope this helps...i know you have a 99, so things might not be the same at all.
-Mike

Ok, apparently the 99 and 03 are very different. For the clock, I simply replaced the backlight bulb (it was just like the rest except directly behind the clock) with a blue 74 (the small) led. It works great, but may be different in the other. Sorry about not responding to your pm, i didn't even kno I had one.

As far as the lights, the 74s (i believe they're the small ones) fit fine, but don't rpoduce much light, I don't know y, if its that thy're too small, too dim, focuzed, or that theres some fiber optics in my dash and they're above it (the rims pretty big) but they are insanely dull, I can't even see my needle, and can barely make out the numbers with brightness on full, and it perfectly dark. Any ideas? It is even more wierd becausse behind the gas/temp gauges, a 194 (the big one) fit, exactly the same size as the stock one, but still is very dim. The only thing that I can really think of is that on my car, the 99, the green film is thicker than on the newer ones, or that I did something totally wrong, like missed a step. Advice on solving this would be greatly appreciated

If there's a way to clarify the clock let me know, thanx, if you want I can probably take a picture tomoro or somethin, just let me know, good luck, and SOMEONE plz help me with my dash lighting.

Thanks for the clock info, pics would be cool if you have the time. Did you just get at the clock from underneath, above the stereo? Sorry i cant help more with the guages...it sounds really different. Only thing i can think of for brightness issues, besides a focused led problem, is a bulb malfunction that causes all the bulbs to be dimmer. If all of them light up, and if you tested each one, I dont know. Good luck.
-Mike

O, I get it, sorry, in the pre wrx cars, the clock is in the speedo cluster, so it was just like changing the rest of the lights. I'm sure you culd take out the clock, and it would be the same, but unfortunately I have no clue how :( you could try looking at instructions for removing the clock (like to put in gauges there) and once its removed, itl probably disasemble like the HVAC and stuff, then just replace the light, but I don't know this. Sorry for the confusion :( Good luck, let me kno if u succeed.

Still looking for someone whos changed lights on a pre-wrx, (the color, whether w/ led's or condoms) Help greatly appreciated

kravda, i am planning on changing my cluster to blue as well, but i dont' know if your dash is the same as mine. i have a 99RS. So if you find out, could you pm me or let me know. hopefully there will be somebody who knows whats up. I was doing some research over at nasioc but everyone talks about the super hard core way to do it with like 60+ LED's and stuff.

I plan on taking my dash apart tomorrow night. I don't know what you are talking about when you say the housing around the led, but i will soon enough.

let me kno if it works for u. I mean where the light goes in, that hole, is too small for the big lights. and I'm not sure but I think the 74s (small ones) may may sit to high or be too focused. but to be honest I really have no idea, so good luck, if u find out nething Plz let me know. Or if urs work or even don't also plz let me know too. GOOD LUCK.

Thanks, lol, this will be an experience. anyway, i might end up ordering the LED's tomorrow and then put them in sometime next week or during the weekend. Unless FRY's electronics carries the LED"s talked about everywhere, the 194's and 74's. Regardless of what i have, i am taking the cluster out so that i an see what everyone is talking about. I will let everyone know, and if it works, i will post some pics. :-d

i am ready to do anything to get the lights, including putting in 60 leds behind the stupid thing. could you give me the link to nasioc's forum where they put in a ton. At this point, I've given up on someone answering, so I think I'll do that but couldn't find it. THank you And GOOD LUCK

Not Mine but:
Thanks for the comments!

The pictures don't really do it justice, at night everything looks super nice! But today, at around dusk, I switched on the lights, and I was pretty disapointed. When there's still dim sunlight out, the red's very washed out and uneven! It looks like it has to do with the shallow angle of light from LEDs.

The LEDs I used are like 120 deg, but that's still very narrow compared to a light bulb, which projects even light in all directions. So you have to arrange them in arrays to point in all the directions you need them to shine. I wish somone would make a nice bulb replacement LED that has multiple chips aranged in all directions!

To use the discrete LEDs in the instruments like I did takes a lot of soldering and patience... it's a lot like building a ship in a bottle. I had to add one led at a time, and solder it to its neighbor in series. It was kind of a PITA, and after seeing it in the daylight being so uneven, I'm thinking red bulb condoms may look better, albeit more orange-ish. Considering the dash is designed with clear plastic reflectors that expect light from a bulb, I think using LEDs might just be more work than it's worth to get the equivalent lighting quality.

For the people who've asked: I ordered an even 60 LEDs ($25 min from netdisty). And I ended up using them all... literally, I was down to my last one in the bag with one left to install!

Here's the break-down:
3 behind the tach,
6 in the shared tach/speedo lamp,
3 behind the speedo,
2 behind the odometer LCD,
2 behind the H2O temp,
2 behind the gas gauge,
1 in the cruise switch,
1 in the fog switch,
1 in my driving lights switch,
7 in the stereo,
and finally
12 in the A/C (two loops of 6)

so that's 41 LEDs... plus the the 19 I broke, fried or lost (hehe) is 60 total.

On a 12V system, 6 LEDs in series need no resistors. In the spots where I had less than 6 LEDs in series, I used the appropriate resistor.

I'll prolly keep is like this for a bit and see if the dusk issue really bothers me, cuz it was a ton of tedious, ship-in-a-bottle work, and it does look phenominal at night!

--Scott

here is a link to 13 pages of stuff related to this. i know there are some really good links and few good pics. good luck.

The good stuff starts around page eight.
[url]http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=261298&perpage=25&highlight=stereo%20leds&pagenumber=1[/url]
[img]http://members.nasioc.com/UserPics/781/dash.jpg[/img]
^ NOTE: this is not my car, lol, just my goal (for the guages at least)

yea, the gauges look pretty awesome (although the red and yellow seem a little bright, thanx for the link + info, I think I might try although thats a lot of reading to wade through :(

yeah sorry, i know. there seems to be a lot of dead ends in this topic. i think the key to this is find a person taht has done it in your area, and have them do it for you. lol.

i found a site that has custom gauge faces, that have reverse glow just like the one in the pic above. then all you would have to do is change the clock color and the odo color, and i guess those two are pretty easy from what i hear. anyway, i have yet to write an e-mail to those people, but they have 02+, and 93-97 gauge cover things, not 98-01. i cna't find the site any more but if i find it i will post it.

yea, I found some on ebay, and bought it. It looks ok, at night its better, but I think stock look w/ different colors looks better, also they cut the odo a little high so I couldn't read it until cut. I had that for a while then found the information on changing the lights in the sticky, and decided to go that way, but I guess I might have to go back to the reverseglow or do some custom leding, or something since nobody seems to be able to help.

meh :(