Hi
Have old eyeballs but...
See lotsa places about dim XK8 dash bulbs
Asked dealer about new LEDs
He said wrong voltage, wrong wattage so will get lotsa warnings

But also see YouTubes about dash LEDs

So
Can I use LEDs
Are they brighter
where would I buy

Thanks

 

Is the illumination control knob on the left side of the steering column turned to full brightness?

 

true, turned up

can see 'em in bright sunlight but lotsa cloudy weather in Seattle and deep in the holes, hard to see

 

Can you see them at night?

 

ok at night
ok on sunny days tho not really bright
cloudy days? have trouble seeing them

have Audi A3 > lights bright all the time deep in the holes

youtube at
shows putting in LEDs but not easy to find compatible LEDs

 

Yes, the lights are more subtle than in some other vehicles. Part of the issue in the XK8 will be that the blue/green combination may become a bit more difficult to see as one's eyes age. This will not necessarily be improved by adding LEDs with a blue frequency shift over halogens.

However, I think my 2001 bulbs in the inst panel are the same as your bulbs, 4X Phillips 194 (upper) , 4X Philips 37 (smaller lower). So, there are LED replacements for these common bulbs out there, but I have not used any of them. Quickly looking for the 194

https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...yABEgLbDPD_BwE

This is about three times the lumen output of the original 194 halogen. It may look glary and blotchy (not diffuse across the panel), though. You can find similar results for the 37. Similar bulbs are also available on Amazon.

LED bulbs are generally pretty cheap, you might want to get something that looks reasonable and try them out. Taking the instrument panel out takes minutes using the instructions on the forum. Two cautions, first, you will likely need to flip polarity on some of the bulbs unless you are extremely lucky or simply look at the electrical diagram to figure out which way the voltage is oriented on the board. They are diodes. A second caution, there are plenty of blue leds on Amazon, for example. That might not help very much even at triple the brightness. I'd stay with the whitest led I could find in the appropriate form factor (i.e. the 194 or 37 above).

 

Thanks; interesting

At superbrightleds.com for 97 xk8 I see 194, 74 and 921; but no 37

 

also does 97 xk8 require canbus LEDs?

 

also various 194s have different dimensions; will all 194s fit?

 

Perhaps something like


Superbright leds has a car based finder too, which suggests

https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...82&scc_id=1416

 

Don't know about the CAN bus. There are only 10 basic INST CAN messages in the xk8, and there's no CAN message that the inst lights are out. So, seems unlikely to me, but others may weight in.

As for size, the Philips 194 is a given size. As noted above, I've never used any of these, and I like the XK8 glow. So, if a bulb is vastly different in size than the given halogen type, it might not fit in the space provided, but the base should fit. Bottom line, I'd choose one that is closest in size.

 

As I’m in Bahrain, a super hot sunny climate, I sometimes struggle to see the dash dial faces esp. at shaded twilight conditions, so I’ve been considering switching to white dash faces.

See link below
1998-2003 Jaguar XJ8 White Face Gauges - Whitegauges.net

 

Not in the dash, but they are polarity-conscious and the light is projected forward, rather than diffused, as crbass notes.

 

I'm going to replace my bulbs as a future project. Going with LED's. Here's a couple of links I saved. First one has a lot of detail on the LED bulbs. Second one is a DIY on replacement process.

WHOOPS- See you already have seen the first one!

 

all may be too complex for me
with blue coloration and diffuse light and on and on but
am currently scanning
Instrument Panel Gauge Led Bulbs 33 74 2721 Wedge
as it seems to be "most" useful for LED search