led dash

[visionmercury]

im going to do leds in the dash of my 87 merc any ideas of how many of them i need .

[1990LTD]

for the gauges or idiot lights?

in my 90 cv it took 8 bulbs for the gauges, speedo, odometer, etc. for the warning lights/signals, however many lights your car has plus the two for the signals of course. remember that there are colored filters in place so you need to go with a similar color..or you can try to mix, as i found out. i put a red light under the blue filter for the bright indicator and now it's purple, so it stands out from the blue gauges etc

i don't know what bulbs the hvac unit uses but the cluster are 194s.

i got most of my led info from 85crownHPP. http://www.grandmarq.net/85crownLX/pages/LEDs.html

[87gtVIC]

I had 4 lights to change in my 87 Vic. You can pop out the color filter and just place in any color LED you can find that is 194 style.

I would assume the Grand Marquis cluster would be somewhat similar inside.

[visionmercury]

thank you , im going to order a 15 just to be safe , then maybe i can do the idiots lights to , i doing all the interior lights with the dash to so it should be nice.

[1990LTD]

dont use an led for the airbag or battery light (i think you probably only have the latter)

[visionmercury]

air bag, whats that . thanks for the heads up , but out of curiousity why not the batt light

[1990LTD]

My theory is that LEDs are efficient to the point that it'll be visible when it has only a tiny amount of power going to it, which the batt and airbag lights always do.

[85crownHPP]

[87_crown_vic]

my interior lights are all LEDs and so are are all my exterior lights including under the hood and in trunk. i suggest getting the 5 way 194 setup and not the single LED 194 bulbs. remember to get the heavy duty (electronic flasher) for fuse panel

[1990LTD]

Those lights are constantly slightly visible with the regular incandescent bulbs so I'd imagine they're getting power somehow...with LEDs they're more than just slightly visible all the time and I'm guessing it's because they're much more efficient.

[visionmercury]

i did my led dash today it fucking great, i dont why i didnt do this years ago

[1990LTD]

I've had mine done for a while. Love it..blue in the tach on the A pillar, in the instrument cluster, hvac. I just need to figure out how to pry open the rear defrost button and I'll be all set


One complaint I have about my LED dash is that some of the bulbs (I got the 5 bulb 194s, 4 pointing to the sides and one facing upward) and the upward facing bulb doesn't work on some of 'em. It doesn't really bother me too much but I'm eventually going to order another lot of bulbs. Of the 8 in the cluster, 2 have upward firing bulbs working. Everything is still blue and it's still all pretty bright, but one spot is slightly brighter.

[85crownHPP]

the seller should have a return policy, if you feel like taking them out again...

[1990LTD]

He does actually, I mentioned them to the seller just in case they still had any from the same batch as the ones I bought to check and see if they're defective so nobody else buys 'em. He told me I could return them if they were indeed defective but I'd have to spend $ to send 'em back and wait and blah I really don't feel like taking them out to put the stock ones back in only to do it again a few weeks later. I love working on my car but I just can't do it Another lot of like 10 would only be like 20 bucks, max, when I do decide to get 'em.

[87gtVIC]

Leds are teh shiz! Totally makes the cluster look better.