308 Dash LED conversion - 2022 Update w/links | FerrariChat
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308 Dash LED conversion - 2022 Update w/links

Discussion in '308/328' started by kossevv, Aug 18, 2022.

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  1. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #1 kossevv, Aug 18, 2022
    Hi Guys,
    I recently jumped on a project I have put off for years. I figured it would be difficult to do and source the necessary bulbs based on the previous posts. Then I just went for it. I wanted to post an update with the exact LEDs I used which all worked flawlessly without any modification needed. I was honestly worried up until now to do the project since people had mentioned modification was needed to bulbs, etc.

    https://www.superbrightleds.com/ba9s-led-bulb-5-smd-led-tower-ba9s-bulb+color-Warm~2700K
    The majority of the bulbs were these Bayonet types. They are a bit longer than the standard ones but I didn't have any issues fitting them.

    https://www.superbrightleds.com/74-led-bulb-3-smd-led-miniature-wedge-base+color-Warm~3300K
    These also worked perfectly.

    I used the warm white color option for both. I'm pleased that it kept the stock greenish color of the dials. Oh, in the photo the light shows up much much brighter than in person, they are perfect for night driving now.

    I'm posting an after photo. Also I did bypass the dimmer as recommended. Now I can see the blinker lights on the dash during the daylight, a first during my ownership! Oh, one thing to mention, I did NOT replace the 4 warning light bulbs in the corners of the cluster. Mine all worked fine and are perfectly visible even during the daytime. I think those are the ones that may have needed modification in the past?

    Hope this helps someone! The PDF by one of the other members detailing the process is extremely helpful but I think all of the links to LEDs posted are no longer available.

    Happy Motoring!
    -Veso
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    Joeroco, Alan A, bjunc and 6 others like this.
  2. Dr Tommy Cosgrove

    Dr Tommy Cosgrove Three Time F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 4, 2001
    36,433
    Birmingham, AL
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    Tommy
    #2 Dr Tommy Cosgrove, Aug 18, 2022
    Damn
     
    kossevv likes this.
  3. miketuason

    miketuason F1 World Champ
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    Feb 24, 2006
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    Cerritos, CA.
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    Mike
    #3 miketuason, Aug 19, 2022
    Wow Veso, I like it a lot, thanks for posting it.
    Can you still use the dimmer control?
     
    kossevv likes this.
  4. thorn

    thorn F1 Rookie
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    Aug 7, 2012
    3,324
    Tallahassee, FL
    #4 thorn, Aug 19, 2022
    He did a bypass.
     
  5. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #5 BrockBenson, Aug 19, 2022
    Veso, that looks nice. Even the tacho looks evenly lit, I thought I had seen previous conversions where one side of the tacho was a little darker, due to its inherent design? The colour fits well too! To save searching the other LED posts, how many of each did you need? Cheers, BB
     
  6. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #6 kossevv, Aug 19, 2022
    Hi Brock, yes I was expecting the uneven results on the tach. Honestly in person you can barely notice its a tad darker as the tach uses the wedge LED instead of the bayonets but really you have to be really looking for a difference.

    I ordered quite a few more than I needed, not sure what I was counting. I ordered 25 of the bayonet type and 12 of the wedge type. Keep in mind I didn't do the 4 warning lights in the corners which I think are bayonet type, also my model is a Euro so I think it has fewer warning lights than US versions. I had 13 bayonets left and 7 wedges left. Probably not a bad idea to keep some spares on hand :) Good luck!
     
  7. Brian A

    Brian A F1 Rookie

    Dec 21, 2012
    3,149
    SanFrancisco BayArea
    Full Name:
    1983 US 308 GTS QV
    #7 Brian A, Aug 19, 2022
    Your write-up is excellent. Thank you for posting! You give me courage to do it myself.

    I have the same question about the dimmer: was it necessary to bypass it or would it have worked to dim the LEDs?
     
    kossevv likes this.
  8. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #8 kossevv, Aug 19, 2022

    Thank you! It looks like the overall opinion is to bypass it regardless. I don’t understand voltage and load in enough detail to have my own opinion but something about the draw difference of led Vs incandescent bulbs. But the brightness even with the LED is not overwhelming at night so I don’t think you would really ever want to turn it down. The iPhone camera just overexposes light in dark photos so that’s why it looks so extra bright.
    Another note. On my 308 the dash lights all stopped working suddenly. When I bought the car they worked but were all very very dim. When I did the LED swap and bypassed the dimmer i plugged the cluster back to the harnesses and everything came on. At that point I had not done the 2 gauges in the center console yet but those even came back on. So i suspect the majority of the issue was the dimmer. But I went ahead and did the LED swap on those 2 gauges as well so everything matches.

    oh one more word of advice. As you unplug each harness from the back of the cluster number both plugs with the same number so you can match them easily on assembly :)
     
    Banzairacer likes this.
  9. mrnation8

    mrnation8 Karting

    Jun 5, 2021
    118
    Buchanan, Georgia
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    Chris Nation
    #9 mrnation8, Aug 19, 2022
    Looks great and something to try myself one day!
     
    kossevv likes this.
  10. samsaprunoff

    samsaprunoff F1 Rookie
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    Jun 8, 2004
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    Edmonton, AB Canada
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    Sam Saprunoff
    #10 samsaprunoff, Aug 20, 2022
    Good day Kossevv,

    The reason that the factory dimmers do not work properly with LEDs is because LEDs are current driven devices whereas the original incandescent bulbs are voltage driven. The factory dimmer effectively controls the voltage to the load (in this case the bulbs) which is opposite to what the LEDs need to operate. This is why the LEDs do not dim properly when using the factory dimmer and then abruptly turn off at some point. If you are keen for more of the reasons why this s the case you can do a search on the Holly LED highlight thread a few months back where I explained things in greater detail.

    Cheers,

    Sam
     
    bjunc, Brian A, Banzairacer and 3 others like this.
  11. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #11 BrockBenson, Apr 7, 2023
    Finally got a chance to start the LED instrument conversion but hit an issue almost straight away. The BA9 LEDs for the tachometer and the small gauges don't fit. They are a little too large in diameter and don't slide into the tubes on the back of the gauges (they go in a little then stop). Having measured everything seems like an LED of max 10mm diameter would be perfect, but they all seem to be 11mm+ in diameter!!!
    And they are much larger than the OEM globes.
    Has anyone else found this? How did you solve this? Thx.
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  12. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #12 kossevv, Apr 15, 2023

    Hi Brock,
    Did you purchase the BA9s from the link I posted above? I didn't have any issue fitting them in, they slid in a bit tight but I didn't have to push them forcefully at all to get them in.
     
  13. skipgt4

    skipgt4 Formula Junior

    Nov 3, 2003
    446
    GR Michigan
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    Charles VDB
    #13 skipgt4, Apr 15, 2023
    I can’t get the link you posted to work.
    It comes up as page not found


    Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
     
  14. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #14 kossevv, Apr 16, 2023
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  15. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #15 BrockBenson, Apr 16, 2023
    Yes, they are the ones i bought. I wonder if they changed suppliers and the ones they sell now are slightly larger? I've ordered some more from a different supplier and will advise how they go. Nothing is ever straight forward!!!

    Thx, BB
     
    kossevv likes this.
  16. kossevv

    kossevv Karting

    May 7, 2015
    110
    Houston, TX
    Full Name:
    Veso Kossev
    #16 kossevv, Apr 16, 2023
    Isn't that the truth!! Just because it was one way at one point in history we can't expect the same again! Good luck. The job was very simple and straight forward if the bulbs fit properly. Hope it goes smooth for you!
     
  17. bl10

    bl10 Formula Junior

    Jun 8, 2011
    442
    Chatsworth, CA
    Full Name:
    Barry Leavengood
    #17 bl10, Apr 17, 2023
    78 GTS US
    I installed LEDs in the entire car. Every bulb inside and out except the dash warning lights. I just ordered some bulbs from Amazon and all was good. The warning light circuits apparently require more load than provided by the LEDs and things really go screwy. On mine the tach e-brake, bright headlight and brake failure light sockets have reverse polarity so the bulbs I bought wouldn't work. I reversed the polarity from the tach to the plug and all is good. I hear some bulbs don't care about polarity but such was not the case with mine. The dimmer worked OK with the LEDs but I ended up jumping around it as the short wires made it more difficult to work on the instrument cluster.
     
  18. Brian A

    Brian A F1 Rookie

    Dec 21, 2012
    3,149
    SanFrancisco BayArea
    Full Name:
    1983 US 308 GTS QV
    #18 Brian A, Apr 17, 2023
    I need to take my instrument cluster out, so while I'm in there I may as well ... you know, do other stuff, like convert to LEDs.

    Did the alternative LED bulbs you purchase fit and work well? If so, hyperlinks to the bulbs you bought would be much appreciated.
     
  19. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #19 BrockBenson, Apr 18, 2023
    They arrived today, so will test them out on the weekend and let you know. Also to make my life easier, how does the dimmer control come out so I can do the bypass mod? Thx
     
  20. bl10

    bl10 Formula Junior

    Jun 8, 2011
    442
    Chatsworth, CA
    Full Name:
    Barry Leavengood
    #20 bl10, Apr 19, 2023
    Brian
    Yes they worked great. I'll post the source in a bit.

    Barry
     
  21. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #21 BrockBenson, Apr 20, 2023
  22. Brian A

    Brian A F1 Rookie

    Dec 21, 2012
    3,149
    SanFrancisco BayArea
    Full Name:
    1983 US 308 GTS QV
    #22 Brian A, Apr 20, 2023
  23. BrockBenson

    BrockBenson Formula Junior

    Oct 18, 2018
    277
    Australia
    #23 BrockBenson, Apr 20, 2023
    I ordered 6000K colour temp globes for both
     
  24. Schulz308

    Schulz308 Formula 3
    Rossa Subscribed

    May 21, 2014
    1,506
    STL USA
    #24 Schulz308, Jul 31, 2023
    Can you clarify the "jumping around it"? I want to use LED bulbs but not sure how to reverse polarity or jump around the issue you are describing.
     
  25. Brian A

    Brian A F1 Rookie

    Dec 21, 2012
    3,149
    SanFrancisco BayArea
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    1983 US 308 GTS QV
    #25 Brian A, Jul 31, 2023
    In the context of the instrument cluster light rheostat, “jumping” just means “bypassing” the rheostat.

    You make a short wire with a spade connectors on each end that are the same as those on the rheostat.

    Here is my documentation regarding the instrument cluster LED conversion:

    https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/how-to-convert-instrument-cluster-lights-to-leds-with-factory-blue-green-tint.678683/#post-149178797
     
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