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MG MGF Technical - Dash lights

A while ago, someone asked if it was possible to fit blue lights to the dash. Well I had tried it and I said no.

How wrong I was. The problem was fitting blue lights gave a green light on the clocks, I guessed because there was a filter somewhere. Well after having red clocks for about six months, I thought I'd try again.
Where the bulbs on the clocks are there is a small light box, fitted with a yellow sliver of plastic (the filter). Removed the plastic strip, fitted my blue condoms over the bulbs and hey presto blue clocks :)

Next stop the clock and oil temp. gauge.
Richard P

Blue condoms Richard??? LOL

Have you taken pix during the process? I'd love to see how you've performed this conversion mate :o)
Rob Bell

Duh! As usual I get carried away and forget the camera!

I can take a pic of the small light box on top of the clocks, as I have a spare one, and the plastic filter if that's any help.

Blue condom are from the pet shop, hamster size ;-)

No they are from Farnell various sizes and colours, one part number is 141-860

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/searchresultstwo.jsp;jsessionid=YKHYJD5FYFW3PQFIAEWSFE4AVAAS0IV3?action=0&ImgDisp=Y&QText=141860&searchbut.x=32&searchbut.y=8

Richard P

That'd be great Richard - and I guess when you come to do the other clocks, there'll be more opportunities to take pix :o)

Are you going to change the colour of the heater control fascia and the window lift/demist/fog switches too?
Rob Bell

Yup,

At the moment everything is red (except main clocks now blue) and the fog and heater switches are red with blue ‘on’ lights. Red isn't affected by the yellow filter (at least not noticeably) and the ‘on’ lights in the switches had a green condom on them so blue wasn’t a problem.

Was it you who wanted pix of my sub, I sent them to JohnP and now I'm thinking it was you who asked for them?
Richard P

LOL you've sent them to me, cheers! The install looks very neat - nice one. How does it sound?
Rob Bell

hi,

any chance of a pic of the lights when they are blue?

many thanks

nathan
nathan

Pretty good. Problem was with the sub in the glove box, if you turned it up the CD skipped. Now got a CD changer behind the seat. Much happier :)
Richard P

I'll try and get a photo next week, (don't own a digital camera..yet) not sure how it'll come out though,
Richard P

Mr P, you are the man! I was running out of things to do on my F (the S2000 switch is getting done tomorrow - very excited (how sad am i?))

getting blue lights in the dash would be ace, as when I bought my F it had one of those funky kenwood face flipping stereo's which has a massive blue screen, so having everything else blue to match would be great.

from what you said above, the main lights are a 6mm bulb, so i'd need the 6mm cover (condom). do you know the size of the other bulbs, and basically then total number of blue condoms i'd need to sort out the whole dash?

merci beaucoup as always.

PJL
Paul Lucas

I'll try and let you know on Tuesday. When I did the centre console lights in red, I had three sizes of sleeves, and didn't really keep tabs. The instrument panel needs 6mm as does the clock, but the rest I'll have to check.
Rich
Richard P

You can never run out of things to do...

;-)

SF

P.S. Richard, i'm interested in the red sleeves mate. :-)
Scarlet Fever

There yours Andy. I'll bring them on Thursday,
Richard P

Cool :-)

Cheers mate

SF
Scarlet Fever

Update.

The lights (with condoms) although blue had a very slight green tint to them. Now changed them to blue LED's, with great results. Had to point them upwards so that there was a more uniform light cover over the clocks.

Pics on there way Rob :)
Richard P

Brilliant result Rich! Looking forward to seeing the pix! :o)
Rob Bell

Richard - have put your words and pictures here: http://www.mgcars.org.uk/carclub/mgfregister/temp/instruments/instrument_lighting.htm

Have a look and see if I've got everything right there :o)

Will move the page to mgf.ultimatemg.com later.
Rob Bell

Cheers Rob,
looks good :)

One thing to note, was if changing to Red it is not necessary to remove the plastic filter. This only seemed to effect the blue lights by changing the colour to green.

The wife's gonna love this one! ;-)
Richard P

Yup, there are a couple of changes I need to make to the page - including that point regarding the filter.

BTW, I tried the Farnell link, but sadly, it doesn't seem to want to work - and searching for the catalogue number doesn't help either. Does one need to register first?

Best regards to the SO Rich! LOL

One day I'll try and make another Essex meet: its been years since I last managed to get there!
Rob Bell

Pics look ace Rich - if I use LED's instead, is it just a case of pulling out the blub and sliding in the LED in it's place? Also, did you get the LED's from that Farnell place as well? In terms of the green tint if you use the blue condoms, was this really that bad/noticable and was this just applicable to the main speedo/rev counter clocks or everything as well?
Cheers
PJL
Paul Lucas

Rob,

There's a meet this Thursday.....

Just had the misses up here and shown her the link.
First comment was I need to get out more, then she thought about it & said I go out too much as it is! LOL
Final comment was SAD.

I just tried the farnell link on my home PC and had no problems, so not too sure.


Paul,
the LED's I used are a nominal value of 3.6V @ 30mA so I had to put a resistor in series with them. Then I had to heat shrink the resistor and fold the legs back on itself to wedge it into the bulb holder. Because the LED is polarity conscious, you have to check you've plugged it in the right way round, or no light.

The blue condom looked fine on the main instruments (fuel, temp, speed, revs) with just a very slight green tint. I’ve ordered some blue bulbs that should be a direct replacement for the bulbs in the main instruments and oil temp gauge. That should stop the green tint, had I not changed to LED’s.

But the problem with the clock and oil gauge is (I think) the yellow filter is part of the units, so may require dismantling (if possible). I’m just waiting for it to get dark so I can see how the blue lights look against the red clock/heater/switches. I may leave it be as I have a blue stereo with red buttons. Should know in a couple of hours.

If I don’t use the blue bulbs, come down the Dick Turpin on Thursday and I’ll fit them on your main instruments. Should take about 15mins, but you’ll need to bring a torch. ;-)
Richard P

i'll try the blue condoms first and see what it is like. i can't make thurs as got something on at work that night, but i'll try in 2 weeks time @ 1/2way house.
Paul Lucas

Wicked! Im gonna have to do this, blue dials and stuff will go perfect with my new stereo!
Edd

rich, when you mean you put a resistor in series with the l.e.d, does that mean you attached the resistor to one of the l.e.d legs? what resistor did you use? sorry for all the questions.
paul
Paul Lucas

Every LED is diff. the one I used needed a 330R resistor. It can be attached to either leg,
HTH
Rich
Richard P

This thread was discussed between 30/04/2004 and 05/05/2004

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