I've done the PayPal thing with Spark1o1 for 20 bulbs. Hopefully they'll show up here soon and I'll see if it's bulbs, grounding, regulator or whatever.
Success I put in the new head light switch and left the regular bulbs in. WOW what a difference. It was worth the $10 at autozone. Bright as heck. One tip.I have the Chiltons book and they make it sound like you can just reach up there, press the little button, pull out the stem and unscrew it. Unless you have the arm and hand of an infant, it aint happening. Carefully remove the cover from the heater/ac control sliders. Take out the 3 phillips screws beneath it. Push the unit towards the middle and then replace. I had the instrument cluster out already. Then it is literally a snap. I should have the LED bulbs tomorrow. I will pop them in and let you guys know if the dimmer works on them etc....
LED's can be dimmed. You should never exceed the maximum rated voltage of the LED's, but they can be operated at lower voltages (to an extent) and will be dimmer. Different LED's are probably going to react differently to the stock dimmer knob. I say, who cares... turn the knob all the way up and leave it. I personally have never understood why the dash lights even have a dimmer switch. I can't say I have ever used it, I just leave mine turned all the way up... evidently someone out there must since it's been such a standard feature across all makes for so many years. Seems to me it would make more sense to have the dome light on a dimmer switch then the dash lights.
"The head light switch controls the dimness. A bulb is burned or it is not. Auto Zone has them for about 10 bucks"~Quote This is incorrect, as the filament inside ANY bulb burns it looses Lumen value (aka brightness in laymans terms) this was proven wrong on a mythbusters episode!!! A set of headlights from a factory car (mid 60's mercedes i think) were tested against brand new replacements, with the same power set up and the old lights were remarkably different in lumen value. Just replace your bulbs, did it in my cluster and behind the heater control panel and wow, big diffference with a set of lights that are 32 years newer! The other thing i've noticed is that some cars that use a ceramic dimmer switch as they age tend to loose connectivity?! Replaced the dimmer switch in my 79' K5 blazer and viola, much brighter interior lights (after replacing bulbs) though i was trying to fix the flickering, shot two birds with one stone in that deal. The dimmer switch replacement i believe is sold at napa for around 15.00 As for dimmer switches on interior lights, i drive a lot of interstate at night workign third shift, and teh reflection of my instrument panel on the side and rear windows is a pain, just dim them out and it's not noticeable. I'm sure if i decided to put an anti-glare film on the windows it would work just as well, but the dimmer does serve a purpose.
LED's (light emitting diodes) are solid state lamps that have an operating voltage range of .3 to .5 minimum depending on the makeup and a maximum of about 3 volts depending on the materials used in manufacture. There are some that are lasing diodes that can take very high REVERSE voltages to make semi-conductor lasers but those are not used for lamps. They can be dimmed but the voltage variation is very small compared to the existing lamps that are used in the dash. They may have a miniature regulator built into the base.
I'm always dimming the lights on my cars. When I'm in town, I turn them all the way up. But when I go home where there are no street lights (out of town), I have to turn them down (especially on newer cars).
Actually LEDs, like any PN junction semiconductor, are current operated devices, not voltage operated. Depending on what materials they are made from most LEDs operate with a forward voltage of around 1.7 VDC for a single device. Usually to operate at higher votages, i.e. 12 vdc, an internal resistor is incorporated to drop the voltage to the correct level. I've used small, high efficiency LEDs that run on as little as 5 mA and bright ones that draw over 40 mA. Now they have large dies that will run on 200 mA or more, used to replace incandescent light bulbs like you have in your house. A rheostat dimmer may allow LEDs to dim some, at least until the voltage or current drops below their cutoff threshhold. Then they just turn off. I've seen some multi-die LED lamps that replace the 1157 incandescents used in our tailights switch between running lights (dim) and brake lights (bright) in one of two ways. The simplist way is all the LEDs are on for brakes, less are on for running lights. Some arrays will have a built in device that pulses the LEDs to make them appear dim and provides full drive current for the brake application.
in my Ridgeline i can dim/brighten the dash lights in the daytime. lights don't have to be on... ...:Handshake...
