Instrument bulbs

[Keith Winston]

Hello, tinkering with my instruments. Any advise and thoughts on replacing bulbs with LED? Are they  dimmable? Couldn’t find to much in the search. Thanks Keith 

[Steves_TR6]

I fitted led instrument bulbs with a dimmer, but its not simple ! 
 

the led dimmer i bought on ebay required control of the 0v line as well at the 12v line

our cars earth the instrument bulbs via their sockets and have only a single 12v feed.

so i bought new bulb fittings made of plastic which had two wires for 0v and 12v

wired these in to the new dimmer, note i did NOT cut the old sockets out just added new ones in addition and removed the bulbs from the old.

the variable resistor bolted into the original location and all looks original and works well !

hth

steve

[Keith Winston]

Thank you, So if I put a set of led bulbs, say from eBay and did a straight swap, they wouldn’t dim, but would work. If the volume was turned up full on the original dimmer vr. ? 

Ps you wouldn’t have a tip to brighten up the red square on my temp gauge ?

one good thing about owning a tr, there’s always something to do.

 

[Steves_TR6]

Yes Keith, leds should work with the dimmer turned up.

sorry, no tips for gauges except to refurb or at least clean the glass!

steve

[RobH]

The position of the original dimmer will make no difference; wherever you set it LEDS will remain at full brightness.  It has too low a resistance to reduce the current enough to dim the bulbs. 

Edited April 1, 2020 by RobH

[Fireman049]

I fitted a set of LED bulbs in the instruments on my 3A. They are 'brilliant'!  They do not dim with the rheostat switch but why fit bright bulbs and then want to dim them??

Tom. 

[AarhusTr6]

Hi

I find often the bulb holder that then presses into the dial often pops out on some of them, really annoying!!

Rich

[barkerwilliams]

I fitted green LEDs a few years ago I do not think they need dimming. The gauges are now very clear to read but are not that "bright" in that they would need dimming.

If you are thinking of LED's I would do a little research into the colours available as  they may not all have the same visibility.

I am very happy with the result,

Alan

 

[Peter V W]

I also have green LED’s. no dimming.

all fine, see photo.

Peter

[iani]

Here are mine in blue, I removed the rheostat and just joined the wires together.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by iani

[AndyR100]

I changed to white on my 4, but when driving  at night I found they were just a bit too ‘crisp’, changed to green now which I prefer.

....... Andy 

[stevenphillips]

Hi Keith

I recently changed all mine including the oil pressure, ignition, high beam  indicators and instrument illumination.  I used a combination of wattage lamps to achieve enough light to not be too bright and didn't worry about the rheostat as I previously never really dimmed them when they were the standard incandescent.

Take a look at my previous thread as I did find that when you change the flasher unit to enable the indicators to work correctly you will also need to make sure you use the 'p' terminal from the flasher unit otherwise the dash turn indicator only works for the RHS as the leds have polarity. All will be clear if you read the thread.

Other very helpful chaps from this forum inserted links for parts I needed.

Anyway suffice to say I think the led lamps all round are a great improvement and my indicators have never worked this good in the 23 YEARS I've had my 6

Regards

Steve

[Drewmotty]

I found that I needed the lamps with side mounted chips for the instruments but they were just too long to fit into the TR3 warning lamps for which the single chip units were ideal. 
Both types were supplied by Bad Boy Classics  who can be found on eBay or online.

Edited April 2, 2020 by Drewmotty

[DRD]

Please be aware that there are some really poor LED bulbs out there. I had some from eBay that broke when you screwed them into the holder.

The best supplier I found was Classic Car LEDS, who are also on eBay, but you can order direct from their own website.

[tom hall]

There has been a previous posting on here about the possible unsuitability of LED lamps in the ignition warning light, as the alternator needs an initial resistance (ie a conventional lamp) to make it charge.

I have this afternoon changed back from a LED in that lamp to the original lamp and the problem of the ignition warning lamp not extinguishing until about 3000 rpm was instantly cured.
 

[Andy Moltu]

The ignition warning lamp does have to be a standard bulb for the alternator to work but all the rest can be changed.

I went for white and I don't find them too bright but ultimately the colour is down to personal preference.