Monochrome

I've read through every thread on this section of the site for information on replacing the stock cluster lights, dome light, and license plate lights (broke them removing my bumper) and I think I have everything sorted out. I have a non-SR5 cluster without a tach, so I'm not sure my light choices are correct though. At the worst, I'll just have some leftover LEDs. If anyone has replaced the lights in their non-SR5 cluster, let me know if these parts are correct.

Hopefully this thread will be helpful once I'm done for people who are considering replacing their stock weak green interior lights with something new. I've never done anything like this before so I have researched as much as I can. This is what I'm buying from www.superbrightleds.com, the recommended site from people here:

For the dome light: 1x High Power 2-LED Festoon bulb $ 6.95 Cool White 3022-CWHP2; Total: $6.95

For the instrument cluster: 4x WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulb $ 2.99 $ Red WLED-R5; Total: $11.96

For the climate controls, instrument cluster, and clock: 5x 74-xHP3 Wedge Base LED bulb $ 3.49 Red 74-RHP3; Total: $17.45

For the rear license plate: 2x Bolt Beam 5mm LED Light $ 2.49 White 5B-W; Total: $4.98

If you can't tell by the parts description, I'm replacing the stock 3022 festoon bulb with a two-LED bulb. It's rated for 24 lumens, so it won't be really bright, but it should be bright enough. I'm going to add accent lights in the future anyway.

I'm replacing the instrument cluster lights with the 5-LED 360 degree angle #194 type, and the 3-LED 360 degree angle #74 type, both in red. I have always wanted red interior lights while driving because you can see the road so much better in my opinion.

I have an aftermarket bumper that has had broken license plate lights, so I'm replacing those with a few white LEDs.

If you have any thoughts/criticisms/etc., post them here. I'll do a full writeup later for complete n00bs like myself.

DethYota

Take lots of pictures please! This is an interesting project I would be interested in doing myself

Monochrome

I will. My projects are never lacking in tons of pictures. My build thread has lots of pictures and that's only about half of the ones that I took. My goal is to make this easy to understand for someone who wants to do it and doesn't know what the hell they're doing, just like me.

By the way, does anyone know what type of bulb the clock uses for these trucks? Might as well crack that open and replace it as well...

MaK92-4RnR

I want to do this mod in my 4runner too. I believe its a #74 bulb...

TubedYota

LED'S are in my future plan! Good thread

Monochrome

I'm going to assume its a #74 bulb. I just updated my quantity to 5 of the #74s. The total is like $45, so this won't be a "cheap" mod, but should produce pretty good results if I do it right. I bought a pair of driving lights as well as new H4 conversion housings for the outside, so I guess I'm replacing practically all of the stock lights!

MaK92-4RnR

its pretty cheap, and it looks really cool. it really brings attention to the inside of your truck when driving around... you should do a full right up... like how to take apart your dash and such. could use an updated one of those, i'd say.

Robert m

iTrader: (2)

only thing i would say is i hated the dome light led and went back to a regular bulb. the led light was whiter but it seemed like it wasnt nearly as bright and if i had to turn it on while driving at night it had the same effects on my eyes as looking into on coming traffic headlights.

rhill

subscribed!

DethYota

I know red lights are easier on your eyes when driving at night. Would that mean that putting the super bright blue would have the opposite effect? I am not familiar with the effects of certain light colors

Monochrome

According to my research on the internets to understand scientifically what is best for low-light conditions, keep reading. It's interesting stuff, and I've tried to summarize about 20 articles.

There are three types of vision that are proprotional to the amount of available light in the visible spectrum: Photopic (high light), mesopic (low light), and scotopic (pitch black/very little light). As our human eyes don't have very many rod cells compared with animals, we have a very hard time seeing in mesopic and scotopic boundaries. Instead, we have a high number of cones, which allow the perception of color.

Rods contain a chemical called rhodopsin, which is extremely sensitive to light, particularly that in the shorter wavelength spectrum. The visible spectrum goes from approximately 380nm to 750nm (violet to red). We rely on cones for approximately 450-600nm wavelength, and rods as the bookends of the visible spectrum (most importantly, dark red).

During the mesopic vision stage (driving at night for example), anything of a shorter wavelength such as blue will negatively impact our ability to see because the rhodopsin "resets" and makes the rods MUCH less effective for about 5 minutes. This is called "bleaching" and it can take up to 30 minutes to fully recover from a blast of higher wavelength light.

Conclusion: Because we want to prevent the rhodopsin from the bleaching due to exposure by higher wavelengths of light such as blue and yellow, and because we have so few rod cells compared to cones which are sensitive to those colors, it is best to use red lights for instrumentation. Red lights at the appropriate spectrum will not cause this bleaching effect, or at least keep it to a minimum so that we can see the road.

How is that for an explanation? You can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pigment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photopic_vision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopic_vision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodopsin

Jay351

the clock light cannot be changed. Just so you know.

But the ashtray light can..

Make sure you change your turn signals (they use #194's, get regular bulbs for this, as you have to remove the green plate that tints the stockers green, if you use LED bulbs its much too bright!) so they match..

the warning lights are also all #74 just incase you wanna change any..

Monochrome

That's very good information, thanks Jay. I assume you've done this before? Did you have the regular cluster (non-SR5)? Is the clock light just impossible to take apart or something?

Last question: when you say warning lights, are you referring to the check engine light, for example?

Thanks!

93yota93lude

If you have the non SR5 cluster with out the tac could you swap them and have a tac? i dont want to put an aftermarket separate tac on my dash i did the LED dome and LED license plate bulbs love them!

93yota93lude

Pics of your project?

stock as possible

I also have a non-sr5 cluster, with just the speedo, fuel, and tempurature gauges. If you're only changing the backlighting, the you only need 2-#194 bulbs, but if you're also changing the turn signals and warning lights then you'll need more. There's only 1 bulb in the tempurature controls, it's a #74 and there's limited space in there due to the plastic shield that spreads the light, so be careful which bulb you order. For the instrument cluster (speedo etc) i used the WLED-x and was not very pleased w the brightness, so good choice on the x5.

stock as possible

Also, check this thread for dash removal if you've never done it. There's one screw above the tempurature controls that can cause some head scratching. It show's it a few pics down.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...w-pics-179106/

Monochrome

Yes, you can swap the cluster, but I want the original cluster with the 270k+ miles on it. I do have an aftermarket tach, but I find that I almost never use it anymore. I just know when to shift...

Glad to hear you like the dome and license conversion! I hope I will. And I don't have pics yet, but the LEDs should be arriving early next week.

Monochrome

Very helpful post, thank you. I am slightly concerned about the temperature controls, because the x3 LED I chose for the #74 is very slightly longer than a stock #74, and it may cause interference with the cluster... I guess there's only one way to find out.

What bulb did you use in the cluster that wasn't very bright? What color did you use?

And do you have any pics?

MaK92-4RnR

hmm if this makes things easier...

Can someone just mention how many bulbs is required to do an entire interior LED bulb swap? im talkin' the doors, dome lights, gauges, ash tray... etc etc... everything?

EDIT: and what bulbs they require?