Instrument Panel Bulbs??

I removed the instrument cluster from my '88 635 today to upgrade the 3W bulbs to 5 W in order to make the panel brighter at night. I replaced the bulbs with Sylvania 2825 bulbs and they seem to work fine. I also wanted to replace the 4 smaller bulbs at the bottom of the panel, one for the light switch, one for the fog light switch and 2 for the bottom of the instrument panel. I bought Sylvania 74 bulbs as they looked just like the ones in my car but they would not work. They are 1.4W. If anyone knows which bulb will work please send me a PM or post it. Thanks.

A fellow on the bigcoupe board told me that the bulb I need is a 2721(Sylvania bulb number). I bought 4 today and hope to try and install them this weekend.

Returned the 2721 bulbs for a higher wattage (2.2) 2723 bulbs. Still hope to install this weekend.

Hey Rmorin49, I don't want to open a can of worms about you changing from 3W to 5W bulbs, however, I did this same thing on one of my '85 6ers a year or so ago - it just made sense, since my closeup vision isn't quite what it used to be. I caught so much crap from some of the bigcoupe guys about the 5W bulbs generating too much heat, at least more than the 3W bulbs, the 5 watters were brighter, but because of the additional heat in the instrument cluster, I went back in and switched the bulbs back to 3W. I didn't have problems with the 5W's, I used them for maybe a month and I don't drive this car much at night anyhow, however, I didn't want to cause a possible problem with too much heat in that cluster....the new 3W's seem to be bright enough now, maybe because they're new and the old 3W's were a little dusty. Might be good to get some opinions from the guys who've been there, done that.

Good luck with it, your 6er looks great, by the way.

Bob G

As is the case with most bulbs as they age, Dash bulbs glass will go blackish and so cutting down the light output, Another tip which concerns a lot of single contact bulbs, If you compare a new bulb with an old one you will see that the solder contact on an old bulb will be considerably smaller than a new one which can and will cause the bulb to become loose in it's holder. Peter

Can I replace the instrument panel bulbs with LED bulbs? where i can find it ?
thank you!

Welcome to Bimmerfest!

Yes, you can replace SOME of the IC bulbs with LEDs. The large ones that illuminate the cluster. Take one out and take it to the auto parts store. Most of them have a good selection of LEDs in various base configurations.