Dash / Button Bulbs

[Crazy_C]

What type are the bulbs in the dash and the buttons for illumination? I want to replace mine with white superbright LED ones but I don't know what bulbs I need to get and haven't found anything on the net.

It's an '88 with the NS dash.

Cheers

[RAZR]

Im sure in the owners manual there might be the bulb info. You could also take off the access cover on the gauges and it give you access to the bulbs and take the bulb out and if you dont know what kind it is. Any employee at autozone or napa should be able to tell you what kind of bulb it is.

[Crazy_C]

Yea, I'll know them when I see them, just didn't fancy taking the dash n all apart twice y'know?

[Dr_Snooz]

There are all different kinds of bulbs. You can try to identify them on Majestic's website (http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/PartsSearch.jsp), but you will probably end up tearing things apart to find what you need. For what it's worth, a lot of the bulbs you need will be relatively cheap. Others will cost quite a lot. You can end up with a $100 bill pretty quickly. If money is an object, you may want to look into less costly ways to do the swap. Bright spots will also be a problem.

[obdriver6]

The main ones that light up the gauges are 194 (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SYL0/194.oap?pt=01577&ppt=C0010). Everything else I believe is neo-wedge. You can buy some LEDs here! (http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2F1157.htm)

[DBMaster]

The bulbs that light up the buttons are very specific to Honda, but I have found that I can go to a local electronics wholesaler and pick up tiny 12V bulbs with long, hair-thin wire leads on them. When you take apart the buttons you will find that they are like Christmas tree lights. You can remove the little bulb from the plastic holder and replace it with a generic 12V bulb. Remove at least one before you go to the electronics place to make sure you don't get one that is too big. Here in the Dallas area I use Tanner Electronics. I have replaced the bulbs in the "A/C" button and the "Vent" button.

http://www.tannerelectronics.com/

I figure most large metro areas probably have a shop like this. I have seen such bulbs at Radio Shack and Fry's as well.

[Dr_Snooz]

Good idea. Honda is real proud of their replacement bulbs that include the plastic base (liek $12 each for the little neo-wedge types). If you can get the bulb itself for cheap, then swap them out and you'll be money ahead.

FWIW, not all the neo-wedge bulbs are the same size. And the ones from superbrightleds don't always fit right into the Honda buttons.

[DBMaster]

Also, if you are going to adapt the LED's yourself you will need to put a resistor inline with the positive side of the LED. They can't take a full 12V. I did that with my "D4" light in the instrument cluster. The bulb burned out twice in the life of the car - being the one that is lit almost all the time while driving the car. I replaced mine with a blue LED and a 1K ohm resistor. The 194 type bulbs are cheap and available everywhere, but not the little bulbs that light the various buttons (climate control, headlight retractor switch, cruise control switch, etc.) Even using the little 12V bulbs with bare pigtails you will have your creativity challenged a bit in removing the old bulb from the socket. Some of the sockets have little metal bits that fit into them. Your patience will be rewarded, though.

[Crazy_C]

Or, now that I know most are neo wedges, I just typed "neo wedge led" into eBay and got loads of hits. Easier than changing bulbs out n all that :D

Cheers for the help guys!