Bulbs for Switches! Which ones?

[courtneybriton]

Hey all,
I'm trying to brighten up the interior of my car a bit, and I noticed that a ton of bulbs are out. not my cluster or gauges because I replaced those with led's just recently. I am buying bulbs for the trunk and license plate today, but I don't want to place the order without everything that I need. I need the bulb that is in the automatic window switch, the bulbs in the hazard light switch, and the bulbs for behind the air conditioning bezel. Does anyone know which LED's these would be??

[courtneybriton]

just kidding. Ignore this. I found this, so I think I will just go off of it!
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-apply-as-well)

[rabbitnothopper]

well the switches may not have bulbs in them

you would be surprized but i think the defrost switch has bulbs soldered to the circuit
you have to open the casing of the defrost switch

yeah, i replaced all the bulbs with LEDS and things still work fine

edit- and yeah sorry my old MySpace pictures dont load anymore
i still have all the pics if you want me to go back through 3 years of threads to edit them.........ha


depending on your switch you may need to open it or the bulb is on the rear of the switch



these white ones work fine on the rear plate lights

[kamzcab86]

you would be surprized but i think the defrost switch has bulbs soldered to the circuit
you have to open the casing of the defrost switch

All interior bulbs in the 'verts are soldered, except the headlight switch.

If you're getting LEDs for the turn indicators, you'll need a matching relay to go with them... or wire in diodes.

[rabbitnothopper]

im pretty sure my 78 has two bulbs soldered inside the defrost switch
both are dead

the 81 which is the one i need to fix also has a bulb inside the housing, you can only see it when you turn on the marker lights/headlights and turn the defrost switch to on
then out the side is a tiny green hole lit up by the light
in that case i think it is the one item preventing my dimmer from working with all the other leds

[briano1234]

im pretty sure my 78 has two bulbs soldered inside the defrost switch
both are dead

the 81 which is the one i need to fix also has a bulb inside the housing, you can only see it when you turn on the marker lights/headlights and turn the defrost switch to on
then out the side is a tiny green hole lit up by the light
in that case i think it is the one item preventing my dimmer from working with all the other leds

That isn't the case as the bulbs are in Parallel to the circuit.
If none of the bulbs / led's are working, I would first measure 12v on the blue/gray wire, if it ain't there that be your issue. Then I would be sure that I have the LED's Biased correctly as they are polarity aware....

[native-texan_in_tn]

in that case i think it is the one item preventing my dimmer from working with all the other leds

I agree with Brian's suggestion, as well. Speaking of the dimming capabilities, I installed LEDs a couple of years or so ago in the cluster and gauges, as well as the a/c panel (fun, since mine is one of those without a bulb-holder and had to be carefully pried/cut open). With the far lower starting point of the LEDs, the OEM dimmer range isn't capable of dropping the resistance low enough to actually turn them all the way down and off but that's never been a concern, since I wanted a brighter dash lighting arrangement to begin with. By the way, I essentially retained the OEM-look, as well , retaining the original green film and using green plug'n'play LEDs for the cluster, the white for the VDO gauges (not plug'n'play, for the gauge lighting required some creative disassembly/assembly using some of the B8.3D-W LEDs as a starting point). The wedge-base LEDs were obtained for switch installation but I have yet to make it that far:

just kidding. Ignore this. I found this, so I think I will just go off of it!
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-apply-as-well)

Tis helpful, indeed... Study the different options here, as well: http://www.superbrightleds.com/ .

[rabbitnothopper]

superbright now has a tool you can search for the bulbs which fit your car

prior to buying you should of course go out and compare the real bulbs to their suggestions

i only found their mistake was on the cluster bulbs which on a westy have two different types of wedge bulbs


i guess youre right abou the OEM dimmer rheostat not having enough resistance to dim the interior LED at all
it just seemed odd to me that it was either off at about 5/6 closed or full on from 5/6-1/99

im not sure why your gauges are different but the 4 i have and have 3 installed all used the 74W in your picture
its just a bulb using the OEM bulb holder in the socket

you can of course use the B8.3 bulbs for the cluster sockets and remove the OEM bulb holders entirely
becareful however they are extremely tight fit.

[courtneybriton]

so has anyone tried doing the lights inside the automatic window switches? i have a 93 and therefore it has automatic windows, i am just curious if anyone has tread this unknown road?

[kamzcab86]

im not sure why your gauges are different but the 4 i have and have 3 installed all used the 74W in your picture
its just a bulb using the OEM bulb holder in the socket

The later Cabriolets (from about '84 onward) do not use a separate bulb; the bulbs are fused to the holders. The easiest method, albeit more costly, is to buy the replacement holders to put the new bulbs in... plug and play. Many folks don't care to spend the extra money, so they go the more complicated route by taking the LED out of the B8.3 holder and removing the incandescent from the gauge and doing a swap, essentially.

[native-texan_in_tn]

superbright now has a tool you can search for the bulbs which fit your car

prior to buying you should of course go out and compare the real bulbs to their suggestions

i only found their mistake was on the cluster bulbs which on a westy have two different types of wedge bulbs


i guess you're right abou the OEM dimmer rheostat not having enough resistance to dim the interior LED at all
it just seemed odd to me that it was either off at about 5/6 closed or full on from 5/6-1/99

im not sure why your gauges are different but the 4 i have and have 3 installed all used the 74W in your picture
its just a bulb using the OEM bulb holder in the socket

you can of course use the B8.3 bulbs for the cluster sockets and remove the OEM bulb holders entirely
becareful however they are extremely tight fit.

Yes, I was wondering exactly what kind of dimming you were obtaining with the OEM switch... Tis identical to the way mine reacts...

As for my gauges, yes, they're identical and it was for the reasons Kammy explained:

The later Cabriolets (from about '84 onward) do not use a separate bulb; the bulbs are fused to the holders. The easiest method, albeit more costly, is to buy the replacement holders to put the new bulbs in... plug and play. Many folks don't care to spend the extra money, so they go the more complicated route by taking the LED out of the B8.3 holder and removing the incandescent from the gauge and doing a swap, essentially.

This is what she's referring to:



Ben/moogie's got a number of variations of this bulb holder listed within his Ebay store:

http://stores.ebay.com/Mk1-Autohaus

He's got a LOT of great things, in fact, and I've always gotten excellent service when buying from him. I just couldn't afford 9.95 per bulb holder, though, and opted to disassemble the LEDs from their base to add the necessary wires. Yes, it was a royal PITA, too, and makes the bulb holders look reeeeally tempting for any future swaps... lol

Oh, and yes, I did notice that Super Bright's using a new fitment system over their old Sylvania bulb selection link... It's been a while since I've browsed their site.

[fredges]

Let me tell you that bulb holder has got to be worth it! I spent hours in the garage last night trying (with mild success) to fit a standard "rice" bulb into the existing black bulb-housing thing. I frankensteined it to work until I can get the holder from Autohaus. Thinking I might just go with LEDs if they're brighter... we'll see... But yeah, $10 is nothing...