Green vs White Instrument Lighting Pictures

[prefervintage]

Hello all...recently, my tachometer center disc fell off and started rolling around the bottom of the gauge, and its been driving me crazy...so to have time to fix the unit, I bought a backup tach, and figured if I'm going to pull the damaged unit, I might as well do the cable, and again, while there might as well take the time to change all the lighting to LEDs...I ordered from superbrightleds.com both white and green replacements for the original incandescents...pictures attached...I think the green (BA9S-G4-90-12VAC) is best for night driving...the white was P/N BA9S-WW4-90-12VAC)...has anyone used green or even red lighting for their W113? I'd be interested in seeing how other fully lighted LED dash boards look with what other members have tried with their cars...many thanks...

[mmizesko]

I've got the white(cool) LED's in the Gauges, but used the green ones in the turn indicators.  I like the brightness at night, and my rheostat for the brightness is non functional so is on full blast.

love to see full dash pics if you go the color route.

Mike Mizesko

[hansr433]

How reliable are these particular LEDs?  I prefer the warm-white colour spectrum as it approximates regular incandescent bulbs.

[rbouch8828]

If I were to use a color at night it would be red. As a pilot, the cockpit instruments use red lighting at night to preserve nightvision, making it easier to see objects in the darkened area outside.

RB

[prefervintage]

I think red lighting would be really cool, but perhaps too far afield for our SLs...but you're absolutely right, it does help with night vision...too bad we can't get multicolor LEDs with a chip such that shooting a prescribed bit code they all change color to whatever we want that night! Even though I ordered high brightness white LEDs, the gauge I tried it on didn't seem much more visible than the original incandescent...if I do convert all to green, I'll post here. Does anyone know how many bulbs the center cluster takes? I think I read it was only one in the rear center. Given the joy I've read about getting the center cluster and the speedo out, I only want to do this once!

[GM]

I did mine recently. There are numerous posts about this. This post helped me: https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=28874.0
Also h/t to royroberson

Here's what I ordered:
Tachometer (original 2 x 2W)
2 white LED
BA9s LED Bulb - 4 LED - BA9s Bulb - Warm White 90 Degree 12VAC
Part Number: BA9S-WW4-90-12VAC
 
Speedometer (original 2 x 2W)
2 white LED
BA9s LED Bulb - 4 LED - BA9s Bulb - Warm White 90 Degree 12VAC
Part Number: BA9S-WW4-90-12VAC
 
Center Instrument Cluster (each original = 2W)
Turn signals – 2 green LEDs
BA9s LED Bulb - 1 LED - BA9s Bulb - Green 120 Degree 12V
Part Number: BA9S-G-120-12VAC
 
Alternator – keep original 2W incandescent vs. 1 red LED w/resistor
 
Brake fluid, doors open – 1 red LED
BA9s LED Bulb - 1 LED - BA9s Bulb - Red 120 Degree 12V
Part Number: BA9S-R-120-12VAC         --- Out of stock ---
BA9s LED Bulb - 1 LED - BA9s Bulb - Red 90 Degree 12V
Part Number: BA9S-R-90-12VAC           --- Available---
 
High beam – 1 blue LED
BA9s LED Landscape Light Bulb - 1 LED - BA9s Retrofit - 4 Lumens - Blue 120 Degree 12V
Part Number: BA9S-B-120-12VAC         --- Out of stock ---
BA9s LED Bulb - 1 LED - BA9s Bulb - Blue 90 Degree 12V
Part Number: BA9S-B-90-12VAC           --- Available---
 
Main instrument panel – 1 white LED
BA9s LED Bulb - 4 LED - BA9s Bulb - Warm White 90 Degree 12VAC
Part Number: BA9S-WW4-90-12VAC
 
 
Low fuel – keep original 2W incandescent (go to 3W?)


Note: I installed the 82 ohm resistor recommended by Clunker, but still had fit issues with the low fuel slot (lower left bulb - yellow box in the bottom photo of the post referenced above) so I had to use an original 2W bulb. Also, one of the tach LEDs had to be ground down (diameter) to fit. Otherwise, everything is great!