The dash back lighting in the Ferrari was so bad that none of the dials could be seen when I drove the car at night. Part of the problem was certainly the rheostat that was slowly melting itself and everything around it. However even with the rheostat was removed the existing bulbs were still too dim. Switching to higher output bulbs would fix the legibility but would cause further heat problems. Time to fit some high output LEDs – bright and yet not hot. Initial results were less than impressive
There are a couple of issues visible here. First of all, everything except the left of the speedo is too dim. This is because the dials other than the speedo use BA9 sockets while the speedo uses T5 sockets and I have different brands of LEDs for each application. The BA9 LEDs I bought have unexpectedly low output. I since have ordered a variety of others with a higher output to experiment with and try to match the T5 output.
Secondly, the speedo lighting is uneven because one of the T5 LEDs was not working. Changing it gave the expected improvement of more even lighting across the entire speedometer:
Disclaimer: This website describes the restoration work I perform on my car and only my car. I am not a professional mechanic. The website content is presented for entertainment purposes only and should not by seen as any kind of advice, information, instruction or guidance for working on any other car. The opinions stated here are my own and no-one else’s.
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