Yet another Xantia dashboard bulb question

[superloopy]

Just planning a heater matrix replacement on my 1995 TD SX and will be changing all of the dash bulbs.

I know they are 1.2w 286 bulbs but there are posts which say 'capless' ie just the bulb itself and other posts which say that Mk1 xantia bulbs are hard soldered into their base so you need 286T bulbs ie inclusive of the base.

Anyone know what the answer is otherwise i'll just buy 25 of each type (i've a mk2 heater matrix to do also!) ...

[Stickyfinger]

LED Type...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281475887247? ... EBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[superloopy]

LED ... not for me, i've heard they fail far too quickly and there's no way i want to have to go back in there in her lifetime

[chinkostu]

Decent LED's shouldn't fail. Infact they're longer lived than standard bulbs

[superloopy]

Decent LED's shouldn't fail. Infact they're longer lived than standard bulbs

Yeah ... but you've got to know they're 'decent' and that's not an easy job given the number of cheapos on offer.

Plus, my Xant is 20yrs old and i doubt she'd see any advantage in paying £2 a pop for dash bulbs against the 50p max for Osram 286Ts.

[myglaren]

Cree LEDs enjoy a very good reputation.

I fitted some cheapo LEDs in mine quite a while back and they have been fine. A bit on the blue side but legal.
As I would never use sidelights they work for me.

[superloopy]

I'm thinking that leds could be too bright for dash lighting. Maybe ok for external lights but ...

[Stickyfinger]

I only worry about some LEDs that have a problem with a dimmer rheostat.........can anybody clear that question ?

[citronut]

you can get at the instrument panel and heater control lighting quite easy anyway, so it would not be a big deal if/when you did need to go back in there at any time

[Stickyfinger]

The bulbs in the heater panel look nasty to change however, how do you get in there and how would you know which bulbs to get before you dig into it ? (If the directly soldered bulbs are fitted and they be swapped with the type shown ?)

[Hell Razor5543]

The heater panel on the S2 Xantia has a pair of capped bulbs, with the caps being about half the length of the removable caps used by the other dashboard lights. Replacing these bulbs was done by dismounting the heater control, and then popping off the top cover (but I cannot remember details, as it was a couple of years ago when I had to do this).