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The bulbs for my gauges are going out. I got my gauge cluster out and ready to swap out the bulbs for LEDs. I have been told I need 7- #74s, 1- #194, but when i check these bulbs that doesnt add up.
One of the brown ones that has the wire that connects to the overhead bulbs is a 194, the other brown twist caps are a little smaller than the 194 cap, then the notification bulbs and the overhead bulbs are smaller than the smaller brown twist caps. So I know where the 194 goes, does anybody know what the other two bulb sizes are for the smaller brown twist caps and the black notification/overhead bulbs are?
So since nobody seems to know or wants to post the bulbs needed for the gauge cluster, I spent a couple days trying to figure this out.
HERE ARE THE SIZES.
The bulbs you will need the most of (12 bulbs) are bulbs #74 (T5)
These bulbs are used for the notifications, turn signals and the 2 lights on the top that provide overhead gauge illumination.
The amount of bulbs needed can vary depending on what notification lights your car is equipped with. With my 99 Civic LX 12 of these bulbs are required. Can and will vary depending on vehicle.
The next set of bulbs are the middle amount needed (4-6 bulbs) and these are #24 (T6.5, T6 1/2, T2 1/4)
These bulbs are used for: 4 of the bulbs are used for behind gauge illumination. 1 bulb is used for the low gas notification light. 1 bulb is used for the cruse control notification light. (6 bulbs total)
The biggest and last bulb required is #194 (T10)
This bulb is the biggest one that goes pretty much directly in the center of the gauges.
I do not know why they didn't just use all #194s or #24s for the cluster, they have to make it difficult.
When looking at the twist sockets the bulbs will go with these color twist sockets:
#194- Biggest brown twist socket with the wire connected to it.
#24- These will be the 4 smaller brown twist sockets and the grey twist socket (also the twist socket for the cruse control).
#74- these will be all the black twist sockets.
These are just for the gauges and notification lights. If you have an automatic with the gear display on the cluster, I have not gotten around to checking out what these bulbs are: I will post again in the future when I get around to it.
If anybody has anything to add to this please do! I want people to be informed on stuff that nobody wants to or cares to post about.
Sorry, didn't see this until now, and the only gauge cluster lighting I have experience with is a 2002 civic (similar bulbs though -- I also did LED illumination modification to it). Last time I told a dude he needed #74 bulbs in a few spots, I was told I didn't know what I was talking about.
There were some bulbs in the 02 cluster that had the leads weaved through the twist base socket. I couldn't tell you whether or not the same would apply to a 6thgen.
I did notice, however, you have another thread regarding LED lighting in the gauge cluster, and I do have experience with that (I'll copy and paste applicable parts of this post to that thread so future users can see the advice). There is a slight problem with up and changing the OEM incandescent bulbs to LEDs. That is, of course, assuming the 6thgen gauge cluster works similarly to the 7thgen's. While the lumen output of an LED may exceed that of the OEM incandescent, it's much "spottier" light. After all is said and done, you'll end up with spots of bright light with a lot of dim areas. One thing I did to try and alleviate that was up and custom make my own bulbs using eBay-bought SMD LEDs, SMD 470ohm resistors, and some solid strand wire. For the gauge cluster backlighting, there were a handful of bulbs (and bear in mind all my experience is for a 2002/7thgen) that illuminated a clear plastic diffuser and it kinda acted like fiber optics work. The modification I had to do with my DIY bulbs was, with the gauge face off, have some LED's butt-up against the "input" flat surfaces of the diffuser, and wiring them up in such a manner that the solid wire would hold them in place. In hindsight, a bit of hot glue would've worked wonders.
With the #74 bulb (the only one I had illumination issues with was the odometer backlight), I had to wire a couple in parallel (as to use only one resistor), make sure the light spread was even, and make sure they could fit in the bulb opening. That was a challenge. Indicator light #74 bulbs worked fine with placing the bulb right at the top of the twist base socket.
At the end of the day, I used the LED backlighting for the needles only and bought myself a gauge face overlay to make it look pretty.
Anyways, I hope that provided a good amount of insight as to how much work I put in to converting to LED lighting in the gauge cluster.
edit: for your viewing pleasure, what my gauge cluster looked like after all was said and done.
I did notice, however, you have another thread regarding LED lighting in the gauge cluster, and I do have experience with that (I'll copy and paste applicable parts of this post to that thread so future users can see the advice). There is a slight problem with up and changing the OEM incandescent bulbs to LEDs. That is, of course, assuming the 6thgen gauge cluster works similarly to the 7thgen's. While the lumen output of an LED may exceed that of the OEM incandescent, it's much "spottier" light. After all is said and done, you'll end up with spots of bright light with a lot of dim areas. One thing I did to try and alleviate that was up and custom make my own bulbs using eBay-bought SMD LEDs, SMD 470ohm resistors, and some solid strand wire. For the gauge cluster backlighting, there were a handful of bulbs (and bear in mind all my experience is for a 2002/7thgen) that illuminated a clear plastic diffuser and it kinda acted like fiber optics work. The modification I had to do with my DIY bulbs was, with the gauge face off, have some LED's butt-up against the "input" flat surfaces of the diffuser, and wiring them up in such a manner that the solid wire would hold them in place. In hindsight, a bit of hot glue would've worked wonders.
With the #74 bulb (the only one I had illumination issues with was the odometer backlight), I had to wire a couple in parallel (as to use only one resistor), make sure the light spread was even, and make sure they could fit in the bulb opening. That was a challenge. Indicator light #74 bulbs worked fine with placing the bulb right at the top of the twist base socket.
At the end of the day, I used the LED backlighting for the needles only and bought myself a gauge face overlay to make it look pretty.
Anyways, I hope that provided a good amount of insight as to how much work I put in to converting to LED lighting in the gauge cluster.
edit: for your viewing pleasure, what my gauge cluster looked like after all was said and done.
