How To: Change Stock Gauge Cluster Bulbs 96-00 Civics.

[Ian123]

Again, the ones that they sell in Dealership are not going to make your Cluster light up Amber, so get the Dealership out your head. They will sell you the same exact Bulbs that you currently have on the Cluster, so you dont want that.

You can get Amber Bulbs from Advanced Auto Parts or Auto Zone for like ~$8.00 total. Take 2 of the Bulbs with Sockets from the Cluster with you (The Big one and one of the Small ones) and buy accordingly. You will need 4 of the Small ones and, obviously, one of the Big one.

Oh and yes, you only have to change those 5 Bulbs to get the Amber Lighting.

wrong. you need two more #74's for the climate controls.

OP- one of the best write-ups ive seen. very detailed and not afraid to include a lot of pics. good job

 

[Hecz]

Do this for these 3 other bulbs the same way.

what 3 other bulbs are you referring to?

 

[mrmarc]

what 3 other bulbs are you referring to?

This actually depends on your cluster. If you have a tachometer, like the one described here, he's referring to the three other #74 bulbs. Using the original image, I have marked off the bulbs for you:

For those of you without the tach:

 

[knivesout]

This rocks!

I wanted to make my cluster glow amber to match the cd player so I just did this with regular old bulbs from O'Reilly's. NOTE: IT SAYS YOU WANT (4) #74 BULBS BUT THE CLUSTER USES #24 BULBS. The #74 bulbs are smaller. Anyway, after returning the #74 bulbs, I just used an orange sharpie to amberize the clear #24 bulbs, and they had amber #194 bulbs so I just used one of those.

The whole thing took like 20 minutes and looks sooo much better than the stock white bulbs. Highly recommended mod and great DIY with the exception of the bulb size confusion.

 

[mrmarc]

Hmm...I just stopped by Kragen and looked at the #24 bulbs. They look just a bit too big to me. I bought a set of #74's because I want to try something new in my cluster, and they're the same size as the bulbs that I took out...but if #24's fit, so be it.

 

[knivesout]

Yeah? Hm, well the #24 bulbs were definitely the right bulbs on my cluster, the #74s wouldn't even clip in the socket, they were too small. What cluster were you working with? My car's a 2000 ex...

 

[Hecz]

Hey Marc,

thanks for clearing that up bud.

 

[jdmem205]

Hey I have an issue all the gauges light up amber accept for the fuel gauge to my knowledge I changed all the bulbs that need to be changed idk what else I can do the fuel gauge lights up but still the oem color

 

[lethal6]

If you changed all the bulbs to amber and one is the oem color still, you must have missed one.

 

[jdmem205]

For people with autos trying to do this you have to remove this white plastic that is together with the green plug but be careful just pry around the edges with a small screw driver or flat head. till it pops off then you will see the last brown plug that needs to switched to amber for the fuel gauge to light up amber

 

[hoahai]

Thanks for the post which helped me know how to remove and change bulbs for my instrument panel.
However the bulbs mentioned in this post #74 did not work for me. So here is the ones that worked for my Civic 96,LX 4 door
- I used 158 LL (instead of 194 LL)
- I used 24 LL (instead of 74 LL).
158 LL has the correct voltage 3.4 v.
24 LL fits the socket (#74 did not fit my socket). 24 LL also has the voltage closer to manual spec: 3.4v (versus 3v). 74LL has only 1.4w

In addition, I also replaced the two bulbs on the top of instrument cluster: the part is 2721 LL. It fits the socket perfectly and has the same voltage per the manual spec (1.4w)

 

[civic402Lx]

Bring back from the dead.
Anyone know what bulb size is used for the AT gear indicators? The D4 on my cluster is dead, pretty certain its burned out. What size would I need to replace with?

Thanks

 

[Lee7201]

Don't you have to replace other bulbs to light up the needles? The Honda manual seems to show some bulbs in the top of the gauge panel that aren't included among the five that you replaced.

 

[jediknight36]

Zombie Thread.

Did anyone figure out what lights are pointing down into the cluster?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[Mr.Baker]

Did anyone figure out what lights are pointing down into the cluster?

Yup.