Upgrades 12. Dash LED Dimming

Now the dials can be controlled, there still exists the glaring blue LED's that come on the 620 dash. I tried numerous solutions to this but the best one was simply another electronical change as before. The great thing about this change is that you can easily reverse it should you want to.

I tried a number of approaches for this, and in the end the the electrical solution was the best by far, that said, the sticker solution was also quite neat.

Approach 1 - Electrical LED dimming

This will give you the best finish and is the proper approach to take if you have some soldering skills.

This involved creating a number of small wires each with a resistor and with spade connectors on each end, which would then be slotted into place behind the dash using the existing connections. It is completely reversible for the LEDS that sit in the middle of the dashboard, and semi reversible for the tacho light.

I first decided to create a number of wires with differing resistance as I didn't know the exact resistance that would be needed for each light I wanted to intercept. It was as simple as soldering a resistor onto two strands of wires, slotting a heat shrink over the top, crimping a male and female spade connector on each end, then sealing up the heat shrink. I then marked each with a number of marks to denote the resistor used. In the photos below, there are 6 marks, for a 6k8 resistor.

For the dash lights, in the end I used a 2k resistor for the red light, 10k for the blue lights and the green lights I ended up leaving as I couldn't get the spade connector off easily. For the tacho headlight blue bulb I used a 6k8 resistor.

These wires will then easily slot in place behind the dash using existing connections, simply unplug the positive wire going into the back of the light you wish to dim (indicated by red and white striped wire) and then insert your new wire between the two. It is worth noting that mine were so tough to get off that I was worried I may break the connectors. The blue LED's were easier than the green, but they "should" just pull off, I decided to only do the blue and red lights (horn only) in the end as I thought I might break the green connector. Note the final image shows the difference it makes, but also this image has the semi opaque discs still stuck on top too (which I removed after I was happy with this solution)

The main beam headlight is also too bright for most, so I decided to try and dim this too, I could use the same system as above, except I needed to add a set of spade connectors on the correct wire going into the tacho. Using the wiring diagram, I knew that the headlight wire was blue and white striped, I also traced it behind the dash to make sure, and it went into the flash headlights switch. I then saw which wire this connected to on the tacho, which was a red and blue wire. The first test was to simply remove this connector from the loom and test the tacho. Everything worked fine, and as expected the headlight light no longer illuminated.

With the testing successful, I then decided to snip the cable in half, add some spade connectors, then add one of the resistor wires created above.

Once it was all put back together, I tested it all and my eyes were no longer dazzled. Night driving is now way more fun!

Here is the final effect, I've left one LED un touched to show the difference, it is much more noticeable with bare eyes as the camera tries to over expose it all.

Approach 2 - Semi Opaque Sticker Discs

The blue lights on the 620 dash are also far too bright, I did a bit of research and lots of people chose to stick opaque stickers over them to cut out the light, this unfortunately meant that I would no longer be able to see the switch icon. I decided that I would instead get some self adhesive light tint film (the kind you use on headlights) and then use a 16mm hole punch to cut out a perfect circle which fits over each switch. This then meant I could still see the buttons in the day time, but also have less glare at night.

This was a bit of a faff, but it was worth it. I found that the best way of doing this was to peel back the top protective layer before punching the hole, and to also do the same on the rear "adhesive" part, however give it a small spray of water, before re attaching the adhesive part, where I was planning on cutting the hole out. This meant once the disc was cut out, the adhesive backing could easily separate from the small disc, which was a real pain to do without this technique. I then placed each disc over the buttons and gave it all a test!

The photos have picked up on every little blemish on the disc sticker, these are not noticeable in normal light, also it is hard to convey the brightness in the pictures, but to the naked eye it is much less intense, lots less "blue", both were in the same conditions (in the garage, no lights on except the car lights).

the blue light were still slightly too bright so I removed the stickers from the blue ones, and then create a "double" layer of the same film (making sure to remove all the protective film between both parts). Once I created a double thickness film, I repeated the process on the 4 blue lights only (start/windscreen/washers) and these were much less bright at night, and you could still see the icons through the film in the day (although I never run with my lights off so this would not be a problem anyway)