LED Gauges. *Repost in new forum*

[stateofidleness]

Hopefully it'll get better exposure here. I might do the swap later today.

Has anyone done the LED gauge swap?
The install seems fairly easy. What bothers me is that when I have my lights on, the backlight from the other bulbs makes my "coolant" light appear to be on as well as the low fuel light.

What I am wondering is if I replace the 3 main bulbs with (lets say) blue LED bulbs and left the 2 tan outer bulbs "stock", would this still show the coolant and fuel light as orange and the large main gauges blue?

also, has anyone done the swap where they move the AC controls to the cd holder area and also swapped to LEDs in the console stuff?

Thanks!

[stateofidleness]

well in case anyone was interested...

I just finished this install and it is GREAT!

i hate the look of backlit orange (looks dated to me)

next up will be the console led swap to blue as well. the process was tedious (not hard, but tedious) only because it's a lot of trial and error. rotating the bulbs till they light up. was well worth the effort though.

the reason i initially wanted to swap was because when i had the lights turned on, the backlight from the other gauges would make my coolant and fuel light look like they were on! (you can see what i'm talking about in this before pic)... not anymore with the blue! easier on my eyes too!

before:


after:


EDIT: might as well give a shout out to the seller. The seller's id was:
porscheleds
arrived quickly and has great colored online instructions for the install
Very Pleased!

[gregdacat]

I really like the blue look. I have also seen on Ebay where you can get blue dome light LEDs. Does it look strange with the radio and AC controls still being amber?

[stateofidleness]

not really strange, but those are getting swapped as well. ordered the kit today as a matter of fact.

hoping to do a complete blue swap on all interior lighting.

i guess ill update this thread when i get the console part done as well!

[RandallNeighbour]

Despite marketing hype from many LED bulb resellers on eBay, I've read in numerous places on this forum and the web that these blue replacements don't last nearly as long as the amber ones Porsche supplies.

Same thing goes for silverstar replacement halogen bulbs. They burn out very quickly.

This isn't much of an issue if you are willing to tear your cluster down and your dash bits apart when these LED's burn out prematurely. Me? I like to do things once and forget about it.

What would be very interesting would be for you to come back to this thread and indicate just how long the bulbs lasted before you had to replace them. Hopefully, it won't be anytime soon, but if they do go out in 6 months or a year, that would be great historical data to include on this thread for those who read it in the future and want to know the downsides to changing factory long-life amber bulbs for blue ones off eBay.

BTW, I have given this mod a lot of thought because my Alpine aftermarket head unit has blue LED's... I was too cheap to buy a model that allowed for a display color change at the time. I think I'll buy a new head unit that displays amber before I redo the whole car in blue and risk premature bulb failure.

[stateofidleness]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

What would be very interesting would be for you to come back to this thread and indicate just how long the bulbs lasted before you had to replace them.

And it shall be done. First one went out on me yesterday.

Install: 10-12-2008
First Failure: 7-6-2011

not too shabby! new ones on the way!

[Neekk1]

I swapped my AC controls to the very bottomn then above that I have the CD tray but am in need of a new cubby bin. Then I have the radio next and above that the cup holders. But as far as moving everything around it was very simple and you just need to take the side trim pieces off before putting the AC controlls on the bottom. PM me if you need anything else.

[stateofidleness]

can't seem to remember the bulb type for the dash gauges. I'm thinking it was a "T10", but can't remember. anyone confirm?