the bulbs in my 65 s type gauges are very dimm. should i just get a new set of bulbs or has anyone changed to LED. what you recommend.
I put LED bulbs in the lighting for the central instruments in my S Type and am quite pleased. Left the tach and speedo alone as they seemed to be bright enough. Also changed the “OVERDRIVE” lamp to LED which shows up better in daylight.
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Changing the ‘B’ post festoon bulbs and those above the rear parcel shelf lights in my Mark 2 made a great difference as well, plus, since they produce so much less drain on the battery, I can leave the doors open when working on various interior items without draining the battery.
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I was considering the same upgrade, John. Does the ‘dim’ function still work on the LEDs?
hi
have a look hear
Peter, yes it does.
Our car is a complete LED zone – from head to tale – all supplied by the very helpful www.classiccarleds.co.uk
Proprietor Duncan knows his stuff and the build quality of the items is superb.
Have a look at these and give the guy a call.
I have used his products for headlights side lights gauge lights. All good stuff.
Dave
Like the guys have said it does make a difference. However it may be worth you looking at the gauges whilst you are at it as some have a blue or green plastic filter (visible once you pull the bulb) that gets burned over time and inhibits the available light. Most of us just remove the filters if they are in poor shape.
I use LED bulbs for everything. I use brake, tail light bulbs from superbrightleds.com. you’ll need to use an electronic flasher for signals to work correctly.
I want to fab up a third brake light for both my cars.
I like the extra rear brake light in the reversing light. Good idea.
Dave
That third brake light looks great inside the license plate light.
Is that connected to the other lights ( activated by the hydraulic brake switch? Or have you ired this independently to the brake pedal? If the latter, where did you tap in to the power?
Cheers
Rob
Hi Rob,
The red LED bulb is in the socket for the reversing lamp. I unplugged the reversing lamp feed and connected to the brake light feed in the inner wheel arch using standard bullet connectors. This means I don’t have a reversing light as such, but the impact of the high brake light on following traffic is in my view noticeable and reassuring.
All the best.
John
Thanks,
That sounds like just the ticket.
Cheers
Rob
LED reference:
This was my solution to a CHMSL (center high mount stop lamp), a hot rod shop supplied LED fixture wired to one of the factory stop lamps. LEDs will also greatly improve the instrument lighting.
Over on the E-Type forum, lister Nick Salterelli turned me on to a neat flasher module for the “third eye” brake light. My old flasher module was an expensive motorcycle-shop gizmo from back in 2000, but the new ones Nick found have a much better flash cycle, and the price is hard to beat. These modules just wire in series with the “third eye” power feed wire… easy to install.
Jay
High Mount Brake Light Flasher Module
You can retain the reversing light and add a third brake light to the same housing by using a 2-colour red/white LED, which requires a relatively simple modification to the bulb holde (PT no 5309) to replace the single contact reversing light bulb holder with a double version, tapping into the existing brake light cable for a feed. I bought mine (in the UK) from Classic Car LEDs: BAY15D 1157 RED AND WHITE STOP REVERSE FOG COMBINED LED GLB380 LLB380 – Classic Car LEDs Ltd
See this YouTube video for details:
Go Daimlers!
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For the life of me, I cannot find pics of what I did to my 420G, but I am very happy with it
I took a 3ft strip of red LED, and using clear glue, I positioned the strip inside the rear window
I used a generic adjustable brake switch that I mounted inside the cabin, activated by the back of the pedal stalk
So it is independent and “fail safe backup” from the factory brake lights
The generic mechanical switch is activated noticeably earlier than the hydraulic switch, and if combined with Leds , comes on about 1/2 second earlier
Its completely reversible, not that I ever would, total cost was about $20
It is a really significant safety improvement, as the low height of the factory brake lights is totally out of touch with modern cars, and can even be hard to see
Getting rear ended is a sad way for a classic car to end