Interior and Upholstery Gauge cluster led conversion questions

[AnthonyA1234]

What’s the easiest way to install the led bulbs and know that they are all in the right way so that they’ll work?

Also, which bulbs would you guys who have done the conversion recommend leaving as halogens? I’ve seen some say they leave the hight beams and blinkers as halogens because they’re too bright as leds.

 

[Pinellas50]

The only way I found to do it is install the bulbs, plug in the cluster, turn on the parking lights, and see what works and what doesn't. You have a 50/50 shot on each one. Any bulb not lighting needs to be flipped 180 degrees.

 

[Mustang5L5]

9V battery with some leads. I just touch the copper contact pad on the back printed board to test if the bulbs light. You can also plug it into the car, but I prefer bench testing it.


You can activate a lot of stuff on these cars with a good 9V and leads and aligator clips. I've used this rig as a troubleshooting method for years.

Amazon.com

Leave the turn signal bulbs, and the battery AMP bulb as a regular style incandescent bulb. Everything else can go to LED. Try to buy LED's that radiate the light outwards in a 360* pattern vs outwards to avoid hotspots.

Here's the wiring for a 90-93 cluster. There's an illumination feed and ground on each side.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

9V battery with some leads. I just touch the copper contact pad on the back printed board to test if the bulbs light. You can also plug it into the car, but I prefer bench testing it.


You can activate a lot of stuff on these cars with a good 9V and leads and aligator clips. I've used this rig as a troubleshooting method for years.

Amazon.com

Leave the turn signal bulbs, and the battery AMP bulb as a regular style incandescent bulb. Everything else can go to LED. Try to buy LED's that radiate the light outwards in a 360* pattern vs outwards to avoid hotspots.

Here's the wiring for a 90-93 cluster. There's an illumination feed and ground on each side.

Thanks a lot for that info! One last thing, I want to get rid of the airbag light so that it isn’t always blinking. What’s the right way to do that? Do I leave the little black plug that twists in with no bulb or take out the bulb and the black plug?

 

[AnthonyA1234]

So I've done some more research on deleting that airbag bulb. if you remove the bulb the car will beep whenever you start it. So the next best option is to cover up the bulb with something and leave it in there. I saw one guy in a forum say he put some electrical tape over the bulb but I'm not sure how that would hold up over time with the heat. Any ideas on what I could cover up that bulb with? Or would that electrical tape work?

 

[Mustang5L5]

The airbag backup power supply is located above the radio. Blue box. If you pull that, and the bulb, I think that's it.

Thing is it's a PITA to get to and disconnect.

 

[General karthief]

I think you can pull the plug on the beeper, just have to find it, I believe it's on the passenger side behind the glove box door.
Why is the airbag light on?
edit: Ok, Mike beat me to it

 

[96pushrod]

I’ve don’t led bulbs on 2 friend’s cars and they were not polarity specific. Which ones are you using?

 

[vindieseljetta]

Elec tape over the airbag bulb is not a good solution. 1 - it will leak light and you’ll still see a slight glow of the light 2) it gets really hot and will crisp the elec tape, prob a fire hazard. This is from personal experience. I plugged in a burned out bulb in my 92 ans worked perfectly. No airbag buzzer was triggered for me with that.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Elec tape over the airbag bulb is not a good solution. 1 - it will leak light and you’ll still see a slight glow of the light 2) it gets really hot and will crisp the elec tape, prob a fire hazard. This is from personal experience. I plugged in a burned out bulb in my 92 ans worked perfectly. No airbag buzzer was triggered for me with that.

I also tried putting in a burnt out bulb but it set off the alarm. I even tried putting a led and wrapping that with electrical tape since LEDs don’t get as hot but even that set off the alarm. I ended up just wrapping the incandescent with tape I figured since it only flashes every once and a while it doesn’t get as hot.