I have Brazilian VDO gauges from the 1990’s, and the gauge back-lighting has always been weak. The bulbs are BA7s 2-watt so no wonder they’re not very bright. I’ve had to run them turned up all the way on the switch to see anything at night.
This photo of the original lights is in a dark, closed garage (simulating night time) with the dash lights turned up all the way. They really are dimmer than they look in the photo. It has to be pretty dark out to look like this.
If it is twilight out they barely cut it. Here, I turn them down about 50% and there is essentially zero backlight.
Below, at the top is the BA7s LED bulb from Superbright LEDs and a regular BA7s on the bottom. The LEDs are direct replacements and are dim-able.
I replaced all of the backlight bulbs with dim-able LEDs. They just pop right in, but you may find that it is easier to remove the gauge into the cockpit a little bit if you have enough slack in the wiring. Sometimes the barrel that the bulb fits into is hard to remove from the gauge - Don’t let it get the best of you!
Here are the LED versions, same darkness and turned up all the way. I like the look - It’s much brighter, for sure. Can’t wait to try them out about twilight.
And below, the same bulbs turned down about 60-70%. They only dim a little and turned down all the way they go out but at their lowest light output they’re about as bright as the original bulbs turned up all the way:
I bought a package of ten that was about $15 US, delivered in four days. Swapping the bulbs started to be quite a job due to the tight rat’s nest behind the dash. It was a lot easier once I pulled the gauges out a few inches to get at the bulbs on the back.
Links:
BA7s bulb: https://www.superbrightleds.co...bulb-1-led-ba7s-base
BA9s Bulb: https://www.superbrightleds.co...it-car-ba9s-xhp5-car
And if you want a better dimmer for them:
https://www.superbrightleds.co...or-led-dimmer-ldk-8a
