Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Hi guys,
tonight i swapped over the bulbs in my instrument cluster to LEDs. It was going well. I had to drill some clear plastic from the inside of the cluster cuz it melted around the bulb and the LED wouldnt fit. Fixed that, no problem really.



So it looked really nice, bright and crisp image.

Pushed the cluster back into its home..

Until i smelled smoke. I had an "oh shiznit oh shiznit oh shiznit" moment. And this is the damage done.



Looks like two wires touched eachother and one burnt up. I really hope the cluster is still working and that the LEDs didnt cause it.

Any input is appreciated.

-Kyle

Highly doubt the leds caused it since they should run cooler and pull much less amperage
Maybe a loose strand of wire hanging out in the clusters original spot?

Yeah so on the back i can see 1 burnt wire. and the one next to it is discolored. Getting it soldered today and then securing all the wires so that they dont touch

Looked nice while it lasted!

What LEDs did you use?  I see really mixed feedback on LEDs in the dash, but it's an upgrade I'd like to do.

The bulbs i used were:

http://www.amazon.com/Lights-manufactured-newest-chipset-technology/dp/B00877SL2M

Ill let ya know how the finished product turns out

Jebus that's BRIGHT. I might go that route when the factory bulbs in mine finally fail......

And see, if gone in before and changed out bulbs multiple times. So ive gotten real good at pulling out and installing clusters, but Leds will never burn out.

The tach display burnt out a few weeks ago, and figured why not get leds now?

So I got the jumper wire soldered:



And ITS FIXED!



Cheers

-Kyle

So it wasn't a led issue but a wire behind the cluster?

Nope! it was one of the "ribbons" of wire had kinda delaminated allowing the wires to move. and then 2 of them that were right next to each other touched and burned up the plastic a bit. But i super glued the wires in place so they wont touch again. put some electrical tape on it. Done :)

How come your 326k mile car only reads 197k? :p

I couldn't believe how big of a difference new regular bulbs made in my dash. Yours looks super bright and I am jealous of the full digital cluster.

Btw, I'm catching up fast, my cougars got 320k miles registered on my odometer now.

The original cluster went up to 199,999miles, then rolled over to 100,000miles. Then it did it again. So theres 300,000 miles. (Dad drove the car A LOT). I was given the car at 314k. Then the center unit in the cluster went bad, just a blank, green display. So we replaced cluster. Turns out the odometer is stored inside the cluster because the new one started at 172,xxx miles

So the LED are white?  Are they dimmable to decrease at night?

The LEDS are white, yes. And the panel dim next to the headlight switch STILL works too! So if you want you can dim them down

Dang nice, thank you.