Changed my five dash bulb to T5 LED's, but was not satisfied with the illumination of the instruments. Changed the T5's to T10's by slightly expanding the socket hole with a Dermal tool. I still used the OEM sockets and added five T10 W5W 2825 192 194 168 501 Car WHITE SMD LED Side Wedge Light Bulbs 12V purchased from eBay. The single bulb has 20 small individual LED's that provide remarkable BLUE illumination to all instruments.

 

Any pictures ?

On the XJS, is the color dictated by the bulb itself ? or is there a colored filter that dictates the color ?

 

There is a filter on the sockets. Starts out as green but turns black with age which may be the reason for poor illumination. It is better to remove these and use green led instead.

 

The green bulb covers are easily removable, I needed to do this for my T10 LED bulbs to fit. You do need to remove the dash and dismantle it but once apart the covers unscrew.

 

Speaking only of a 1993 XJS, I used white bulbs. When in place they butt up against a solid piece of clear plastic that continues to circle behind each instrument face. The instrument face appears to be transparent and the light shines thru the facing and takes the color blue. Clear???

 

WARNING LIGHTS

On the 20 warning I used T10's also. These were the flat face type with eight tiny LED's matching the cell color. They were attached to the plastic printed circuit board with super glue and further secured with a gel type adhesive. I would have used two dabs of that new UV setting plastic you see on TV now if it had of been available. I chose not to enlarge the holes because the T10's are large in diameter and I felt that enlargement would possible break down the side walls of each cell. Each T10, wedge type, has two contacts and I straightened out the wires and soldered them to the printed circuit. It is best to solder a short piece of wire on each printed circuit trace (40) before attaching the bulbs. I used a 25 Watt iron and had no problems. I then covered the bulbs soldered side with celluloid material and blue tape. you should insure you have the proper polarity on each bulb before soldering. How do you change the bulbs? I suspect you wont have to since they are supposed to have a 50,000 hour life and they are illuminated for very short periods, if ever. With that UV plastic adhesive you could slip a razor edge under the bulb and pop it off.
Oh yes! They look great day and night.

 

My T10 instrument bulbs have been in the car for 2 years now and 2 have already failed, and I have another blinking so will need to be replaced soon

 

Are you sure they failed or did they lose contact with the printed circuit? I had that problem with the T5's that I previously used for warning light


PS You have a beautiful car and a fine country. Love your Miss Fisher!

 

No they failed, they are mulit-SMD LED bulbs and the failure was one or two LEDs in the cluster starts to blink, very annoying

 

Do you mean to say that the dash has to come out to replace instrument bulbs speedo, gas, heat, oil pressure,battery and tack bulbs on 1990 XJS convertible ?

 

No, just the cluster. Pretty easy, really.

 

I have been looking at the cluster and can't find any screws, how do you take it out ? Thank you

 

1 screw, middle top underside that holds surround trim in place. 1 screw each side holding surround trim. Remove trim. At each end of the upper corners of cluster is a plastic cover that pops off. Under the covers are screws. Remove the deeper of the two screws on each side. Lower steering wheel, or extend fully, depending on model year. Cluster leans out from the top. Remove two electrical connectors from back, and remove the cluster.

 

As Jal says, just the instrument binnacle, but the coloured warning light strip above the main instrument gauges can be removed once the trim surround and the little plastic covers each side of the strip is off (Jal mentioned that these also cover the main binnacle attachment screws). Then you can change or upgrade these little warning light bulbs without needing to remove the binnacle.
Greg

 

Greg,
Thanks for adding that to my writeup. I hadn't realized you could do that. A time saver.

Jon

 

Thank you, Greg, Jal, Some of the bulbs are out makes it hard to drive at night.