Changing stock dim instrument cluster bulbs LEDS

[AkaDeathstar]

I have a 2004 Honda Civic DX Sedan. Does anybody know what type of bulbs replace the stock dim yellow bulbs behind the instrument panel? I want some nice bright LED bulbs. Blue ones if i can, thanks for the help.

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[valenzuela]

t-5 bulbs

[DieMaster]

IMO i wouldent do blue very glary at night. red is best. but white makes it look cleaner.

look here: http://www.ledautomotive.com/OrderInfo/01-04Civic/

[baron340]

dont order from them^^ its WAY over priced. all you need are 3 and 5 mm led's and mini 10 ohm resistors, and some soldering knowledge. its time consuming and a bit of a pain to get it all done, but its not that hard. another thing, be sure and file down the end of the leds some, it will make the light diffuse some so you dont get big hot spots. i still have some hot spots in mine, even with the filing.

[AkaDeathstar]

The kits dont sound like a bad idea, do these actually replace the instrument panel with the speedometer, pedometer and tachometer though? Also my main needles are red, anyway to change those to like white or not realy?

[baron340]

wow...i just gave it to you right there.. even with the kits you have to tear the dash out, pull the old bulbs out and do some soldering. it took me weeks of researching to find out those resistors are 10 ohm. go to oznium.com order 5 mm led's in whatever color you want they are like a dollar a piece. go to radioshack tell the guy you want mini 10 ohm resistors, they are about the size of a grain of rice. those dont mess with your instrument cluster though. you cant really swap the lights behind your tach and stuff. the only real way to do that is to swap the whole cluster with an rsx cluster.

[gearbox]

older style cluster only uses maybe 5 bulbs, and if you change with leds, you will just have a bright spot where the led is. unless you get wide angle hi power leds i sometimes see but those always burn out fast.

[AkaDeathstar]

oh okay thanks baron, sorry i thought those bulbs would replace the bulbs behind the tachometer etc... I just wanted a different illuminating instrument panel. So i think i mite just look into the rsx cluster, will it fit in there easily or will there have to be some custom fabrication?

[baron340]

it takes a little custom fab, but its not too bad. there is a diy floating around somewhere, i'm pretty certain there is one on 7thgenhonda.com if not here.

[AkaDeathstar]

alrite cool so im gona go with the bulbs off oznium, way cheaper, does the hyper white look cleaner than the blue?, and how much faster would the wide angle lens bulbs burn out ?

[DieMaster]

white looks more OEM-ish than blue. IMO

also it's a common mis-conseption that led's burn out. truth is, THEY DONT if wired and cared for correctly.

[AkaDeathstar]

haha oh okay sounds good, and exactly how many 5mm or 3mm bulbs would i need just to be accurate?

[gearbox]

i used to do cluster with leds and i usually ended up using 40 5mm leds. you might be able to do less but the light wont be as smooth. you could also get some premade strips maybe and wrap them around the edges pointing inward, that way it will spread the light without shining it dtraight up thru the numbers.

[AkaDeathstar]

wow 40 it cant be tht many, i thought it was like 10 or less, and u wuld have to get 10 ohm resistors for each one?

[gearbox]

you can wire several together in series and then figure the resistor for it.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...Bowden/led.htm