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jim4244



Member Since: 13 Apr 2014
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 773

England 2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 CSW Zermatt Silver
Puma Center Dash LED upgrade?
Hi all

I have had a trawl around the site and used the search function but have come up blank.

Is there an LED upgrade kit for the center dash switches of the Puma? The reason I ask is that mine appear to be quite dim and I've seen photos of other center dashes in Puma's where the switches and controls are nice and bright?

I fitted LED bulbs to my previous 300TDi and TD5 but a google search for a set of LED bulbs for a Puma doesn't bring anything up?

Jim
Post #1041828 4th Aug 2024 1:12pm
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custom90



Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20299

United Kingdom 
In all honesty I wouldn’t recommend it, on those due to their directional nature and unreliability.

I had some many failed, yes, they could be dud but they failed and on top of that one or two kept flashing and where some did work they would create bright and dark spots due to poor light spread.
They were SMD chip type as well, which is better but I still had problems and went back to bulbs.

Don’t get me wrong I like LED’s but these are not a good idea, some of the few that I did retain of incandescent nature from the factory.
Again, the clock light bulb is another I stick with rather than LED.

Another thing to be careful is, the green light screen in the centre dash.
Unfortunately, on mine I bought a second hand dash and the light screen was paint splashed so that was a bit of an issue, I cleaned that off with alcohol but the issue is that then lightened the tint of the green film a little so the light colour is a touch lighter coming through than I’d like.
So one day I shall have to get another centre dash light screen.

You can take the originals out with a dremel grind stone really carefully as they are heat wended in place on the black plastic posts, I got glued mine back in place which worked great just a shame the screen tint is slightly off as should be a tinge darker than it is.

But yes, centre dash LED’s or clock I’d avoid.
Interior lights are great LED and also on the exterior however.

Even if you do get LED’s that work properly and reliably the light spread is reduced and directed in certain areas rather than dissipated so it looks a bit like Xmas lights. So you ten get light and dark spots.

Maybe a company might develop a solution sometime, it could be done possibly with COBB type LED’s or something like that. ⭐️⭐️God Bless the USA 🇬🇧🇺🇸 ⭐️⭐️
Post #1041841 4th Aug 2024 4:12pm
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jim4244



Member Since: 13 Apr 2014
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 773

England 2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 CSW Zermatt Silver
Thanks for sharing your experience 👍

Something to mull over….

Jim
Post #1041848 4th Aug 2024 5:11pm
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mifa



Member Since: 16 Dec 2022
Location: Denmark
Posts: 9

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 PU Tonga Green
Hi all

I thought I would also chip in with some experience with LED in the center dash. I fully respect experience saying this is a pain in the a…, but I´m fine with my LED.

I had put it off for a long time but finally got around to cleaning it up and fitting a new radio after long debates due to the astronomic price tag on a JLR.

I spent a lot of time on locating the “right” LED bulbs, but eventually got to a company around the corner, and bought Maxlumen T5 4x SMD 2835 CAN-Bus LED 240LM W1,2W 6000K

From the webpage;

Advantages of MaXlume LED LEDs:
They can be used for both interior and exterior lighting
Optimized design for perfect light output.
Rectifier, resistor, and temperature control for long LED lifetime
Extremely high brightness with 2835 SMD LED units with 60 Lumens per LED Pro chip
Pole-independent - built-in electronics make it reversible
Plug-and-play installation
DC 9-30V with voltage regulator for PEAK - Can be used for both car 12V and truck 24V.
No flickering in the light or blinking LED
Dimensions: Length 36mm / Width 12mm

I am not in any way affiliated with the company, but I found the price at about £ 10 for four bulbs all right.

I got a picture from the dash to illustrate the looks.

I see no dark spots or similar, also a picture of the back of the center dash to share the four points of attachment if anyone get motivated to pull it out.

Michael


Click image to enlarge



Click image to enlarge
Post #1042003 5th Aug 2024 7:15pm
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custom90



Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20299

United Kingdom 
If you get good results go for it, that was just my experience but they were just generic SMD chip LED’s I had and they were troublesome but there are lot of poorly made ones out there.
If they were easy to change it’d be fine but it’s not the fastest job to take the centre dash out. ⭐️⭐️God Bless the USA 🇬🇧🇺🇸 ⭐️⭐️
Post #1042012 5th Aug 2024 8:07pm
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