Evenly light gauge cluster with LEDs?

[theboy419]

I recently purchased an '02 Protege5 with nearly 200k miles on it (engine swapped last year with one with 50k on it and bad valve stem seals, yay) and the car is overall in amazing shape. No rust, super well maintained, no accidents etc. However, 200k miles are showing with the dash gauge cluster lights starting to go. I'm aware they are already pretty dim (I've had 2 proteges before) from the factory, but these are practically unreadable at night, so after some lurking, I've found some options for replacing the lights with LEDs. The biggest complaint I always read about is how you'll get bright patches closer to the lights, so I was wondering if anyone has found a way to make it more even. I'm planning to change the lights to blue LEDs and from another forum (hope I don't start any turf wars! ) I read about using these but unfortunately the data is years old now and pictures are missing, so I don't know what specific LEDs to use. Regardless, this got me wondering if any better options have popped up since. Hopefully someone can help, thanks!

[FE3-323]

Please checkout my p5 thread.... i did some serious cluster LED modding to mine. I can do the same to yours if need be

http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/show...d-new-P5-owner!!!

[theboy419]

Very nice thread, ashame it sounds like it didn't work out as planned but sounded fun at least! How did the dash lights work out after the second round with the bigger LEDs? I may have missed them but didn't see any pics of the final product. My main concern is just keeping the light fairly even across all gauges, did the t10s help that?

[FE3-323]

the 194/t10's helped out immensely. the extra light was really able to fill in alot of deadzones... mind you its still not 100% perfect, but thats factory's ****up.

[FE3-323]

BTW i have my old (1st version) LED bulbs. i used em for maybe a week. if your interested in em (red in color)

[theboy419]

Thanks, I'm actually trying to make the dash blue though sorry! It sounds like the t10s didn't fit as is? or did I read that wrong? What did you have to do differently to get them to work?

[FE3-323]

I had to carefully modify the **** out of the board to fit them. I dont forsee you being able to pull off a clean blue as the p5 guages at least are tinted plastic. A crappy red almost orange color

[theboy419]

Yeah, that's the part I'm hoping goes well. I saw a thread somewhere that looked like sanding the back took the red off to let blue through, but it may not be worth it (kinda thinking at that point I'll want to make the HVAC controls blue too, getting more involved than I planned!). As for fitting them to the board, that sounds like a pain in the ass too. I may just have to keep it simple, I haven't had a chance to rip the gauges out and see what I'm in for (can only guess based on the pics I find on here). After seeing how many random mods I can make to this car, it's hard to prioritize them all

[FE3-323]

i would say LED interior lighting is a top mod. while you're in the HVAC area, cut the trace so that the AC doesn't run unless you specifically designate it to (OEM has it kick on in the windshield switch position)
2nd mod is a 626 4-2-1 header (don't get the protege version- its more expensive and robs you of power) it will require removing the precat & some welding to join the pipe to the rest of the exhaust- but its worth it

[theboy419]

Yeah, I've been trying to organize my list based on which things make the most sense while I'm in there. The A/C switch doesn't work on #2 so I plan to dig into that fix while changing the lights and fixing that AC/defroster setting you mentioned. Most of the mods I wanna do are electrical (happens to be another hobby of mine conveniently), but I'm curious to see what makes sense under the hood. What's unique about the 626 header compared to the other options? It wasn't on my list specifically, but now I'm interested.

[FE3-323]

its a 4-2-1 long tube header. pretty well the best you can get until you get into crazy custom stuff/turbo.

[theboy419]

Gotcha, I imagine they're getting harder to find these days though aren't they? At least worth looking into, exhaust is always a pretty easy way to help a car out.

[FE3-323]

ebay has them all over

[theboy419]

Awesome I'll have to take a look.

Is the MP3 PCM upgrade worth it? Or even possible on mine (it's an automatic, I got the impression it was mostly available in M/T)? Honestly, I don't plan to turbo this thing or even really push it too hard (more of a daily driver) but heard it can give moderate MPG gains on regular gas which would be nice. I'll have to dig around for other ways to improve that too I suppose, but seemed like an easy hit

[FE3-323]

where did you hear about the moderate MPG gains from the mp3 ECU flash??? id like to look into that a bit more. if i could break 30mpg consecutively, id consider keeping mine lol