1988 digital Guage readout too dim in sunlight | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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1988 digital Guage readout too dim in sunlight

  • Thread starter Thread starter cruiser88
  • Start date Start date
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cruiser88

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Thunderbird Year
1988
I can't see my digital Guages during the day, all the displays are dim. I'd like to switch to analog guages but ive got a v6 and i think only the 4 cylinder Turbo Coupe and 5.0 Sport had analog guages, so the tach wouldn't work and there would be no column shift indicator. I've had the cluster out and all the backlight bulbs are good, everything is good at night. Does anybody know how to brighten the displays? I'm guessing they are LCD, not LED. I guess the LCD doesn't emit light...maybe I should switch to brighter backlight bulbs and drive with headlights on ?

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cruiser88 said:
I can't see my digital Guages during the day, all the displays are dim. I'd like to switch to analog guages but ive got a v6 and i think only the 4 cylinder Turbo Coupe and 5.0 Sport had analog guages, so the tach wouldn't work and there would be no column shift indicator. I've had the cluster out and all the backlight bulbs are good, everything is good at night. Does anybody know how to brighten the displays? I'm guessing they are LCD, not LED. I guess the LCD doesn't emit light...maybe I should switch to brighter backlight bulbs and drive with headlights on ?
Click to expand...
I had a 86 Cougar with the digital dash, the back light bulbs were a special bulb if I remember correctly there were 6 bulbs and the special bulbs were discontinued after 5 years so what you have to do is find a replacement with the same watts as the original bulb and replace them all. It’s a long time ago so I don’t remember the bulb number but the ones I used were rated higher in brightness and worked great. I originally tried standard type bulbs but they weren’t bright enough to back light the LCD. I used a bulb catalog to match the base type and ended up using the brightest wattage bulb. Don’t know why they discontinued them but even in 1992 cost over $9 each but there were none left in the system so the search for a replacement was begun.
 
Thanks! I had my dash apart but just checked that there were working bulbs, i did not check what wattage of bulbs there were. I have a spare cluster, I'll check to see what is installed. Are there 2 types of bulbs, one for general Illumination and higher wattage ones for LCD backlight??
 
cruiser88 said:
Thanks! I had my dash apart but just checked that there were working bulbs, i did not check what wattage of bulbs there were. I have a spare cluster, I'll check to see what is installed. Are there 2 types of bulbs, one for general Illumination and higher wattage ones for LCD backlight??
Click to expand...
Yes you are correct it’s a long time ago but if you look in owner manual the correct numbers for both should be there. The higher watt bulb is the LCD daytime backlight bulb and was the discontinued one and yes it is 2 types of bulbs if memory serves me right . The backlight bulb for some reason didn’t last long and I replaced twice in 7 years of ownership hopefully you find a good replacement solution
 
I have switched to LED in many other applications like interior lamps, I'll go thru my bag of extras to see if any will retrofit for LCD backlighting. Thanks again!
 
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