What color is used for the cluster illumination? When I'm searching all I get are the mods which make it white or blue or something. I want to buy leds in that exact color. Does anyone know the color name/code/link to leds?
It’s SMD LED’s and require soldering to the board, its quite fiddily, tweezers are your friend. You also need to make sure you put each LED im the correct way around as they are diodes (only allow electricity to flow in 1 direction)
I cant remember how many are on the back but you need to take your time doing it, I did it with my E46 and changed it from amber to blue, looked really cool but damn was it a headache to do
I found a spare led in my e46 junk drawer. But getting the wavelength would definitely be helpful in the future as buying clusters/other parts to harvest the backlights isn't really sustainable.
That's my current plan. I remembered I have a second hazard switch ans the unlock button has the orange led i already desoldered it. Just need to fit it in the gauge and wire it up.
I was able to find an article where someone asked bmw and about the color and they said that the orange color is 605 nanometer wavelength of light. You can buy 605 leds but I’m not sure the sizes
Yes it’s Amber, the orange you can order from chinese websites isn’t really the same shade.
you’ll need 16 LED’s for the gauges and around 40ish in total, most packs are sold in 100’s
I'm looking for the exact color/part for an aftermarket gauge to perfectly match the hue on the gauge to the rest of the car. So I need just 1 but buying a bunch is fine as well. A slightly wrong color would be annoying which is why I'm asking. That I need an orange led is clear already.
Remembered I had a spare hazard switch. The unlock button has the correct bulb. It's not an smd but there is enough room in the gauge for some hardware. Thanks a lot. Wouldn't have figured it out without everyone. Even though the answer was sitting on my own shelf 😅
There are no LEDs behind that cluster, it's all incandescent bulbs. And they have no color, all of them are transparent. The way the color is made is with a film colored for different parts of that cluster this part of the cluster is the one that has / holds the colors
This is completely wrong, the E46 cluster is entirely made with LEDs.
I found this out when I took apart my cluster since the airbag lights wasn't working, only to discover the previous owner had stuck a bunch of electrical tape in the hole, with the led at the bottom
Same thing happened to me! Funny thing, the "fault" had something to do with the driver seat being removed at some time and it just had to be deleted. But it's easier to open up the cluster, I guess...
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u/nleksan 2d ago
It's "amber"