M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS

DISCUSSION => Electrical => Topic started by: tmoretta on October 12, 2019, 05:08:08 PM

Title: Gauge bulbs
Post by: tmoretta on October 12, 2019, 05:08:08 PM

I have the instrument cluster (gauges) out of my '91 318is to change to the correct coding plug.  I guess this car had a 325i dash installed years ago.  Now the gauges are lit a reddish color and are pretty dim at night.  Can I change the illumination bulbs to something brighter? And where would I get them?

Title: Re: Gauge bulbs
Post by: monty23psk on October 13, 2019, 09:08:55 AM

Yes you can. I did my whole cluster with superbrightleds.com bulbs. You can see my thread in the members section. The only one you can replace is the  battery light because it needs the 12v to ignite the alternator to charge the batter without blipping the accelerator. Very bright at night but you loose the dim function due to how LEDs cutoff works.

Title: Re: Gauge bulbs
Post by: tmoretta on October 14, 2019, 12:50:13 PM

Is it that you can or cannot replace the charging light?

Title: Re: Gauge bulbs
Post by: monty23psk on October 14, 2019, 08:17:18 PM

typo, cannot

Title: Re: Gauge bulbs
Post by: tmoretta on October 15, 2019, 10:03:38 AM

Great info - thanks.