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Greetings all-
I'm getting ready to dive into needed odometer gear repair and was wondering if anyone might have recommendation for upgrades for the instrument cluster bulbs? I figured I may as well do that while I'm in there and wouldn't mind brightening it up the instrument lights a bit. Is the socket compatible with a halogen? I'll probably swap out original radio sometime down the road and was thinking dash might need a light upgrade match up a little better. (Finding a radio that matches up with the overall look of the 240 dash is another chore in and of itself as many of the new radios are pretty gaudy looking)
Thanks for any advice or tips!
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Not applicable to your 93, but maybe useful to older 240's with the non-halogen bulbs...
I replaced the 2 original wedge base bulbs in the main cluster of my 83 with #168 bulbs. I measured current flow and derived that the originals are about 3 Watts which means they are probably #194 bulbs. The #168's are 5 Watts so are considerable brighter - and hotter.
I lined the upper (above the bulbs) surface of their little chambers with aluminum foil - bright side out - to help brighten their "throw" of light and to provide some insulation against the added heat.
So far so good - the cluster is definitely brighter, and when pulling it for other reasons after three years with the hotter bulbs, no signs of heat distress (yet). The extra current draw hasn't (yet) bothered the dimmer rheostat, and of course the whole issue can be dimmed down to total darkness as required.
--
Bob: son's XC70, dtr's '94-940, my 81GL, 83-DL, 89-745(V8) and 98-S90. Also 77-MGB and some old motorcycles.
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I just put new 3W bulbs in (I think they were 194's) and they are plenty bright for my 57 year old eyes to read the mileage on the odometer, and more than enough to see how fast I'm going or read the tach. Now the small clock is another matter altogether.
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Fair enough Sputnik, but in another 10 years you and your eyes will be up near my age so keep the #168 bulbs on standby!
--
Bob: son's XC70, dtr's '94-940, my 81GL, 83-DL, 89-745(V8) and 98-S90. Also 77-MGB and some old motorcycles.
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I will point out the bulbs in your dash ARE Halogen.
The lights in the later model 240s use front lighting, vs the older back lighting, which I think was better for its uniform lighting.
--
245 Classic M47, 245SE AW IPD bars, 84 1/2 242 Tic IPDbars & Springs, 89 745 16v M46, IPD bars, 89 744 16v M46 IPDbars
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Thanks for the info and good to know!
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I found a flexible LED strip at Autozone for $15. I have a 1980, not sure if the instruments are lit the same way, but I only had to cut off the old chain of 3 bulbs, crimp the lead from the LED to the hot wire and ran a ground over to the dash panel. Probably 10 mins install and it throws a nice bright blue light on all the gages. Now I need to do the same for the clock and heater controls.
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posted by
someone claiming to be bob
on
Tue Dec 20 07:45 CST 2011 [ RELATED]
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Can't answer the inst lamp Q but I have a 10 year old pioneer cd player that looks fabulous in the car. Sounds good 2
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I'm in Ken C's age bracket but for me the opposite is desired: dimmer lights.
Years ago a pilot/ car-racer friend impressed upon me the importance of dim lights to minimize the effect on your eyes. His plane and cars had red lights, dimmed. (Studebaker Avantis, & Hawks and Larks w/ R- engines, had red dash lights also).
I don't say that this is true. But I have noticed less fatigue in night driving if I keep the dash lights on dim. And in my youth for coast-to-coast nonstop treks I turned the dash lights off - something you can't do in modern cars.
On our 240s, at night, I need only to see the speedometer and temp gauge. If the cruise works, I really only care about the engine temp. On a trip I might turn the lights up every hour or so to check fuel.
I don't get why anyone would want bright instrument lights. Preference? If you're driving hard/ rallying at night perhaps you want to watch the tach and speedo also.
Otherwise I think you have better night vision with lights dimmed inside the car.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars
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For many years I was in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, and on night patrols (as well as when I'm in my personal boat at night) we always rig the boats to avoid any bright lights coming into the cockpit, mandating only red (used by our eye's cone cells) for instruments and chart reading (although ironically some chart markings are obscured in red light) and thereby preserving our rod cells (which are much more sensitive but cannot see red) for lookout, night vision duty. It's the same for fighter pilots on night missions, acclimating in a red-lit room.
However, boats (and airplanes) do not have, nor rely on, headlights (plane landing lights excepted). The backscatter of even excellent headlights (I have always used Cibie e-codes on my earlier cars, and have Euroheadlights on my latest 240's) is enough to impair night vision, and cutting down the dash lights to improve your night vision for driving is only a very marginal benefit at best.
To really appreciate the potential of a human's (even old geezers' like us) night vision, you have to spend a few hours out in the middle of a body of water (without much shore lighting) to realize what you can eventually see. And then use a handheld search light (to see a buoy's markings, for example) to find that night vision vanish.
However, on my dash (with the soft blue-faced gauges I showed in my post's picture), I keep my lights dimmed half-way, and I find that it's a good balance between visibility and avoidance of distracting light. Note that I'm not saying anything about true night vision, but rather that a bright dash can be a distraction that draws your attention from the road ahead. While I can still glance at my instruments without any effort in case my charging or cooling system, etc., suddenly acts up.
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Agreed.
More vitamin A. Best of from food, like pumpkin (Libby's is best) really helps.
Even for those with good night vision can see a lot better with a healthy amounts of vitamin A (from pumpkin).
Welp, I can tell the difference when it is the holidayze and I'm baking like four punkin (pumpkin - my slang) pie and enjoy a slice or two evey day or so and voila. Turn out the lights and my eye-bulbs adjust way faster. I can also see color at way lower light levels.
Welp, Happy Holydayze!!!!!
A frosty glass of buttermilk with a little pepper.
--
The Holiday Malaise makes my .sig go elsewhere.
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Yes, I've had military night-vision training and looked for things at night on the water and on land so and I appreciate that perspective. Sometimes we walk our (remote) farm in the dark and it's a different experience of night vision - not unlike your looking for objects on the water without benefit of shore lights.
You're also saying that backscatter of good headlights (and presumably the light from oncoming vehicles) vitiates the effect of dimming the dash lights. Add to that bright billboards. Sounds reasonable.
My race-car friend was driving in the 1960s-70s before the super-bright lights of today were available. But the light from oncoming cars was still a consideration.
And - news to me - the red-night-light theory is disputed http://stlplaces.com/night_vision_red_myth/
So, I see all of your points but I'll stick w/ my approach - for my own driving:
1) I really only need to know temp and (sometimes) speed so lights at the lowest setting are fine for me.
2) A lit-up dash is a distraction for me. So often I turn off the dash lights.
3) Most of my night driving is on state, county and township roads in SE OH. The risks are a) deer; b) pedestrians (usually drunks who have wrecked and are walking home to sober up). Driving lights help me see these objects. Dash lights are distraction - for me.
Your dash lights and gauge faces are great. But I wouldn't spend a minute or a penny doing something I had no functional use for.
Again, just talking preference. I differ from most of the folks here: 240s are work cars to me and I seem to wear one out every year or so.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars
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I didn't find anything significant in that link that surprised me. In fact, that diagram of the distribution of rod and cone cells as a function of angular distribution across the retina is almost exactly what I've used in my classes (I'm a retired professor of anatomy and physiology). Scotopic and Photopic vision isn't as cut and dry as I may have implied in my first post, but I was keeping it simple for the mixed audience (so to speak). A useful tip that's part of Auxiliary training and based on the aforementioned distribution of cone vs rod cells is that, when you're scanning the waters you want to look to the side of what you're examining, so that you make use of the rod cells at the periphery of your retina rather than the cone cells in the central portion (a.k.a., the Macula area surrounding the fovea).
Anyway, best regards, and have a Happy Holiday.
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Most of the article was new to me and of interest. I've now read a couple of others. But I don't have your background.
Yes, the key thing in the night-vision training I had was learning to look to the side of the object you're trying to see. Same for land and water.
When I taught Eng Lit I always used it as an example - when students ask why writers use analogies rather than saying things straight out.
Anyway, agree, vision isn't straightforward at all but your points were clear.
You & yours have a great holiday also.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars
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I hadn't really thought of the dimmer option but I do see your point. (Wonder if any stereo manufacturers offer dimmer light options as well?)
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Some stereo display lighting, like that on stock 240 stereos, brighten and dim with a turn of the dimmer to the left of the dash head.
I've seen some of the new (new like in the last 1.5 decades) auto stereo LCD displays (forget makes and models) that do dim with user configured input. Some of those LCD displays are so crazy bright the entire auto interior is like nighttime car chase from an 80s movie, save for the brilliance of these brilliant LCD illuminating displays.
I've collected some of the better in-dash Volvo branded (Alpine, usually, I guess) dash heads. Some of these do have an input to the factory harness that dims and brightens when you vary the dash brightness. I'm going to put these in as I live in a town where auto stereo theft is commonplace.
Hope that hepkats.
Eggnog Drinker (no, no booze. just nutmeg)
--
2011 Winter Solstice froze my .sig in darkness.
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I used the LED approach, results are here on a "sacrificial" gauge cluster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8498733@N02/5685090809/
This is by no means a simple plug and play solution, if interested, let me know, I can provide more photos and details. I've been running this for 4 years now on our 92 245, no melting plastic, no popping fuses, it has worked great. Parts cost is around $50 and eight hours of drilling (carefully), dis assembly, re assembly, and a fair amount of soldering and crimping.
jorrell
--
92 245 317K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently being enjoyed!
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I'd be interested to hear more about the LED approach though don't know if I'd have the patience for the 8 hr session! Do you know if the bulb choices offer some variability in brightness?
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As a senior citizen, we all know that our eyes aren't what they used to be -- our irises cannot open up as wide as in younger people, and this is complicated by the fact that when our irises open, it reduces our depth of field which is basically for far-sightedness. Together, it means that we can't read the close dash gauges clearly (especially the odometer and such).
So having established my need, I also should add that a problem with using higher wattage bulbs is that it draws more current through the rheostat (or potentiometer), and this could overheat and destroy it (see below the picture for a sidebar on how I know that).
In order to deal with all this, my solution was to change the gauge faces, rather than resort to brighter bulbs. Dave Barton makes custom gauge faces, so he made me a set of faces (below) with a very bright face. Although this picture was taken in daylight, I think you can still see the bright effect -- and as a result, I have no trouble reading my gauges, even with the rheostat set at halfway:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the matter of using brighter bulbs.
A while back I had a Mercedes (along with my Volvos), and there was an issue where the dealer's tech people had to pull my instrument panel for a repair. Being thorough and thoughtful, the tech put in all new bulbs before reinstalling the panel. But shortly after that, driving at night, suddenly all the dash lights (everything!) went out (and it wasn't the fuse). Back at the dealer, they found that the dimmer rheostat had actually melted (a solder joist on it just gave way and the thing just fell apart). So in went a new one. A couple of days later, same thing happened -- back to the dealer again. Now they were perplexed -- what was happening, and why now? Only after checking the car's history did one sharp tech have a hunch that proved right. He pulled and examined my instrument panel and found that the tech who originally, kindly put in fresh bulbs had put in bulbs for a different model car, and these new bulbs were slightly higher wattage. So they swapped in the correct wattage bulbs, and that solved the problem.
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I do like the look of those white faces. (and thanks for the tip on the higher watt bulbs!)
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I don't really recommend white-faced gauges per se. Dave Barton can make faces of other colors as well as white, but also avoid red-faces because the red-pointers will virtually disappear against the red background.
It's just that I think that the white-faces would be too bright (see my other post), virtually a glare constantly distracting you as you drive at night. Ask for a softer color like blue (as you saw in my gauges) or maybe "operating room" green.
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What would be swell if we could replace the gauge faces with those that have translucence through the numbers and letters as on more modern dash display designs.
Though these designs also have a illuminated needle for the speedo, fuel level, temp, when your hot tea is ready, and the like. That'd be hard on our 240 dashes, though I'll bet someone on the bb has already accomplished such an innovation like years and years ago.
Else, everyone needs to consume more canned pumpkin (Libby's is best!). Seriously, have some punkin (pumpkin) or the like. The vitamin Ayyyy in canned punkin is more bioavailable. Give it a little time and you'll have greater nyght vision. I like canned punkin, yet even my punkin pie recipes give me massive heartburn.
I'm not sure what they use for a light source, yet you can dim these.
Hmm, I just realized how little I spend in other auto makes nowadays. And that's just fine with me and my three 240s.
Merry Happy and Season's Holidays!
Eggnog MacDuff (squeezing out the mega usual .sig)
--
Volvo "Buttermilk" MacDuff
--
I've owned only ever Volvo 240s since 1985.
RIP, yet beloved:
1975 244 DL (B20, M40, OHV B20F RULES!)
1976 242 DL (B21, M46, Moonroof - an SRO?)
1979 245 DL (B21, M46, From Midwest to West Coast)
1979 242 GT (B21, M46, Moonroof - an SRO? Grey Market from Holland-
-Failed West Coast Dreams, RIP, Taylors Junkyard,
St. Louis, MO, June 2001)
........................................................................
Currently owned, beloved, operating, and getting better all the time(!):
1990 240 DL (245, B230, M47 II)
1991 240 (B230, M47 II, Moonroof. Grey Market from Germany)
1992 240 GL (B230, M47 II, L-jet 3.1, Moonroof)
........................................................................
When in beautiful, beautiful Bellingham, WA, for all your Volvo needs,
see Larry at Rainbow Motors!
http://www.rainbowautoservice.com/
2729 Jensen Road
Bellingham, Washington 98226
360.734.6117
All your factory Volvo alloy wheels issues solved here!
http://www.rainbowautoservice.com/parts/AlloyWheels.htm
--
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Hi. I saw your recommendation about Rainbow Motors.
We're planning on moving to WA (from NJ) next spring or summer, King County -- most likely in the Issaquah area -- or maybe a little south of that. Too far from Bellingham to make use of Rainbow Motors, but I'd like to hear what you think about living in the area north of Seattle. This will be our retirement: we're avid boaters (trailer boaters, that is), and we're also getting a camper to enjoy exploring the Cascades and Rockies. How do you like it there? I've also heard that there's no emission inspections of cars there (only in zip codes close around Seattle) -- does that include safety inspections, too, or just exhaust testing?
I'd like to hear from you.
Thanks. And Happy Holidays.
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posted by
someone claiming to be 88 240
on
Fri Dec 23 22:35 CST 2011 [ RELATED]
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Ken C - Know any good 240 junkyards in NJ? I'm in need of a rear bumper (aluminum impact bar only) for my '88 240 DL w/ 370K on it. Thanks in advance.
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I wish I did. Most 240s around here are either rusting away and crushed, or their owners are still driving them (like me). In fact, there aren't too many junkyards around here period -- I think environmental regs are putting them out of business. There are probably some in PA, but I'm not familiar with any there. Sorry.
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