LED Gauge Cluster Problems

[1996GT]

So i did the LED gauge cluster mod on my 96 last week. At first it turned out great! Everything lit up a nice blue but as i was driving the car, i noticed that some areas on the cluster were dimmer than others. When i first turn on the lights everything is bright but after a couple of miles certain spots dim. Does anyone else have this problem with their gauges? I doubt its the led's cause it would do it before but now its more obvious cause of the brightness of the led's

 

[BruhBrahBrad]

maybe the connector is dirty? or somethin silly like that lol

 

[1996GT]

yeah i know, im hoping its something simple. Maybe somebody's had the same problem.

 

[ThatKids96GT]

i didnt do the mod but mine is like that too..like half of my speedometer and half of my tack is darker then the other half its weird

 

[duh09]

Mine does that too, but my lights in those spots were dimmer before too. The board on the back looked a little fudged so thats prolly my problem. too lazy to fix it XD

 

[lutter94]

what kind of led's did you use? The same as the ones used in the tutorial?

 

[CanaryGT]

Its usual to get some brighter spots only because of the fact that the LED's will shine brighter through the plastic where they are placed. If what your saying is that they are completely even then they dim, something else sounds wrong.

 

[FordInjected]

i would check what other lights/switches are on that circuit. you would probably have to check a few wiring diagrams. maybe you are enabling another switch that drains power within 10 minutes of driivng that you would normally hit. as in an accessory in a cigarette lighter ect.

 

[lutter94]

So, I just replaced my stock gauges with some MAC (cobra style) white face gauges.....got em in, they look great...anyways I turned the lights on after it got dark out, the lighting is horrible. So I emailed MAC asking if all were like this, if it was a common problem, etc....They told me that ford's gauges have different thicknesses behind the gauges to allow different amounts of light in certain spots. For example, the numbers directly in front of the bulbs get more light than numbers farther away; hence the numbers in front of the bulbs have a thinner space to allow light through. And it ends up all being even in the end. MAC's gauges have the same thickness all the way around, so you can kind of spot where the bulbs are.

Now as for LED's, my idea is that the led's you chose (i think everyone seems to be buying the little 5 led bulbs) give more even light, so if you have stock gauges, the thick/thin spots all receive the same light.......I bought the led's but have yet to switch them in. Wanted to see the gauges at night before i did the swap. So my question for you is, are you running stock gauges with led's and having issues?

I apologize for the long post........