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Dash lighting colour change?

17K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  Darlog181 
#1 ·
Hi

Is it possible to change the colour of the dash lighting in my 9-5 aero? everything lights up green at the moment but i would like to change it all to red.
 
#3 ·
Yes and no. :cry:

Some of the bulbs have little rubber "filters" on them to tint them green. For those bulbs, you could switch them out with the LED equivalent which can be had at superbrightleds or autolumination

Unfortunately, some of the areas of the markers in the dash - namely the ACC, radio, SID stack have 2 or 3 bulbs whose light are transmitted to each button by a series of translucent green plastic lenses that are connected. It's sortof like a large scale fiber-optic setup, albeit much less sophisticated obviously. The only way I can see to change these areas are to have custom-color lenses fabricated in the proper colour. Alternatively they could be fabbed clear and the LED bulbs could be whatever colour desired. I didn't say it was easy!

Honestly I've never disassembled the dashboard gauge area above the steering column so maybe someone can chime in here to shed some light :cheesy: (oh that was bad sorry fellas) on the subject.

cheers
 
#4 ·
My honest opinion: I wouldn't go to red. Saab used green lights for a reason; it is the least "bothering" color to the eyes. I hate driving my brother's Mazda at night with the red instrument lights. I don't even like the white lights in our Suburban compared to the green in my Saab. I'd just stick with the green, but it's your choice.

But here is a thread on how someone changed theirs over to blue on a 9000.

http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188209

I can't think of anyone who did this to a 9-5.
 
#6 ·
Volkswagen did some reasearch into the dashboard lights, as the VAG group had Blue for Volkswagen. Red for Audi & Seat. Green for Skoda. They found that the Blue lit dash the driver had to concentrate more to see the speed. I had a VW Passat with Blue Led dash. VW changed the Mk 6 dash to white as the display is so much clearer. I sometimes drive a 2010 Skoda Octavia with the white dials for work. Doing speeds of 100mph+ the white dials are a god send, as you can quickly glance at the dials on see what speed your doing. On a Blue lit you have to concentrate.
 
#8 ·
The green is one of my favorite parts of my interior :cheesy:
 
#9 ·
Changing the button's may be a bit of a problem as I'm looking at my spare facia's to see if there is a way round. The "rubberised" buttons are green plastic with a rubber coating. The lighting tracks are clear plastic so that bit isn't a problem. I've got led lights in the boot panel. I'll test the buttons against the led's. Untill I change 1 bulb at the mo i've 1 blue and 1 red. Changing the blue to red.
 
#11 ·
The "rubberised" buttons are green plastic with a rubber coating. The lighting tracks are clear plastic so that bit isn't a problem.
Thanks for checking this; I stand corrected! For some reason I swore the lighting tracks were green plastic..;oops: Maybe that was my 9000 years ago...

Blue gives off a nice bright colour and with the button colour, the button looks nearly Blue. Similar brightness and shade to the dash pic in earlier thread.
I guess my dream of changing the interior lights to crisp white are done. I don't see any way to change the green buttons :cry: Just for curiosity, do you have a superwhite led lying around to check how the color comes out? I'm guessing it will just be vibrant green...

Cheers
 
#10 ·
Checked the buttons against the Led's.

Red wont work at all. With the buttons being Green add the Red led to the pick and the writing on the button nearly disappears. Similar to turning the dashlighting down.
Blue gives off a nice bright colour and with the button colour, the button looks nearly Blue. Similar brightness and shade to the dash pic in earlier thread.
 
#12 ·
No but give me till tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking at putting 2 leds in the front light unit and in the rear. I had a Renault Laguna 2003, in the front interior light there were 2 red leds, at night it looked spot on. Looking at doing the same in the 95, not sure which colour yet. Got some Green leds to do the seat heater switches, but may use for the lights. If not got some red which were orginally going into the rear indicators as markers lights, but who knows.

I have some clear red enamel paint, may go over the lettering on the buttons, then put a light to it and see.
 
#15 ·
Red is actually the best color to use, marine navigation uses only red backlighting as it does not require your eyes to re adjust.
Yea but those guys don't have headlights shining right in their eyeballs..
 
#19 ·
bulb numbers

does anyone know which bulbs are used both in the switches and dash

held a blue led to the heated seat switches from a 9-5 and numbers are a perfect blue, only prob im having is trying to work out what the bulb names are, found a link saying switches are T3's but are they all the same
cheers
 
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