LED dash lights

Hi guys,
I have my dash apart ('67 Series 1) for recovering and fitment of LED lights. I bought an LED kit from one of the usuals and there is an issue with the tach and speedo locations. They both have pockets where the lights push in the the LED lights are too long, they bottom out. It looks like I could shorten the LEDs by cutting or grinding, anyone have a similar experience? The gauges in the center section will fit no problem.

Thanks, Jim


First of all, the bulbs should have the correct color phosphor. If they sold you white bulbs, that was wrong. If the bulbs are green or blue as your car requires, then you can drill out the rivets and remove the filters.

Just sand the tip off, that works just fine. Donā€™t wreck a good speedoā€¦ keep them original. Unless one is blue and one green!

The ā€œmoneyā€ part of an LED is the metal bit in the middle and the contact gap between them. The bulb shape just dictates how the beam spreads. Sanding off the top will just make the light diffuse over a wider angle.

When I did mine, I crushed the glass on the old (little filament) bulbs and soldered in one small LED with an appropriate resistor as a leg to the bottom contact.

One small LED doesnā€™t provide enough illumination for the two big dials. For those I soldered four white LEDs in series back to back in place of the larger filament bulbs. This could still do with being brighter.

kind regards
Marek

That is what I was thinking, David. I have a couple of extra lights to test that on as I donā€™t think I need to replace the brake and choke warning lights. And it is only four that I need to do that to. But I am perplexed by the green and blue filters. In all the years that I have had my car I donā€™t think I have ever pulled the bulbs and now I see that difference. Did they offer different colors? And of course the lights are so dim I never noticed any difference.

I did this on my '77 Corvette which had the same problem, dim gauge dials although not quite as dim as the Jag. Wow, what a difference! I bought them from SuperbrightLEDs and they did offer a range of colors. Unfortunately they donā€™t have replacements for the E-Type.

Either early cars were blue or it was the early saloons, I donā€™t know, but you must have seen a difference?
You can sand down all of the plastic if you want to, itā€˜s all just resin, as long as you leave a bit standing. I think white wonā€™t look right, and green is too blue green for me, so I will never use LEDs unless they are warm white and look right. Blue might work okay. Marek said it all but one thing, this LED might be much more powerful than what it replaces. Too powerful for my taste but that can be dealt with.

Well the illumination was so low that if there was a color difference I never noticed it. Iā€™ve had my car since 1981 and I suppose one of them could have been swapped out before that, or a mixup at the factoryā€¦who knows?

I have a 12V power supply so I should be able to fire up the old and new lights, more photos to come!

This is absolutely not personal and you are not the only one, but are you blind or is there some common fault?
I sometimes switch my lights to dim in the countryside. The instruments are not exactly brightly lit but more than adequate to me (I admit that I run modern cars at ā…“ brightness if Iā€™m not in the city where I dial them up of course)
The E Type is the same. Better because there is no chrome bezel reflection. No problems there either. I converted my shifter lamp to LED and put a bit of paper in so only P is lit brightly and visible in daylight. That LED is the same and I sanded it down a little.

I donā€™t know what cars were blue but maybe they did run different colours at the same time for a while. Someone will know. A good time to decide what you like better :slightly_smiling_face:

Are you saying the standard incandescent bulbs are sufficiently bright for your purposes?

Yes, Iā€™m saying the factory lights are perfectly legible to me and I always wonder why so many find them too dim. Not just dim, but so dim that going to LED is the only option.
Full brightness is too bright for me on a dark road. I do come from a S3 XJ with the fibre optic lights that make you discover some ā€˜litā€™ parts months into ownership. That one was too dim. But the S1 XJ and E Type do well!
Can it be old bulbs that just arenā€™t bright enough anymoreā€¦?

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No, I see just fine with my glasses but if my dash lights looked like that I wouldnā€™t be here. I have almost no illumination and I thought that was typical because my '67 MG many, many years ago was the same way. My friend with a TR6 used to keep a flashlight handy to see is gauges at night. Yours look great but now that I see the tint, it looks like I am now going to have a mismatch problem, groan. And I donā€™t want to spend too much time on this because I have some other things to do and I want to have the car ready for the Blackhawk show next month.

Hmm. I would try out one instrument and see how that looks. Just wondering how it could have been so dim that you saw no difference. In that case you do have a problem but LEDs could overcome whatever this issue is. A bad ground connection or soā€¦ anyways I hope the LEDs work out well for you; thatā€™s what matters after all.
Green LEDs might look good without the filter too!

Me too, thatā€™s why I havenā€™t changed them. I find bright dash lighting a distraction at night.

Thank you :slightly_smiling_face:
One moreā€¦ very sure those are original, that should be 2.2 W?

Not as bright as it looks but not terribly dim for sure.

During the restoration I rewired the car checking continuity and voltages all along the way, everything else works fine. My thought was that was the way it was, oh and btw I also always thought the dimmer switch on the panel was a cruel joke.

Anyway Iā€™ll work on those photos but if they light up fine with the power supply then that means something else is wrong, as you say David.

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It could be bad contacts in the switch, it could be a common ground or source or maybe they improved them between 67 and 69, which is not very likely. Before you go in too deep better be happy with the LEDs and donā€™t worry about it any more. Thatā€™s what Iā€™d do. Especially since many report too dim lighting youā€™re not alone and especially since you went through anything and still arrived at too dim.

This is clearly personal preference, but I tend to agree. I have always dimmed my dash lights to the lowest level that allows me to read the gauges. I would rather my eyes be adjusted to the road ahead than the lights of the dash. I really donā€™t see the purpose in having the dash light up like a Christmas tree, but if that is your preference, go for it. Just donā€™t complain that the original design is defective.

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I do now think that Jimā€™s lighting is much dimmer than ours.

Red is ideal for night driving and white and blue are the worst. When the eyes are adjusted for the darkness red is best to read and takes the least toll on night vision. I expect green is somewhere in between. I tune the brightness so I donā€™t have to adapt every time so every scene will have a perfect setting.

For some city people the lights may be too dim even if working correctly, I know not everyone is out and about at 20 to four between the villages (how do I boast that my clock keeps timeā€¦).
One thought - does the dim switch work?

Much better picture: instruments lit during hailstorm could be more helpful to compare.