stupid newbie question: dash light rheostat
 

I just bought my first Mercedes, a 1984 300D. The dash lights are very dim, I see discussion of a rheostat, and I can pictures of the part, but I can't find the darn thing! No mention of it in the owners manual that I can find, either.

The trip odometer reset button.

Push to reset.

Rotate to dim or brighten.

Have another look at the owners manual, it's in there. :D

Generally, if you rotate it back and forth about 50 times, you will get some temporary improvement, but it will never be wonderful.

Did you see this thread? You need to pull your instrument cluster.

Welcome to the forum. Are you in Anacortes, WA?

http://www.ledlight.com/t10-wedge-5-ultra-bright-smt-led-light.aspx

I just put these in and there is a tremendous improvement. Some guys will tell you they don't like them but they are certainly brighter. One downside may be that they are a little pricey at $9 a pop. FYI If you purchase, they may give you trouble and you simply need to trim off the wire so that it doesn't wrap around to the back side.

I think chad300tdt has these... someone gave me the idea anyways.

^^I also used those LED lights. I had one of them to go bad, they sent me a replacement, no questions asked.

They're much brighter than the standard 194 bulbs.

I just wired in three ultra high intensity LEDs to each side plus resistors...still not very bright but enough to see at night. Total investment of $10 and a bit of soldering