Dashboard blinker indicator light

[kennetht]

Hey guys,

yesterday i noticed my dashboard blinker light is no longer illuminating when i turn my signals on. The blinkers work fine, just the dash indicator light no longer works.

i figure the bulb has burned out. Just wanted to make sure that it isnt a fuse? i figured the entire dash is under one fuse itself, but just wanted to verify to confirm that it is the bulb that burned out.

I have done a little research on the bulbs, and it seems like the dashboard bulbs are called T10 194 wedge bulbs? is that correct?

Was also considering possibly changing all of them to LED bulbs, and was wondering if anyone has had any experience changing them and which bulbs you purchased to change to LEDs. Thanks!

[InvisiBill]

There's no fuse on the indicator light. It's wired directly between the positive wires of both sides' turn signals.

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

The turn signal indicator light is actually wired to the + of both front turn signals, based on the wiring diagram linked above. Voltage is based on the differential between the two wires, so this works since there's voltage on the blinker that's on, but not on the other one. When your right blinker is on, the gray wire of the dash bulb is + and the green wire is -. When the left blinker is on, the green wire is + and the gray wire is -. This also means that switching the dash bulb to an LED wouldn't work, since LEDs are polarized and will only work with the power flowing one way through them.

You'll need a diode kit (which runs both sides' + through the diodes to one wire of the indicator bulb, and - to the other wire) or a custom setup with two LEDs (the positives going to each of the wires in the harness, with a shared ground added for the LEDs) to make an LED work in place of the stock incandescent bulb. Simply dropping a 194 LED "bulb" in place of the stock bulb would cause it to come on only for one side's turn signal. Switching its orientation in the socket would cause it to come on only for the other side's signal. With the stock wiring and a polarized LED, it's physically impossible for it to work both ways.

Other than that little gotcha on the 250, the only downside I can think of with LEDs is that some cheaper ones might not put out a very good light pattern, meaning they don't illuminate the back of the dash as well as the stock bulbs. I think the whiter light of LEDs makes it look better, and it should be more reliable too. I love the LED bulbs I dropped into my EX500's dash. Mine were cheap Chinese eBay units, but I made sure to get ones with 5 LEDs mounted around the sides and on top, and using 5050 (5mm x 5mm) SMD LEDs so they'd be rather bright and omnidirectional.



BEFORE


AFTER

[kennetht]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

There's no fuse on the indicator light. It's wired directly between the positive wires of both sides' turn signals.



You'll need a diode kit (which runs both sides' + through the diodes to one wire of the indicator bulb, and - to the other wire) or a custom setup with two LEDs (the positives going to each of the wires in the harness, with a shared ground added for the LEDs) to make an LED work in place of the stock incandescent bulb. Simply dropping a 194 LED "bulb" in place of the stock bulb would cause it to come on only for one side's turn signal. Switching its orientation in the socket would cause it to come on only for the other side's signal. With the stock wiring and a polarized LED, it's physically impossible for it to work both ways.

Other than that little gotcha on the 250, the only downside I can think of with LEDs is that some cheaper ones might not put out a very good light pattern, meaning they don't illuminate the back of the dash as well as the stock bulbs. I think the whiter light of LEDs makes it look better, and it should be more reliable too. I love the LED bulbs I dropped into my EX500's dash. Mine were cheap Chinese eBay units, but I made sure to get ones with 5 LEDs mounted around the sides and on top, and using 5050 (5mm x 5mm) SMD LEDs so they'd be rather bright and omnidirectional.

I previously installed a diode kit a few months ago as I put on LED blinkers, so I am all set there.

Guess I wont buy cheap ones on ebay then lol. I'll fork up the little bit of cash to get good LEDs

[kennetht]

Thinking of getting these.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-T10-W5W-1...0fd656&vxp=mtr

What you guys think?

[InvisiBill]

Note that those only shine straight out from the socket. I'm not familiar with the bulb setup in the 250 dash, but that might give you bright spots where the bulbs are, and dark areas elsewhere. Remember that an incandescent bulb throws out light in basically a 360° spherical pattern (excluding where the socket is), whereas these are more like a focused flashlight beam. That style would probably be great for the indicator lights though. Even with mine, you can see that it's brighter where the bulbs actually mount, though it's pretty well-lit over the full gauge area (it's most obvious on the blue km/h scale).

Also, those are 3.0x2.0mm LEDs, with 8 per bulb. That's only 48mm² of LED area. My 5x5050 bulbs would be 125mm² of LED area.

And generally speaking for eBay, try limiting your search to the US too. You might find the exact same thing for a dollar more, but it'll arrive in a couple days instead of taking a month on a boat from China.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300999247430 is a 5-pack of the 5x5050 ones like I used, for $5.49 shipped from Pennsylvania. I'd recommend those for general gauge illumination over the ones you linked. If you want to replace all the dash bulbs with this style, http://www.ebay.com/itm/111197894979 is a 10-pack for $8.95. You may prefer directional, colored LEDs for the indicators though (the 500 uses different size bulbs, so had to order different styles anyway).

[kennetht]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

Note that those only shine straight out from the socket. I'm not familiar with the bulb setup in the 250 dash, but that might give you bright spots where the bulbs are, and dark areas elsewhere. Remember that an incandescent bulb throws out light in basically a 360° spherical pattern (excluding where the socket is), whereas these are more like a focused flashlight beam. That style would probably be great for the indicator lights though. Even with mine, you can see that it's brighter where the bulbs actually mount, though it's pretty well-lit over the full gauge area (it's most obvious on the blue km/h scale).

Also, those are 3.0x2.0mm LEDs, with 8 per bulb. That's only 48mm² of LED area. My 5x5050 bulbs would be 125mm² of LED area.

And generally speaking for eBay, try limiting your search to the US too. You might find the exact same thing for a dollar more, but it'll arrive in a couple days instead of taking a month on a boat from China.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300999247430 is a 5-pack of the 5x5050 ones like I used, for $5.49 shipped from Pennsylvania. I'd recommend those for general gauge illumination over the ones you linked. If you want to replace all the dash bulbs with this style, http://www.ebay.com/itm/111197894979 is a 10-pack for $8.95. You may prefer directional, colored LEDs for the indicators though (the 500 uses different size bulbs, so had to order different styles anyway).

that makes perfect sense. thanks for pointing that out. so for the dash bulbs you would recommend a led bulb that has leds shining in all different directions to keep the instrument cluster light evenly thoughout the dash.

thanks for the links, i will definitely be ordering shortly. i look to work on it possibly this weekend or next.

[linkinpark9812]

I can't remember the exact ones I got, but I used the high powered SMD one (a bit more expensive, but brighter than stock bulbs).

For the back lighting bulbs (I think there are 3), I used white LEDs (5K or 6K, can't remember) and used the 360 style like this:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...edge-base/206/

For the indicator lights, like brights, oil pressure, etc, I just used the one front LED (and got the appropriate colors) For example, the oil pressure, I got a red LED, neutral a green, etc. The stock used all white. With this, you that that truer and richer color. Hard to tell in pics:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...edge-base/204/

Here are before and after shots:

[kennetht]

wow that definitely brightened up the instrument cluster nicely. thanks for the recommendation of which leds to purchase.

i already purchased these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111197894979

so ill see how those are for the cheap price.

if they are no good, ill have to buy yours, as superbrightleds is definitely a more trust worthy source.

i will let you know how i make out

[kennetht]

A little late, sorry I never followed up with the thread, but I just wanted to post the image of my results after installing the LEDs I bought from here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111197894979

They turned out great!