bulbs 1.2W without bases W123 manual climate control and instruments
 

The little 1.2W bulbs without bases in the W123 series for the manual climate control and the instruments. Wanted to get answer on which is the best to use the frosted or the clear bulbs?

Clear are gonna be significantly brighter. Every one Ive replaced had a clear one that finally failed.

Thanks for the reply TnBob on the bulbs. I am going to replace the ones in my instrument cluster. I definitely was wanting to try to get it a bit more brighter, if possible. Right now it is pretty weak lighting, even with the rheostat in the max. position. I was wondering what was the original bulb for these? Was a combination of the frosted and the clear used or was one of them an after thought? I guess, Mercedes' didn't want anyone being blinded from the cluster and dash lighting.

You may want to consider LED's for cluster lighting.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/346954-instrument-cluster-repair.html

They might make LED bulbs that are direct fit into those connections..

1990 Mercedes Benz 300 D E Ce Te LED Lights | LED Replacement Bulbs for Cars | 12v | Super Bright LEDs

I have pulled a bunch of those bulbs that light up the GP, Oil, Brake etc... in the cluster at PNP. they all have been the clear one`s.

When we got the 240D most of the lights in the CC were out. so replaced them with these clear ones. the one`s I pulled out that were bad, were frosted. these clear one`s don`t seem be bright enough to blind me, but they sure get hot. At least I have lights now.

I always referred to these bulbs as Rice Lights.

30+ years down the road, who knows what the originals were.

I have noticed in the PNP cars, that the plastic sockets are warped from the heat.


Charlie

Rice bulb? I think they're called grain of wheat bulbs. same idea.

I have found many of those used bulbs that are actually good but do not light up due to corrosion. I take the bulb out, scrape the contact wires with a small sharp knife (Swiss Army Classic is perfect) and also the base contacts and voilla, light again.

Looks like everything is migrating to the leds. All the late cars have a stream of the little lights. Household lights are going that way too! I watched a couple of videos on replacing some dash panels with them, and it looks kind of daunting, I think.

I wouldn't go to LED's yet.....may get flamed for this....but I see adding LED's is band aid for the problem.....your electrical system should be gone over and cleaned......clean the rheostat, build sockets, plugs, grounds, replace the fuses with brass or copper ceramic fuses....then if the light is not acceptable.....check out led options....

First time I removed the light bulbs from the climate control, they were frosted. This was back when I first got the car in 2004 and was doing some thorough inspection of the whole car after acquisition.

Yes, the frosted glass helps with the heat and prevention of plastic melting. I replaced the 4 bulbs in my CC PBU with the frosted ones.

If the buttons appear too him try cleaning them first especially where they light up.

I have a new Programa CC PBU and a good used one. The new has a thinner temp wheel strip which allows more light through. The older one has a yellower appearance, blue and red appear more solid. Row of 5 buttons across are brighter on the new unit compared to older unit despite using the same bulb "tree" and same frosted 1.2W bulbs.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3795/1...358efb55_z.jpg

Same here. The originals in mine were frosted.

For what it's worth, I was told the same about the frosted bulbs diffusing heat better. The guy who told me is a local independent parts dealer who has been in the business a long time, and drives a W123. He had both the clear and frosted bulbs in stock, so I have no reason to think he was just trying to sell me what he had.

My intentions are to replace all the CC & A/C with the frosted ones once they arrive, that I ordered. I was thinking on replacing the instrument cluster bulbs, that light up the unit with the clear ones. Do you think inside the light tunnels is as big an issue on heat build up there? I saw a video by Kent. He told about sealing the area from light loss do to age over years with aluminum tape. I planned to give that a whirl. He just used two strips of tape. It looked to be an easy operation.

The cluster does not have issues with bulb heat damage like the cc buttons, where I have seen melted plastics where the incandescent bulbs are butted against the plastic with poor ventilation. That area will benefit most with LED lights.

I checked on the led bulbs. Found out only three was a fit for the sockets. The one that was suggested for it was the one with the 360 degree illumination spec's.