[SGT Snorlax]

Well....I saw a video on YouTube on swapping the factory bulbs for LED bulbs in the gauge cluster. So I gave it a shot. I'm happy with how it came out. Not to shabby. Down here in South Florida there's a few roads, especially when I go to the Keys, that are rather dark. So I figure this will brighten things up a bit.

 

[zenbuilder]

Nice improvement. I switched out my back up bulbs for LED's , big difference , took about ten minuets to do both, and the cost was under $15.00.

 

[SGT Snorlax]

Nice! I just finished Plasti Dipping the rear bumper and I'll finish the rest of the plastic trim tomorrow, but LED lights are my next upgrade. Gonna do the reverse lights, brake lights, turn signals and dome/map lights.

 

[ryanisntcreative]

Which sets did you go with on eBay for the dash, and for the backups?

 

[SGT Snorlax]

I used the 'Partsam' 73 bulb

 

[AWD]

I have been thinking seriously of purchasing some black cat gauges with the blue lighting, and custom text options.

https://www.blackcatcustom.com/Honda Element.htm

 

[ryanisntcreative]

Those would look pretty good, especially if you have other mods in the interior.

The stock setup is pretty lackluster!

 

[AWD]

so I just watched this youtube video and he says the bulbs are 74, but Ryan you say you used 73 bulbs?

 

[ryanisntcreative]

so I just watched this youtube video and he says the bulbs are 74, but Ryan you say you used 73 bulbs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io-kAaS7hn0

I think that was SGT Snorlax, but yeah, he said 73

 

[AWD]

Oops, so I am guessing it is a moot point, are the bulbs the same?

 

[SGT Snorlax]

Yeah I used the 73 bulb. Fits into the stock base. I also saw those black cat ones and they look so badass. But for now, the LED conversion works just fine.

 

[Stock_sohc_dx]

Just did mine

 

[da1510a]

I did mine and wanted to add some notes for reference in case someone else decides to do this.

I bought the SMD type LEDs which are soldered to a small piece of circuit board type material. The other common type has either an LED or SMD LED-on small square circuit board, soldered to two wires which thread through a plastic holder.

The SMD on a board type seems more physically robust than the soldered to wire type. I’ve had many dead on arrival soldered to wire ones where the wires broke off.

When pushing the LED bulb in, make sure it is in far enough. Some require quite a bit of pushing and jiggling to get it in due to the circuit board piece being slightly wider than it should be or has a “step” which is wider than the first portion.

When installing mine, I found two bulbs would not light up even though their polarity was oriented the same as all the other bulbs in the dash. After reversing them, it worked. These two were the left side bulb for the speedometer and the bottom bulb for the temperature. Mine is a 2006 EX, ymmv.

When I replaced my bulbs (2006 now almost 2021, 201000 kilometres) half of the original bulbs were burnt

The brightness increased due to switching to the LEDs allowed me to set the dash lighting to the lowest level. However, this made the HVAC controls too dim. I changed those to LED as well and it is now more consistent.

Photos below are the two types of LEDs. The first one is what I modified for the HVAC lighting and the second one was used for the dash. Notice the portion which slightly widens and can catch preventing the bulb from inserting fully.

 

[yamanote1138]

Just did mine last night and am pretty happy with the result, but not quite as big of a contrast as I was hoping. Gotta admit, those Black Cat custom gauge faces are pretty tempting!

I picked up a 20 pack of WLJH Canbus Super Bright from Amazon. This particular product came with 20 leds (SMD on a board variety) and 20 twistlock connectors. In my first attempt, I used the supplied connectors, which was a no-go (none lit up). Had to pull the cluster back out and start over. I ended up using the stock twistlocks, gently pulling the bulbs and replacing them with the SMD leds. Note: if anyone attempts this, be super careful when pulling the old bulbs out of the twistlocks... one blew up in my face

I'm unsure if the polarity matters, but all of mine lit on the first attempt. I did take care to ensure they were all oriented uniformly. I noted that, at least on this brand of SMD led, there is a print along the blade on one side. Using the (very hard to read) label on the stock twistlocks, you can ensure that all the leds are oriented the same way.

Anyway, thought I'd share my before/after:

 

[GUMP08SC]

Curious. I don't like my dash lights too terribly bright at night. I know that SOME LED bulbs are dimable, others are not. Withthe LED's you folks have selected, can you adjust the lamp intensity as you could with the incandescent bulbs?

 

[yamanote1138]

Curious. I don't like my dash lights too terribly bright at night. I know that SOME LED bulbs are dimable, others are not. Withthe LED's you folks have selected, can you adjust the lamp intensity as you could with the incandescent bulbs?

Yep, dimming function works exactly the same as with OEM incandescent bulbs