• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A TR3 LED Lights?

Share this page

D

DonP

Member
Country flag
Offline
As much as I've always loved that soft, romantic, faint, orangish glow of the stock TR3 dash lights, I've been reading about plug and play replacement LED lights that actually allow you to read the instruments at night.

Same thing for the rear brake lights too. Better, brighter, less draw on the system.

Do they really work as well as they're supposed to? Anybody here tried them yet? Opinions? Best sources?
 
Several folks in my local club have brake/tail lights from Litezupp, who make them custom to suit the odd angle of TR3 lamps. They seem happy and I can vouch the lights look good. Also available in positive ground if you want.
Using them for turn signals does require some changes though, since they don't draw enough current to work with the stock flasher.

I've been playing with making my own, with mixed results so far.
The camera doesn't really do them justice, but here's a daylight shot. The RH light is still incandescent, but an uprated bulb that is quite a bit brighter than stock.
DSCF0014-1.jpg~original
 
Wow! Even in broad daylight that;s a big difference.

I know if I change the signals to LED I have to swap out the flasher for an electronic one.

But I'm really thinking of the dash lights primarily. Even with new bulbs and a new wiring harness they have 2 settings, dim and dimmer. The idea of actual light behind the instruments using the existing sockets is kind of nice.
 
Sorry, I can't help with dash lights. Mine are bright enough for me, after cleaning the gauges and installing new bulbs. The old Lucas bulbs definitely get dimmer with age. One of mine was so dark that it's surprising it put out any light at all!
 
Agree with Randall. After cleaning and painting inside of my TR3 gauges, new stock light bulbs are plenty bright. Did add LED lights to my TR6 gauges, and they are good. In the TR6, I have the dimmer bypassed. Now that I have converted TR3 to neg ground I might try some LEDs in gauges, but have not felt the need to do that yet. Cheers, Mike
 
You can get brighter incandescent bulbs for your small instrument lights (#428 is 3.1 watts compared to 2.0 standard) They will only work in the 2 small instrument light sockets. The bulb is too big for the ignition warning light and the turn signal indicator light, and most speedo/tach lights Buy one each LED and #428 & see which one you prefer. Both are available online. Also you said "two settings, dim & dimmer" If you have a rheostat dimmer for your dash lights, the LEDs might not work.
 
Back
Top