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Brighter dash lights?

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  • Brighter dash lights?

    Compared with newer cars including BMWs I notice that the dash lights on my car are quite dim even on full brightest. On removal of the cluster there are only 3 bulbs that illuminate the fuel/speed/rpm/temp gauges and they're just normal capless "sidelight" bulbs but 3w so I just changed them for normal 5w sidelight bulbs giving better brightness but not silly bright that would be distracting at night.

    For the gauges in the console two (Oil temp and clock) use similar bulbs but they are 2w (very rare?) so replacing those with two of the 3w bulbs out of the instrument cluster brightened those two a tad. For the centre gauge (clock) it uses one of the tiny capless bulbs like the heater control/cig light/ashtray etc which are 1.2w. However you can get these in 2.3w form so looking at changing the clock and heater controls for these to balance them all bring them up a bit in brightness.

    btw the bulbs in the instrument cluster for warning lamps are the same 1.2w bulbs as the heater controls but are just in a different holder. These bulbs and the ones in the heater control/ashtray etc pull out of the holder and are really cheap off ebay for packs of 10 (like £4) instead of £4 each from BMW in their holder. ("T5 capless bulbs")

  • #2
    I drive with mine quite dim anyway - some would say just like the driver! But that a side, how easy is it to remove the cluster to replace the bulbs?
    2002 '52 S54 - Titanium Silver with 18" BBS LMs, AP Racing BBK, KW V3, H&R anti roll bars & ACS flippers (previously 2000 'X' S50 - Arctic Silver)

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    • #3
      I'm a dim man as well
      S54 Titan Silver metallic. Black leather, most factory options including sunroof, Becker Cascade and Becker Silverstone changer.

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      • #4
        haha.


        It's really easy to remove the cluster it's just two small torq screws visible from the front (at the top), With these undone the unit withdraws out of the dash (I use a bathroom plunger/sucker to pull it out). It's tight around the steering wheel but it does come out of that eventually.

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