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Replace all interior lights?

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muffinstar16

Proven Member
51
3
Apr 30, 2016
Spring Lake, Michigan
I apologize if this is already on a thread here: im new to this forum and am still getting used to all this. anywho; i picked up a 99 gst turbo the oother day, and the lights behind the climate control center are dead. I figured id replace them with white led's to get rid of that ugly yellow glow they give off. But if im going to replace those lights i might as well replace all of the interior lights. So, foot well lights, dome light under the mirror, instrument cluster, cigarette lighter, climate controls, even in the ash try are all going to replaced. How would i go about changing these, where would i get the bulbs and where should i order them from. If this is a redundant post and someone else has already asked these questions, please direct me to that thread. Thank You.
 
Some one please correct me if I am wrong but the bulbs can be swapped with LEDs however I am almost certain the color is in the tint of the actual component transparency.
 
... the color is in the tint of the actual component transparency.
That is correct to an extent. A typical bulb by nature gives off warm yellow-ish light while an LED can give pure white color. So just swapping to LEDs will chance color some, make it seem colder, a bit more blue. Still won't give a pure color since some components are indeed tinted.
 
would after market guage faces change the tint further than the bulbs?
 
would after market guage faces change the tint further than the bulbs?

Just like 91-GS said, the colors will be more vibrant. The LED, depending on what angle you get (but most 194 bulbs are just a basic 120° field of view) will be brighter than a traditional filament bulb. They will make whatever tint they shine through a brighter, usually lighter (due to age and thickness of the tint on the component's film) color.

For example your a/C panel looks blue, you change it for a white (don't go for color leds unless you know specificly what tint color you're after) and now it's a aqua marine color.
 
I changed my bulbs with red LEDs and they show through just fine. Although if you want to go outside of the red-orange spectrum with say blue or white, you would have to remove all the gauge faces and HVAC faces and sand the orange tint off otherwise it will just come through as orange mixed with whatever color you chose.
 
The process to remove the yellowing isn't terribly bad, but i did the same and the brightness was inconsistent across the gauges (brighter closer to the bulb and dimmer farther away). I found some powered gauges that overlay the factory ones and don't require you to remove the needles. Very happy with the results. Check around on ebay.

Also, +1 on superbrightleds.com
 
The process to remove the yellowing isn't terribly bad, but i did the same and the brightness was inconsistent across the gauges (brighter closer to the bulb and dimmer farther away). I found some powered gauges that overlay the factory ones and don't require you to remove the needles. Very happy with the results. Check around on ebay.

Also, +1 on superbrightleds.com
anyway you can throw me a link to those overlays?
 
The process to remove the yellowing isn't terribly bad, but i did the same and the brightness was inconsistent across the gauges (brighter closer to the bulb and dimmer farther away). I found some powered gauges that overlay the factory ones and don't require you to remove the needles. Very happy with the results. Check around on ebay.

Also, +1 on superbrightleds.com

I saw a post recently about someone doing their interior lights with LED strips. They filled the cavity under the gauges with the strips and, from the pics at least, there were no brightness issues.

The other option to avoid dim spots might be to use some perf board cut to shape that will hold LEDs where you need them and just run a small bit of extra wire through the cavity.
 
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