Dashboard relight!

[cober]

Made Explorer Dashboard light and bright.
Also made some tuning - got rid of AT selector shift indicator and installed AT temperature sensor - as seen on video)

 

[J_C]

Very bright, especially the digital temp sensor is too bright. I prefer just bright enough to see with minimal effect on night vision, so I think I would swap in higher value resistors to improve lifespan and lower the upper brightness limit if I were to go LED.

However, I am not much for the LED replacement on the instrument cluster. If the original bulbs lasted near 25 years, I would be okay with replacement incan bulbs lasting another 25. The brightness is calibrated so that all stock bulbs uniformly dim a similar amount with the dimmer dial.

 

[cober]

Very bright, especially the digital temp sensor is too bright. I prefer just bright enough to see with minimal effect on night vision, so I think I would swap in higher value resistors to improve lifespan and lower the upper brightness limit if I were to go LED.

However, I am not much for the LED replacement on the instrument cluster. If the original bulbs lasted near 25 years, I would be okay with replacement incan bulbs lasting another 25. The brightness is calibrated so that all stock bulbs uniformly dim a similar amount with the dimmer dial.

They can't last 25 years. And they burn plastic of the dash cluster. Bulbs suck!

 

[J_C]

^ My '98 Explorer is now almost 24 years old, and has always ran the factory incan bulbs. It has one bulb that is either out or intermittent contact but all the rest still work. I have no burnt or molten plastic visible in the gauge cluster, looks like new still.

One thing that might have contributed to long life is I wasn't driving it a lot at night, and the other is that when I do, I do not have the brightness turned all the way up. Incan bulbs, if ran at less than full brightness, will last multiple times as long. Ever hear of those 100 year bulbs for household sockets? They just run the filament cooler, which is less efficient for home lighting to need more of them, but in the dash, dimmer is what I prefer so it works out fine.

Ironically, while a properly implemented LED can outlast an incan bulb, most designed for vehicle use, save on material cost by driving a smaller LED die hard and will often not last 1/2 as long as a standard long life incan bulb would. Hence my preference would be to use a higher value resistor if I put LED bulbs in the dash, but if the LEDs are driven hard, just like incan bulbs they will last much longer if not turned up to max brightness with the dash dial, so you don't really "need" different resistors, if you are the sole driver and in control of that dial.

 

[DemonMudder]

My '99 Explorer still has the stock bulbs in the dashboard, though the left side has an issue, burnt out or electrical issues since the fuel and temp guages aren't lit. But otherwise they work just fine, I have debated on replacing them with LEDs though, already did that to all of the exterior lights. But even though most of my driving is at night, I'm not in a huge rush to change anything in the dash

 

[J_C]

^ My '98 Explorer is now almost 24 years old, and has always ran the factory incan bulbs. It has one bulb that is either out or intermittent contact but all the rest still work.

Heh, intermittent, light for fuel level started working again yesterday so all original bulbs working now.

 

[cober]

Heh, intermittent, light for fuel level started working again yesterday so all original bulbs working now.

Plastic already burned around them and board too. Soon it's gonna go out

 

[J_C]

You can get the bulbs with the plastic holders included, Rock Auto in the US has them.

It doesn't really bother me if every now and then my fuel gauge light goes out, since the rest still work and I always check fuel before I go out.

It might have been excessive humidity, there was a lot of snow here a little over a week ago and still very humid inside from the floor mats.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

It is not the plastic holders that the incandescent lights melt, it is all the surrounding plastic in the socket. Yes, these truck are 20+ years old, but plastic and heat are not friends.

 

[J_C]

^ Keep in mind what I do and suggested, that if you don't run your lights at max brightness (which also hurts your night vision), they produce less heat in addition to lasting multiple times longer.

LED bulbs also last multiple (even more multiple) times longer running at lower brightness, but once you decrease the brightness, the # of decades difference becomes less important unless you are trying to preserve a show car and then, seems like keeping all original parts would be a plus.