Yeah mate sorry crappy camera phone quality, it's a lot more vibrant in the flesh, i got the blue ones which dont show any red, can roughly tell your speed though

 

 

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oh thanks that looks good, shame about the needles tho, i was thinking of using white led near the needles and the blue in the other parts.

unfortunately that doesn't work as the LEDs are placed in the back roughly where the red dots are so you'll get a lot of white light and not much blue in the speedo area. Now the problem with the needles and redline is on an AU 1, if you have AU 2 or 3 then it might be different as i heard they used a orange needle instead of clear with orange coating as per S1 (or vice versa can't remember)

btw updated the pic using a better camera

 

 

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oh thats a nicer pic, umm mine has red needles so i dunno how they would go, i thaught white needles would show blue.

The ones I got off ebay worked fine for a few months, then they started failing......

Different seller different product i guess, these have been going strong for a while now

If anyone has worked out how to illuminate the needles when changing to blue back lighting please enlighten me. I have an AUII with red needles and if I need to check my speed at night I turn on the interior light, which I'm kind of used to now its been like that for 6 months.
I'm thinking of pulling it apart and soldering in extra LEDs where the needle rotates. However I'm a bit hesitant because if I break it the clusters are a bit expensive to replace.

Ok, I've FINALLY found T5 LEDs which fit the cluster... whether they start dying like the ebay ones remains to be seen. LEDs should last longer than the car does!

I purchased them at Autobarn, Monza T5 LED Bulb, part SY-6625W T-5 (this is the manufacturer part #, not Autobarn's), and the last 4 digits of the bar code are 4413. They're sold in a blister pack a bit smaller than a pack of cigs. 2 per pack and I think they were $7.99 per pack. Not cheap, but if they work I don't really care that I'm paying twice as much as Jaycar. Make sure you call ahead to confirm they have 4 packs (8 LEDs in total, you only need 7)

I bought the colour WHITE but remember there's a BLUE filter in the cluster so the white text is actually lit up as blue. Red needles show up perfectly, in fact both the blue and red colours on the cluster front are quite deep and vivid compared to the ebay LEDs I had in previously.

So if you want blue illumination give the WHITE ones a go, you'll still get your wish, and you'll be able to see your needles!...

Remember to leave the black T5 holders alone, they're used for warning rather than illumination so changing away from an incandescent bulb could cause problems.

Hope this helps someone else avoid all the crap I had to go through...

Thanks for the info. How'd you go with a consistent illumination across the whole instrument cluster, did it turn out well or have lighter and darker areas?

If you look carefully you can still see minor hotspots, maybe painting a tiny dot on top of the LED might help (LEDs tend to project light forward, incandescent all around)

It doesn't bother me that much, I'm just happy to have a visible cluster again, so I'm leaving it alone.

Now there's the blown lights in the trip computer, climate control and headlamp switch...... those are tiny little incandescent lights which are soldered in (smaller than the T5), I don't think there's going to be an LED equivalent. Bayford helpfully quoted me for replacing the entire module (eg the whole climate control panel, LCD, circuit board, the lot), that's apparently what you do once a 50c globe blows.

Sounds awesome, any chance you can get a shot for us?

HI,

Just managed to find this website as I was doing research on how to replace burnt out cluster bulbs in my AU year 2000 Falcon. I like this led replacement idea, it looks much better and I see that it will cost me a lot less to replace my bulbs(90% of the cluster bulbs are blown).

I have a few questions from reading this thread, the led bulbs that the OP showed and recommended from eBay have different style bulb holder? How will this fit the cluster or do I have to remove the burnt bulbs from the holder (possible?) and put in the led replacement. The bulb holders are twist type, both grey and black ones are the same (twist and pull to remove the holder from the cluster)

Here are a few pics I took just now:







As you can see the bulb holder thing does not match the (T5?) led the OP mentioned in the first page shown below:



Questions before I order anything from eBay.

1. Are the T5 leds mentioned in this thread, plug and play or do I need to modify them?

2. The bulb holders(Grey and Black) do not match the T5 bulb holder, how do I replace the burnt bulbs with these leds?

Any information will be much appreciated, I have already taken out the cluster to get my experience up before I buy anything, doesn't seem too difficult, just need some assuring from the FordMod members here on my thoughts above.

Cheers,
Mike.

I found these on the net:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5820

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/10-x-T5-286-Whit ... 414f4079bb

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/10pcs-T5-Wide-An ... 2eacdcabf9

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pack-10-White-LE ... 414d46cfc9

Do these look ok?

Mate, those LED's pictured, they slot into the bulb holders in the cluster, if you can get the original bulbs out (bloody hard lol) then you'll see the end bits are the same, the wedge type fitting. All the LEDs mentioned here are plug and play.

Update, one has already died. Can't win.

When more start going I am just going to move back to incandescent as it's a real hassle to take out the cluster.