Xantia Instrument Panel bulbs

[Stickyfinger]

a strip of wet&dry pinched between the fingers does the gripping for me

[RussellF97]

Apologies for hijacking a Xantia question, but at a guess (always a dangerous thing!) the 286s are also used in the ZX? I've had a look at the (none too clear) photo of the back of the panel in the Haynes book and there seems to be up to 20 bulbs, so if I get about 40, hopefully I should be OK!

[CitroJim]

I would have thought so Phil, the 286 is a pretty much universal fit in 90s PSA vehicles... I know the 205 uses them for instance...

[Old-Guy]

...there seems to be up to 20 bulbs, so if I get about 40, hopefully I should be OK!

By my count, there are 34 bulb positions (not all used) in the Xantia instrument panel PCB. Having a few new ones in stock, I bought 30 branded ones from an e-Bay seller. I've yet to even test them, let alone fit them.

[CitroJim]

I bought 30 branded ones from an e-Bay seller. I've yet to even test them, let alone fit them.

Test them before you fit them as I've always found one or two per batch to be duff... I have a small 12v battery and a set of croc leads for this purpose...

It's ever so annoying to fit them and then find they don't work

[RussellF97]

Thanks for that chaps, but perhaps I ought to get more than 40 - just in case!

[CitroJim]

Thanks for that chaps, but perhaps I ought to get more than 40 - just in case!

They're cheap enough to do just that...

[van ordinaire]

Has to be LED's every time, if you can't use 4 (or even 5w) bulbs, because of the heat, but they have to be chosen carefully.

They may not dim but then a panel light dimmer must be just about the most useless device ever fitted to car.

Of course if you have one of those clever "modern" cars that dim the display when, e.g. turning the lights on (&, for all I know, Xantias might fall into that category), you're stymied - although the chances are they are at least visible, if not legible at night, so the issue won't arise.

[RussellF97]

Well I had to bite the bullet at some point so I went to that well-known auction site and bought 30 of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131312735940? ... EBIDX%3AIT
and it's free delivery to France! Can't say better than that.

Yes, I realise they are Lucas (aka The Prince of Darkness) but I enjoy living dangerously...

[CitroJim]

Yes, I realise they are Lucas (aka The Prince of Darkness) but I enjoy living dangerously...

Long time since I've heard Lucas described as that!!!

[RussellF97]

It's become something of a running joke between my son and I... Along the lines of the Lucas three-position switch: Dim, Flicker, Off...

[CitroJim]

It's become something of a running joke between my son and I... Along the lines of the Lucas three-position switch: Dim, Flicker, Off...

I like that a lot

[Zelandeth]

Just for the record, if memory serves the Mk I 306 also uses the 286 bulbs. My one had a grand total of the fuel gauge (which didn't work) lit when I got it! Still have quite a few rattling around here I think.

Still waiting for this task to get to the top of the to do list for me too.

Seriously considering bridging out the dimmer on my Xantia and just setting it to about 80% with a fixed resistor as I invariably keep turning it down with my knee getting in/out of the car.

[CitroJim]

Seriously considering bridging out the dimmer on my Xantia and just setting it to about 80% with a fixed resistor as I invariably keep turning it down with my knee getting in/out of the car.

I keep doing the same Zel, it is annoying

Certainly reducing the panel brightness does extend the bulb life a bit and given the pain of replacing the bulbs, that's no bad thing...

IIRC, some other threads on here dealing with this subject have reported LEDs have not been a stunning success...

[Zelandeth]

No reason LEDs couldn't be used...they're not all created equal though and I would want to test on the bench first.

Best illumination retrofit I've ever done was using an EL panel for the backlit parts and a couple of very precisely placed and chosen LEDs for the pointers. The result looked brilliant, but it was a heck of a lot of work and to be honest would have cost a packet if I hadn't had the EL panels and drivers in the parts box.

I'd be happy to do some LED experiments (lighting is right up my street after all), just need to find a duff/spare panel to experiment on. Could look to write up a list of what sorts of LEDs do and don't work well.

Bit tricky in the Xantia as you are basically tied into using white as green ones won't light the pointers...would need to pull the panel apart though to see whether there's a way around that (as I did with the panel in my Proton) using a couple of standalone 5mm LEDs. From memory, the Xantia panel uses quite a lot of light pipes which is why LEDs probably don't often work well.

Speaking of the colour as well, the vast majority of "white" LEDs are created with a very high colour temperature (meaning they are very blue), and have rubbish colour rendering ability - generally being very deficient in red. Result there being a dash where the numbers look almost cyan and the needles are barely lit. You really need a high quality warm white LED - but they are expensive.

Given how long the original lamps lasted, I'd just change them out as a set now and be happy that you won't need to do it again for another five-ten years. Probably more if you only run them at 80% or so brightness, which I think is reasonable given the Xantia panel is pretty well lit really when all lamps are working.