Switched over to LEDs in the dash now nothing works

[85Squared]

Hey guys,
Like pretty much everyone has experienced my dash lights were pretty dim and multiple ones were blown out so I decided to swap over to LED bulbs. I had a few leftover from when I upgraded the lights on my Cutlass a few years back so I decided to take the old lights out and put these in but now nothing works. I should not say nothing because when I pull my headlight switch to turn on the headlights my blinker light comes on and Holds Steady and my high beam indicator comes on as well weather my high beams are on or not. Also when I turn on the headlights now my gas gauge falls back to empty and my temperature gauge doesn't work at all anymore. Obviously I'm going to swap everything back to regular bulbs but I really wanted to have LED bulbs for the brightness. I know in the past I have had issues with LED lights on older vehicles when replacing tail lights or marker lights then all of a sudden things don't work properly anymore, I guess because of the change in voltage. The one thing I will say is that I left a single standard bulb in the cluster because I ran out of LEDs so I'm not sure if that one bulb leftover is causing all of this chaos or not. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone.

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[da_raabi]

That is definitely not normal. The LEDs should not be effecting any of the other mentioned systems. I have a couple thoughts:

1. Did the large connector on the back of the cluster come loose?
2. Did the printed circuit get damaged in any way?
3. Have you checked your headlight switch?

If you put the OE lights back in, and issues persist, and you verified 1 and 2 above, then I would say you may have a faulty headlight switch. 1-3 above are the only places I can think of where all of the above mentioned systems are connected (except for the fuel gauge... thats funky).

Might be time for some troubleshooting!

 

[85Squared]

Thanks for the feedback, I spent a few days recently on my back under the dash sorting out issues with the light switch because when I was reinstalling the factory radio somehow all of my running lights stopped working but that's a whole nother story. When I put the bulbs in I didn't take the gauge cluster all the way out I just pulled it out slightly and changed all the bulbs by removing the twist ends so this time I'm going to take it all the way out so I can inspect the printed circuit board and make sure I didn't break anything.

 

[Crispy]

I just did an led swap on mine so this is all fresh. You have to pull the cluster almost all the way out. I was able to get mine out and tilted down after I removed the speedo cable. I did this to verify operation of each LED since the are sensitive to polarity. If you know your leds are working and didnt light up after puttin them in the twist lock then remove the twist lock and rotate it 180 degrees. You will see a glow verifying it works. This of course applies if your switch and cluster are in working order. Also make sure the dimmer is turned to full brightness and that you are putting the leds only where the gauges light up and not where the warning and indicator lights are.

Good luck.

 

[Ray1988r20]

Thanks for the feedback, I spent a few days recently on my back under the dash sorting out issues with the light switch because when I was reinstalling the factory radio somehow all of my running lights stopped working but that's a whole nother story. When I put the bulbs in I didn't take the gauge cluster all the way out I just pulled it out slightly and changed all the bulbs by removing the twist ends so this time I'm going to take it all the way out so I can inspect the printed circuit board and make sure I didn't break anything.

I also switched my dash lights out with l.e.d. and at first they didn't work. I took everything back apart, and moved them around a little. They kinda blinked, then I took them and turned them around in the sockets. All is well now, I guess they weren't getting good contact in the sockets. I love them, now bright as daylight! Unfortunately, when I changed out the ones in the a.c. controller, I unplugged the main power switch and now my blower motor doesn't work..... my bad. But try to turn the bulbs in the sockets, and that hopefully will work. Did for me

 

[Crispy]

Another little note, I found that for a couple of lights that didnt work after I rotated them 180 degrees a little bending up of the contact tab helped.

 

[Ray1988r20]

Also, I couldn't use the led in the blinker indicator lights, for whatever reason, they wouldn't blink right afterwords. I since have seen a De fuser kit for changing to leds that male them blink right. Something about the voltage difference, hope this helps.

 

[Crispy]

Dont bother with those IMO. They are barely ever on and to get a true color representation you would have to use whatever color led the lens is (green for turn signal, blue for high beam, etc). I would leave the check engine, brake, turn signal, high beam, seat belt and 4wd lights all as incandescent. You will only need 5 leds for the gauge illumination.

If you mean LEDs for the exterior turn signals an electronic flasher will correct that. Whats a de fuser kit?

 

[85Squared]

That is definitely not normal. The LEDs should not be effecting any of the other mentioned systems. I have a couple thoughts:

1. Did the large connector on the back of the cluster come loose?
2. Did the printed circuit get damaged in any way?
3. Have you checked your headlight switch?

If you put the OE lights back in, and issues persist, and you verified 1 and 2 above, then I would say you may have a faulty headlight switch. 1-3 above are the only places I can think of where all of the above mentioned systems are connected (except for the fuel gauge... thats funky).

Might be time for some troubleshooting!

 

[85Squared]

Awesome feedback guys thank you all. I'm going to give it a go tonight take them out switch them around bend the leads up a little bit pretty much everything that was suggested and take some pictures and hopefully I'll have nice bright gauge cluster at the end of everything. I tried to take the easy way out and not remove the speedo cable from the gauge cluster but this time around I'm going to take the entire cluster all the way out so I can really see what I am doing.

 

[85Squared]

Took about 90 mins worth of swapping bulbs around the cluster and bending contacts, reversing polarity, etc. But I finally found the right combination to get the lights Workin. Only light I couldn't get back was the parking brake light so I gotta see what I knocked loose cause I know the bulb is good. Anyway, lights are slightly brighter not crazy bright as these were some cheep-o eBay LEDs but much better none the less.

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[donnieray]

Congrats! Looks good.

 

[da_raabi]

That's about the same brightness as the ones I got on Amazon for about $10. I like it like that. Bright and "clear" enough to see in twilight and dawn, yet not so bright as to be distracting in the dark. I would have liked the ability to go brighter while maintaining the use of the dimmer, but that seems to be a difficult task. It works for me like it is.

Good job on figuring it out. I'm wondering if some of the other problem circuits source a ground through the bulbs or something. Weird.

 

[Crispy]

Looks good! Glad you got it squared up.

 

[74 Shortbed]

Looks great..