after a year of blue LEDs

[1990LTD]

I put new incandescent bulbs in the speedometer and it's a lot easier on the eyes. I had never run them in the Grand Marquis speedo when I switched them out, but I hated filament bulbs in the CV speedo so didn't even think to try them in the new one.


anyway, it seems more like an old car now from the drivers seat. looks better since the speedometer has green filters, my deck lights up green and the rear def button and clock are green too. looks funky with the blue still in the tach and stewart warner gauges but green replacements on ebay are cheap as shit.


pics when it's dark.

[pantera77]

/puts on flame suit

I hate LED's.

Nothing beats the warmth and naturalness of an incandescent.

[1990LTD]

I've still got them in the courtesy lights where they are most awesome.

Though I will dig out my dome light bulb and try the incandescent bulbs in the doors and under the dash just to be sure of which I like more. Admittedly you can't see *quite* as clearly with the blue light but I like them a lot. Might be nice for a change.


I really am hating my headlights lately though.

[85crownHPP]

Yeah, they are a little too modern for some folks

Mine don't seem hard on the eyes, but I'm biased, I'll admit.

[1990LTD]

Mine didn't either until I put the old ones in, I found it easier to see stuff at night.

[zoomie]

red leds are alot easier to use at night

[LTDMan83]

I actually like both for what they are. I do agree that nothing beats the light from an incandescent when it comes to giving off that old warm yellow natural feeling light, which helps to give these old cars that classic feel. The Merc originally had regular incandescent's in its speedo with the blue gel caps removed, I liked the old school look, but it was far too bright and distracting at night for my taste.

Now, In my Merc I have Electric Blue LED's in the speedo/tach/ATC control/Ash Tray/CD Player, behind the clear acrylic insert, and Clear White LED's everywhere else in the interior including the dome light and Towncar under seat courtesy lights. Now, I wouldn't go back to incandescent's in there even if someone paid me to. The Linc however I will be keeping all original, bulbs included.

[1987cp]

red leds are alot easier to use at night

I was going to say .... never tried it myself, but supposedly red doesn't ruin your night vision like other wavelengths do.

[1990LTD]

I was going to say .... never tried it myself, but supposedly red doesn't ruin your night vision like other wavelengths do.

My speedometer has green filters that I can't remove though, red would look pretty screwed up under there. I'll try it next time it's apart but hopefully that won't be for a while.

[zoomie]

I was going to say .... never tried it myself, but supposedly red doesn't ruin your night vision like other wavelengths do.

lucky for me, my tach will do 7 diff colors i have found that red is the most easiest on the eyes at night, blue is just too distracting.

[gadget73]

red is definitely the preferred color for night usage. Ships, offshore boats that are built properly, and airplanes use red lamps in the instruments for exactly that reason. I keep thinking about changing mine back to be honest. I kinda miss the stock green illumination, and the fact that the blue instruments clash with the green mirror thermometer is starting to bug me.

As for the filters, if you dissasemble the speedo unit, you can get them out. Its a bit of a pain but they will come out of there.

[87gtVIC]

Thain...the mirror thermometer lights up!? Or is it a glow in the dark type deal? First I heard of this...

[sly]

yeah... there's a light bulb up in there. You can actually see the wires going to the bulb from the hole in the front of the mirror arm... at least on the one on my Mark.

and yeah... when you get to the filters... they come out rather easily actually. when I was messing with my MGM cluster... I had to put them back in because they fell out.

[gadget73]

i think it may actually be an LED, but whatever it is, its green and matches the stock instrument cluster lighting.

[sly]

mine illuminates incandescent yellow though... so we may have different setups.