Gauge Cluster Lighting Help

[Corton520]

Alright I wanna change the color from red to blue, anyone know sites for gauge faces or just maybe changing the bulb? I can't seem to find anything and I have been looking for two days now...help plz

[NorCal Lancer]

I think you can change the bulbs, but I'm not entirely sure. I know, my comment was very useless, sorry...

[Corton520]

haha well at least i know someones reading so ill just wait till someone can help....but thanks haha

[Ralliart_on_LSD]

at first i really liked the red/white gauge color setup. Now i drive a jetta for a daily driver, and the blue lights look WAY cooler at night, looks more like a cockpit lol. so this would be interesting if you can get it working, and you BETTER TAKE PICS if you do this.

[NorCal Lancer]

hey, maybe this forum topic can help? I only read through the first page and it seems as if maybe it'll be of some use to you! cheers! Changing gauge cluster bulbs

[BlackRaven]

There are a couple different things you can try to do this...

Changing the stock lights:
Behind the gauge cluster, there are four twist-lock base lights; three for the gauges and one for the LCD. They're incandescent and covered with red/orange gels. You can get different colored gels for the stock bulbs, or there is (was?) a member on the boards, Lightrikz, that sells LED replacements. His are the directional (rounded top) bulbs, so the light dispersion isn't the best, but it's still good (good enough anyways).

By just replacing the bulbs, the needles will still be the red/orange (a dark purple at night, tough to see). Lightrikz sells replacement needles on a core-exchange basis (he ships new ones, you ship your stock ones in).

Electroluminescent (indiglo) overlays:
You might be able to find some indiglo overlays on ebay; I haven't looked for a while now, most are the white faced gauges with a thick ring around the needle's base...weird lookin'. However, these would provide the most even light dispersion and possibly, the brightest output. The needles here would still be stock-colored.

Gauge cluster replacement:
You can go nuts and pick up an Evo cluster (some for sale on the boards here, some on ebay...they're out there). Now, this wouldn't get you blue gauges...right away. There are many more options for overlays to the Evo cluster than there are for our cars (check out that S7 overlay thing on ebay...looks pretty neat IMO).

My setup is a work in progress, and is a combo of two above. I found a set of black-faced gauge overlays (Otto Racing or something) that I got on ebay. Also, there was someone on the classifieds on the boards randomly selling a set of needles. I'm gonna make the needles I bought white, over the black gauge face, with blue backlighting. So, to the OP, there are a couple ways you can go.

[Corton520]

so the stock bulbs have red gels over them and i can switch them out for the blue gels? cuz i wouldnt mind purplish needles....school color haha
and dont worry i will take pics i just did the whole interior light set of blue so i want my gauges to some what match