Gen 4 LED question

[nuchieboy]

ok well i know this has been covered but i cannot find the answers to my questions
1. What kind of LEDS do i need for the speedo cluster?
2. What kind of LEDS do i need for the Climate Controls?
3. Are there 4 or 5 bulbs in the speedo cluster? and are there 2 in the climate?
4. where is the best place to buy some nice white leds for both cluster because i want to paint my needles red and have white numbers...thanks!

[touringcamry]

The gauge clusters and the climate controls use light bulbs not LEDs.

If you are doing a retrofit, you can use any type of LED you want. Just make sure you feed them the proper current and voltage so you don't burn them up.

If you want some bright white LEDs, I guess you could throw some Luxeons in there, but that might be overkill for your application. 3mm or 5mm LEDs should suffice for this application. If you use Luxeons, probably the Star I will be more than enough light. I'm not sure if they need heatsinks or not though. If you want the brightest, get some Luxeon K2 LEDs, but make sure they have proper cooling (heatsink) because them things get hot enough that you can't touch them.

[nuchieboy]

yea i know that they use regular light bulbs but i want to change them....i want them to look nice and bright like the lexus es 300 gauges....people on the forums have said that there are LEDS that will just plug in and i will not need any heat sinks or resistors? is this true?

[touringcamry]

Oh, in that case you can just get LED replacement bulbs. They will fit the regular wedge socket but they LEDs on them instead of a tungsten filament.

[nuchieboy]

yea thats what i want to do...but the question is which leds will fit behind the cluster gauge? and also the ac controls...like what numbers...if u could show me show white leds that fit for both that would be great..thanks

[touringcamry]

Not sure, but I'm gonna guess that they are 194 or 168 bulbs so just find some LEDs that fit that base and it should be ok. Do a search, I'm not certain about those bulb sizes. I'm certain that people have changed out those bulbs before.

But the thing about sticking LEDs back there is that the viewing angle for LEDs are somewhat narrow compared to an incandescent bulb so you might not see any any improvement if the LEDs aren't pointed the right way.

[nuchieboy]

yea im trying to find them online thats the thing? anybody know where i can get them?!?!?

[touringcamry]

Search the forum to make sure that the bulb size is indeed 194 or 168 like I'm thinking. Then go to Google or eBay and search 194 or 168 LED and you should get about a million results.

Just curious, but have you considered just taking the green cover off the bulbs? This should brighten things up a bit and make them white instead of green. Though since the bulbs are 10 years old and you are taking the dash apart, you could replace them with new bulbs as PM. I don't know how long those bulbs last though.

[prjkt_c4mry]

If you do go for the led bulbs, then I recommend buying from http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html. I ordered from them and 3 days later I got the package, so you should expect a speedy delivery.

[nuchieboy]

which ones will work though? like what numbered leds?

[touringcamry]

What do you mean what numbered LED? I thought you wanted those wedge based ones.

[nuchieboy]

off this site...http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html
which ones would i use for the dash cluster? and which ones for the hvac controls?

[touringcamry]

Use the ones with the same base as whatever bulb you are replacing.

[nuchieboy]

are the hvac the same as the dash cluster? it says the dash cluster is 194? right?

[camry_ricer]

the clusters are 168/194 bulbs

the AC area, those are 74 bulbs


if you decide to get LED's you will need to get a resistor to keep it from flickering and dying out quick. I had LEDs in my cluster, but it was too bright, and I didnt use a resistor, so I just swapped them to regular blue bulbs.


you can get a resistor at a Radio Shack or something.