insanely dim dash lights, can they be improved?

[F4Phantom]

My dash is apart so I want to make it brighter. Does anyone know how to do this? I am thinking bulb replacement with (advertised as) brighter LED ones. Other than this I dont know.

I have searched and found nothing.

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[mike 90 RR]

My dash is apart so I want to make it brighter. Does anyone know how to do this? I am thinking bulb replacement with (advertised as) brighter LED ones. Other than this I dont know.

I think Andrew ... (luvmyrangie) .... has done it
I saw his dash and it was lit up like a Xmas tree

Mike

[PhilipA]

Have you looked at the bulbs?
Usually they go black over time.
Just new bulbs should fix it.
PS You know there is a rheostat under the lower dash to the LH of the steering column.
Regards Philip A

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

I think Andrew ... (luvmyrangie) .... has done it
I saw his dash and it was lit up like a Xmas tree

Mike

I did! But I had to disconnect the dimmer switch and bypass the wiring. This alone will bring up brighter lights. LED's work well, but you need to look around as they all seem to different levels of output.
I just stuck with white LED's in mine apart from where I wanted activated switches to show up different like in the cuise control and rear heater.

If you have the dimmer wound all the way up and its still dull, bypass the switch. I will take a pic of mine and post it up here.

[pomonastik]

when i bought my classic it had what appeared to be dim dashlights, despite the dimmer having been bypassed. one blackened globe and one blown one replaced later things were better but the speedo needle was still all but invisible. i dug a little deeper and found that a little bit of fibre-optic cable had dislodged within the spedeo head. i simply poked it back in with a dob of superglue around the outside of its socket and bingo !
definitely worth a check while you've got things apart.

[F4Phantom]

pomonastick my dimmer switch is still connected so thats one thing I can do. I also pulled out each glode and wiped them, they were all in good nick. as for the fibre optic thing pulling out please show your picture of exactly how you did this.

lovemyrangie can you please also post your picture here as I will probably not change to LED's if they dont make a big difference. I wouldnt mind getting rid of the green tho.

thanks

[mike 90 RR]

lovemyrangie can you please also post your picture here as I will probably not change to LED's if they dont make a big difference. I wouldnt mind getting rid of the green tho.

thanks

They gave a real nice Crisp light .... with a Arctic blue colour ...

I could actually see the hands on the clock :)

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

They gave a real nice Crisp light .... with a Arctic blue colour ...

I could actually see the hands on the clock :)

It does. However the clock is a very special unit!! I actually pulled it apart and hardwired LED's into it as a test. The clock worked intermitently so if it stuffed it I wasnt too worried, but it does look good.

It gets rid of that yellowish look on the needles and numbers and makes it far more clearer not to mention the amazing amount of current reduction. Dash lights draw about 50mA if its lucky now!!.
There are wedge globes now that have a 120deg output angle and give an even light over the dash. Some, particularly the Narva ones, are dull, narrow and dont last.
I even have one in the fibre optic for the column stalks and in the door puddle lamps!
Speaking of fibre optics, I think the dial fibre that Pom was talking about is in a softdash. Hard dashes only have the fibre for the stalks which comes from underneath the steering column.
Run out of time tonight to take the pics of the dimmer, but will do it tomorrow night for you. I will have them up on my Photobucket link shown below.
Cheers
Andrew

[pomonastik]

ok, ye asked and ye shall receive.......

picture 1 shows the speedo head removed from the clockset revealing the optic fibre lead coming off the lower left lamp shroud. in picture 2 i've grasped this with my finger and thumb.picture 3 shows where it is meant to be attached to, which is the needle cover, removed from the clock face and inverted to show you the push fit into the crystal diffuser.as picture 4 shows this little cable passes through the hole in the face and then, once attached to the cover* the assembly can be snapped back into the slots. now light will be conducted through the cable and thus will make the needle glow. picture 5 shows it snapped back into place.
i would imagine tacho is similar. i had no problems with mine but its nice bright orange needle at night compared with the originally barely visible speedo needle convinced me there was something amiss.
hope this helps ! if so, please feel free to view my 'the great lpg swindle' thread and place a comment of support if you think one is warranted.

*to ensure the cable didn't come adrift again i put a little superglue around the join between the cable and the crystal bit but only once it was already pushed home into its socket.

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

ok, ye asked and ye shall receive.......

picture 1 shows the speedo head removed from the clockset revealing the optic fibre lead coming off the lower left lamp shroud. in picture 2 i've grasped this with my finger and thumb.picture 3 shows where it is meant to be attached to, which is the needle cover, removed from the clock face and inverted to show you the push fit into the crystal diffuser.as picture 4 shows this little cable passes through the hole in the face and then, once attached to the cover* the assembly can be snapped back into the slots. now light will be conducted through the cable and thus will make the needle glow. picture 5 shows it snapped back into place.
i would imagine tacho is similar. i had no problems with mine but its nice bright orange needle at night compared with the originally barely visible speedo needle convinced me there was something amiss.
hope this helps ! if so, please feel free to view my 'the great lpg swindle' thread and place a comment of support if you think one is warranted.

*to ensure the cable didn't come adrift again i put a little superglue around the join between the cable and the crystal bit but only once it was already pushed home into its socket.

An early hard dash! Learn something new everyday!!

[pomonastik]

sorry to have posted as if to prove you wrong LOVEMYRANGIE, i assure you it was purely co-incidental. i was too busy stripping my spare clocks to take the pics to have even noticed your post. incidentally both my own car's and the photographed sets of clocks are '88 model items.

[F4Phantom]

ok i took it to bits, re clicked the fibre optics and cleaned up the unit. I also hard wired the dimmer lights and even in the day they do seem to be a bit brighter.

Now I have another problem I cannot solve and need some assistance again.

The rear of the dash head unit has 4 plugs, 1. black speed cable 2. white plug (a) 3. white plug (b) and 4. blue plug. this is my problem as I cannot work out what it plugs into.

When I disconnected it originally I thought I knew where its other end was but now I cant find it in the mass of wires. The only thing which half fit was the dimmer cable and although this did seem to make the fuel guage work it is not the correct wire as they are different colour codes (and its the dimmer cable)

From memory it was a blue cable at the other end which fit the head unit cable blue cable but I could be wrong.

Can someone please let me know which cable from under the dash plugs into the blue ended cable from the dash head unit?

much appreciated.

[pomonastik]

dash plugs '88 RRC hard dash:

[F4Phantom]

dash plugs '88 RRC hard dash:

hey thanks for that, I rushed outside and had it done in 10 mins. check my members ride thread if your interested in seeing the completed interior.

[pomonastik]

well the big question is do they work properly now ?

luv your blackout work, its ok with the white body colour. a fellow 5speeder too i see. we are a rare breed !

[F4Phantom]

well the big question is do they work properly now ?

luv your blackout work, its ok with the white body colour. a fellow 5speeder too i see. we are a rare breed !

glad you liked it, I jumped in head first after I found wet carpets and the job got bigger and bigger untill I did the lot. I still have not fixed the leak tho. Anyway the main thing is the colour now hides all the wear and tear and the car looks new again.

As for the dash it is much more liveable, there are dark patches though at 0-40 and 100-160 and on the tach, but I could not find a blown globe so I assume this is purely bad design. Thanks for the tips.


do you have a members rides thread?

[pomonastik]

I jumped in head first
&

and the job got bigger and bigger untill I did the lot

these two quotes just about sum up range rover ownership at times, don't they ? the beauty of it is they are just such 'servicable' vehicles. i don't envy the owners of the modern iterations in 20+ years time ! someone said recently that there are something like 87 different electronic components on a current model range rover.........

i must do a member's rides thread some day.

[F4Phantom]

well yes they are quite serviceable. I used a lot of araldite fixing plastics but in general didn't have a problem. I would say that other models on par with this for serviceability were a 3 series and especially the 5 series bmw. They built those things to be serviced.

BTW I read that the new shape RR's 6 speed auto transmission is worth 32k. Imagine if someone gives you one for free, you still cant afford to own it! I will buy one one day for 1k, gut it and put an engine/trans from a normal car in it.