I just put in some superbrightleds.com blue LEDs (the 5 gauge lights) into my cluster. The cluster lights up blue and looks great, but my red needles don't light at all. What have I done wrong or what can I do to fix this? Anyone have any ideas? I used WLED-BHP6.

 

I've done the same thing with some ebay LED's and have the same problem. I don't think there's much we can do about it though. The LED's put out light in a very specific and direct pattern where as a regular bulb emits light in all directions; lighting up the needle.

However if you or someone else finds an answer I'm very interested to hear it.

 

The other issue is the LEDs put out just 1 color - blue. The needle is red, so it pretty much filters out almost everything from the blue LED.

That's one reason why I haven't gotten green LEDs for my dash, I don't want my needles disappearing on me.

I wonder if there is a way to have dedicated LEDs for the needles, somehow.

 

Good point, the red and blue don't mix too well.

However your dedicated LED idea is very good. I might just look into that this weekend. I'm sure I could squeeze a white 3mm LED in there somehow.

 

I figured that was the problem...blue LEDs, red needles...not a good mix. I wonder if the yellow T/A needles would look any different?

 

The needles gather light from the same "pocket" as the gauges so there should be no reason that they aren't lighting up. Here is a pic of my cluster with the overlay removed to show the leds I just installed.


I used a wedge bulb with 5 smd leds (4 radially shining and 1 forward shining) like these:


Here is a night shot and a few low light shots of mine with the 6LE checkered gauges:

 

I see why it's not lighting up now. I used these bulbs:


I should have used these:


I'll see if I can send them back and swap them out.

 

I have heard of other people using the same style as you but haven't seen any in person. The pics were with a crappy camera and don't do the lighting justice, the needles are much clearer in person. I wouldn't think a forward shining led would make much difference though. The gauges line up with the 4 prongs in the "+" shapes so the needle should be centered on the "+" shapes so it shouldn't shine anywhere near the needle.

 

Yeah, that's why I ordered the ones I did...based on the recommendation of others. It's not terrible, I can see the needles, just not as bright as I would have thought. Looking at pictures of others on here, mine aren't anywhere near as bright.

 

I'd put a red LED for the red needles. Closer the match of the color, the better.

 

Wow, those aren't very bright. If you search for "Intelli glow needle Camaro" there are a few kits that come up that fit under the needle and light them up. They look really bright but they are WAY expensive. I have never seen these in person but that is a lot of change to fork up to test them out. Here is a description from there listing:

 

see i ordered the leds in that pic that look like a pc chip and they did the same thing.
the problem is that they dont shine foward just to the sides and thats why the needles dont light up.

i have had some leds for a few years and 1 x'ed out so i went and ordered those and ended up sending them back.

my old ones where front lighting only and worked perfect bright gauges and bright needles.
get the front lighting ones.

 

Were they similar to this style?


If so I ordered some for my 6LE gauges and they didn't light too well so I pulled them and ordered others, they might work ok with the stock gauges though. I have them sitting around and will probably not use them.

 

I think you are right, they need to shine forward as well as all directions. I hooked one of the leds up to my battery charger in both polarities and they are bright as ****, but still only on the outside...no led facing forward. I'll send them back and get different ones.

 

I forget the exact reason, but I think it has to do with red & blue having different wavelengths of the spectrum. Blue will not light up red and vice versa. I used white leds in my cluster. The white leds light up both the blue and the red needles. The picture sucks. They are more blue in person.

 

to the OP its the needles. they dont transfer light well at all, my friend had the same problem

 

I remember when I had a celica and I did the led conversion, you could use some finger nail polish and remove that color off the needle. Not so sure if it's the same for the Camaro needles. I might give it a go when I order some of those bulbs.

Edit: dumb question but are those WLED the same ones I could use in a 94 firebird cluster?

 

how did you make the mileage screen blue with white numbers? looks really good

 

Depends on the year of your car. Mine is a 98 so it just had a red light diffuser behind the odometer and a 168 bulb behind it on the cluster circuit board. I replaced the bulb with one of my blue 5 smd leds and removed the red diffuser and cut my own clear diffuser to the same size and replaced it. On the newer clusters there is an led soldered to the actual odometer circuit board that you have to desolder and replace with a blue led. Mine was a white 5 smd led in the first pics but replaced it later with blue. Let me know if you need anymore info and I'll get some more pics.

 

yes but take it from me get bulb sockets from an LS1 cluster. it will save you a lot of headache