Inst Cluster Lighting?

This past winter some of you may have seen in my profile that I sent my cluster away to have white faced gauges installed. The main reason I did so was to brighten the cluster. Not just for the looks. I had trouble seeing my engine heat temp gauge in the far left corner because of the 90% tint the PO had installed. Now I actually still have a bit of trouble under the certain conditions "dusk and dawn". My question. Without having to go the LED way to improve, is there any other solution to bring greater light to my gauges.

Thanks in Advance

Robert

88 S4 Auto, X, HF Cats RBM
and a refreshed monster
under the hood.

Bypass the illumination resistor, clean the ground connection, pull the cluster and clean the bulbs and reflector. A real PITA. If you did that when you installed the new faces, you may need the LEDs.

you can put 3W wedge bulb in the main cluster illumination adapters (stock is 2W).

Even just replacing the 2W bulbs with new will help - these small low power illumination bulbs run at lower filament temps and sublimate quite a lot onto the interior surface of the capsules - they get dimmer over time as a result.

The 3W incandescents may also cause further light guide yellowing so LED illumination may actually be better here for the long run. But I'd bet it will be quite a bit brighter.

Alan

Attached files [img]media/attachments/14128=1679-Pod Illum.JPG[/img]

When I had the cluster apart I did remove and clean all the bulbs on the back of the cluster however I forgot to hit the reflectors. Also have a newly none functional oil pressure gauge since refit. I will do more cleaning.

Thanks fellows

Robert

I have the Speedhut EL gauge faces, where the foil face sits on top of the original gauge faces, and is electro-luminescent. Most of these are blue-green, but I have the red. I pulled my needles and painted them white, and with the original bulbs they are seeable, but could be brighter.

N

PCA0891;14204 wrote: When I had the cluster apart I did remove and clean all the bulbs on the back of the cluster however I forgot to hit the reflectors. Also have a newly none functional oil pressure gauge since refit. I will do more cleaning.

Thanks fellows

Robert

Yeah - but you can't clean the inside surface of the bulbs - that's what deteriorates over time. The 3W wedges are generally available at most auto parts stores.