I want to know how he got that custom chrome plated grill ;D

 

Take off the front lens of the cluster and black it out with a felt marker...but...why?

He took the grill off (four nuts) and took it to a plating shop.

 

I've got a 1994 Lexus ES300 with all these light problems, and I understand what you've explained, but I have several questions. The green sockets are #74 wedge type bulbs/LEDs, but what about the Grey, Black and Blue sockets? The grey sockets look like the same size as the green ones, but the black and blue sockets the bulbs are smaller.

Secondly, why do they have 4 different colors? Are all the bulbs different in each color socket, or is it just to help identify what each bulb is for?

Thanks

 

Just curious if all i need to order is the 286 leds from ebay and they will plug and play right into my stock cluster? Is it really that easy just unplug the old burnt out bulbs and the new LEDs will fit in and are compatable without having to do anything else? Im going to order 8 red leds from ebay I was also wondering if those 8 will also replace the lights for the needles themselves or is that a completely different step? thanks guys


my cluster is completely burnt out, makes checking the gas and everything a real pain.. I guess thats common though for a 93

 

Also I noted this is for a es300 and not the sc300 I know how to get into my dash and take that all apart I just want to make sure the 286 LEDs or the 74 LEDs will work for my cluster as well. I need to know if they are just plug and play no other modifications to do.. thanks guys!

 

AFAIK the illumination for the first generation SC and the second generation ES clusters are the same, so this write-up should work for you. As long as you buy LEDs with the right base (the T-1 3/4 wedge base) then they should plug right in to the same sockets as the OEM bulbs. But the LEDs for the gauge backlights are not the same as those used for fixing the needles. Those are tiny surface-mount LEDs that need to be soldered in. Hope this answers your questions.

 

Ok so i found some #74 white leds on ebay but the wedge is a t5? not the t-1 3/4 you were talking about will these still work? also does it matter if its a 12v?

 

The T5 wedge base LEDs should work. The OEM cluster bulbs are rated at 14v but 12v LEDs will light up, however, their lifespan may be somewhat shorter due to being exposed to a slightly higher voltage than what they are rated for.

 

Has anyone tried using the 74-xhp3 LEDs from superbright? Their design would seem to eliminate the spotting caused by non-diffused LEDs.

Just looking at the schematics, I'm not sure if they would fit as easily as the other 74x'.

Is the '-' connection opposite the positive on the 74-xhp3? Not entirely sure if I want to buy two+ sets of both the 74xhp and xhp3's if the 3's won't work out.

Also: for those trying for a blacked-out needle solution, I've considered taking a tritium vial from an old glock night sight and embedding it in the tip, or possibly a simple cut of green fiber optic loktited to the end of the needle to gather the ambient light from white backlights (solution with least possible amount of weight balance issues). Advice?

Recommended 74-xhp LED specs:



74-xhp3 LED specs:

 

Here is my report which also includes some things I wish I had known before which I didn't get from this thread.

I purchased 20 flat topped 286 size bulbs from eBay. They weren't great, but they did work. Next time I'd probably get some from a real store like superbrighleds or something.

NOTE: There are two different sized sockets:
1. The indicator bulbs are smaller and the 286 bulb pretty much just fit.
2. The backlighting sockets are a bit bigger, and I had to put electrical
tape between the LED pin and the body to make it fit snugly.

There was still some minor spotting, much like the pictures posted in here, and it was a bit annoying. In the daylight, the spotting is more noticeable.

I tried various methods to widen/diffuse the LED beam, but ultimately this worked best:
- 400 grit sand paper and just sand the flat top of the LED.
- chopped 1/2 the base of the LED so that it sits much lower in the socket.
1. Straighten out the LED pins
2. Pull the LED from the body.
3. Chop off 1/2 of the bottom section.
4. Shave the sides of the LED body so that it will fit deeper in the
socket.
5. Push the LED back into the body.
6. Bend the pins back to the sides of the body.
- you may want to clip the pins a bit to make them shorter.
7. Press the LED/body back into the socket.

This ultimately produced a wider, softer LED beam which sat much lower in the socket, and significantly reduced the spotting.

Overall:
1. There is still some very minor spotting, but I have to look close.
- it's barely good enough.
- The white LED color doesn't match the LED number displays, which
bugs a bit, but I'll probably get used to this.
2. It's better than the incandescent bulbs, but not by much.
- I've thought about going back to incandescent, but LED's are just
cooler, and last longer.

 

I tried this mod and I disconnected the battery terminal before I did, but now the security system has locked my igition and steering wheel. I looked in the owner's manual on how to disable this and it said to manually unlock the driver door. I did and it didn't fix it. Anybody know how to fix this?

 

To make matters worse, I tried replacing ALL bulbs in the cluster with LED's. I think I might have put them in at the wrong polarity because as soon as I plugged the cluster in and turned the car on to test it, I saw smoke coming from the back of the cluster. I opened it up again to find that I had fried part of the circuit and now all the bulbs on the entire right side of the cluster won't work. Word to the wise: make sure the polarity is right before you test it.

 

This worked perfect for me. I didn't disconnect the battery terminal. I just didn't put the keys in the ignition. Now all I have to do is fix the needles that the previous owner tried to white-out........guy was an idiot

 

Here is a picture of the cluster I had as a spare when I had my 92. I used 2 flat topped leds per hole instead of 1 and I soldered them in. It looks good and doesn't look spotty. I took this picture with a cellphone. By the way I am selling this in the classifieds if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezqy2...eature=related

this video shows my cluster with some super bright single LEDs.
because they are super bright, the spotty-ness is minimal.
took 20 minutes to do.