LED cluster question?

[octashroom]

I replaced the white bulds in my cluster about half a year ago and now no longer like it. I was now going to try out some of the brighter LED bulbs on http://www.autolumination.com because the red replacement bulbs i got were faded in areas.

My question is do some of these LEDs on the site just plug and play like the origanial ones???

id be buying like 13 LEDs and they are more then $2 each. So help me make sure im not wasting money. If u no which kinds would look best ID LOVE TO NO. and if someone wants the red bulbs let me no. ill be changeing the climate control lights also so make that 15 or 16 total bulbs.....if i can plug and play these LEDs

i was thinking of green or a brighter red ....and maybe blue

where can i find the white backing like this also?????

post pics if u got them. lets see some different colors that i no you guys got!

Thanks squad

[Alpha.kx]

I'll come back later and provide you with some really good DIY guides on how to do what I'm about to talk about. You'll easily find them on ClubCivic if you go searching.

Basically, you have two choices:

1. (The best way) Use a dremel to shave out excess areas inside of the plastic cluster housing and super-glue in a flexible LED strip. It's by far the brightest option you can do. Plus, if you solder it into the stock wiring, you can adjust the brightness of the overall lighting.

2. Take the time to look up other LED DIY threads that specify the exact size of the LED bulbs you need to buy that will directly twist in. The only important thing to remember here is that some companies offer LED bulbs that provide directional light at a more obtuse (I can't believe I just used that word) angle than others. For maximum overall light coverage, and no dull spots, go with the most obtuse (HA! I did it again!) angle available.

3. If you buy the bulbs, I suggest ordering EXTRA bulbs. I received a shipment of blue LED bulbs a few years back and one of the bulbs that showed up didn't even work. It looked pretty dumb having one stock bulbs and four LED blue bulbs!

4. You can buy white cluster backings like the ones in your picture if you want to.. everyone has their own taste. However, if you do happen to care about what's trendy.. those things went out the window with Altezza tail lights about seven or eight years ago. Just trying to give you a heads up if you care about building something that Honda-Tech won't make fun of you for.

Anyways, as I said, I'll return back later with links...

[octashroom]

(02-26-2010 06:10 PM)Alpha.kx Wrote:  I'll come back later and provide you with some really good DIY guides on how to do what I'm about to talk about. You'll easily find them on ClubCivic if you go searching.

Basically, you have two choices:

1. (The best way) Use a dremel to shave out excess areas inside of the plastic cluster housing and super-glue in a flexible LED strip. It's by far the brightest option you can do. Plus, if you solder it into the stock wiring, you can adjust the brightness of the overall lighting.

2. Take the time to look up other LED DIY threads that specify the exact size of the LED bulbs you need to buy that will directly twist in. The only important thing to remember here is that some companies offer LED bulbs that provide directional light at a more obtuse (I can't believe I just used that word) angle than others. For maximum overall light coverage, and no dull spots, go with the most obtuse (HA! I did it again!) angle available.

3. If you buy the bulbs, I suggest ordering EXTRA bulbs. I received a shipment of blue LED bulbs a few years back and one of the bulbs that showed up didn't even work. It looked pretty dumb having one stock bulbs and four LED blue bulbs!

4. You can buy white cluster backings like the ones in your picture if you want to.. everyone has their own taste. However, if you do happen to care about what's trendy.. those things went out the window with Altezza tail lights about seven or eight years ago. Just trying to give you a heads up if you care about building something that Honda-Tech won't make fun of you for.

Anyways, as I said, I'll return back later with links...

Thanks for all the info. I do no the bulb sizes#74 #194 #24 and the site if you look there has so many different bulbs that i dont no whats best.

For some reason ive always loved the white backing but the comparison to altezza tail lights might scare me away lol.

i dont really have the tools or experiance with solder and wire it by myself. If theres a really good DIY id totally do it.

do you have yours done? If so lets see some pics!!

[Alpha.kx]

If memory serves me correctly, when I bought my bulbs, there were two offerings in each bulb choice: a 90 degree angle of light and a 120 degree angle of light. The larger the better. I bought 120 in blue (because I was trying to go for the EVO 9 interior look). I even took the extra effort to shave out the inside of the cluster to maximize light spreading and I still had a LITTLE bit of dull spots. It wasn't terribly noticeable unless you're a perfectionist like me.

Unfortunately, I sold the cluster to bloodyhatch and bought myself a GSR cluster and wired it in. I don't have any pictures of how the blue looked for me, but I can later find you a good DIY guide.

Right now I'm getting ready to drive out to a cruise

[octashroom]

(02-26-2010 06:36 PM)Alpha.kx Wrote:  If memory serves me correctly, when I bought my bulbs, there were two offerings in each bulb choice: a 90 degree angle of light and a 120 degree angle of light. The larger the better. I bought 120 in blue (because I was trying to go for the EVO 9 interior look). I even took the extra effort to shave out the inside of the cluster to maximize light spreading and I still had a LITTLE bit of dull spots. It wasn't terribly noticeable unless you're a perfectionist like me.

Unfortunately, I sold the cluster to bloodyhatch and bought myself a GSR cluster and wired it in. I don't have any pictures of how the blue looked for me, but I can later find you a good DIY guide.

Right now I'm getting ready to drive out to a cruise

this site dosnt offer angles from what i can see so ill just do some guessing as to whats best. Im going to have to do some shaving on the inside because like you i need perfection a lot of the time.

if i could afford the great thing BH sells id totally buy an SiR cluster and just smile but thats a someday thing for me. I wanna do the f2 type ones now and i need to save for that.

i went on a cruise once and it was a sketchy one (not so fancey like disney) but fun and super relaxing> have fun!!!

[Alpha.kx]

If you don't mind holding off a little bit, I will find the website where I bought the LEDs and provide a link for you. I will also provide a link to the led strip conversion so you can see how good it looks and consider if you'd rather do this instead.

[octashroom]

Im in no rush right now. Its like 10 degrees and i wont be trying to install untill spring or at least a warm weekend. It makes me sad that i have to drag my car through the salty, poy holed streets of the chicago subs for like 5 months.

thanks a lot for the help.

[Alpha.kx]

Okay, here are a few guides I found very very helpful. The first one describes with instructions and pictures the whole process for the flexible LED strip. This would be the ultimate in awesome. He did it in blue. The nice thing about DIY's for clusters, is you can just take the cluster out of the car and do everything inside, so it doesn't matter how cold it is!

This guy owned a 99-00, he did the center console as well

Awesome guide to flexible LED strip installation

If you want to go all out and do your center console as well, but own a 96-98, use the following guide:

96-98 center console flexible LED strip installation guide

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Now let's say you don't want to do the strip, you're curious what you need to buy in terms of LED bulbs.

I bought my LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com. My only qualm is that one of the bulb showed up not working, the customer srevice at superbringled was bad.. I emailed them frequently concerning how to get a working bulb - they never did anything about it. So my suggestion, order an extra bulb or two just in case.

This was my exact order:

Quantity: 1
Product: WLED-x-x LED bulb $ 0.79 (each)
Options: 120 Degree Blue WLED-B-x 0.60

Quantity: 4
Product: T1.5-x Instrument LED bulb $ 1.79 (each)
Options: Blue T1.5-B