Ford F450 dash lights

[coolchas11]

The gauges on our F450 are not bright and difficult to read during the day. Any suggestions or products that have been used to address this issue?

[DirtRider]

None that I know of. I agree, they suck. And I’m much younger than most of the people here. We are talking about an E450, right? Your rv has a van body?

[gljurczyk]

We have the same problem with a Chevy Chassis, I can’t find anyway to correct it.

[Ron Dittmer]

A bit off the RV application, but maybe it applies.

I recently bought a 2007 Saturn Sky with an instrument panel that I could not read in the day or night, a complaint from many Sky owners. I got connected with www.blackcatcustom.com and ordered a custom face and an LED back lighting kit. It solved my problem. The instrumentation detail is embedded in my thread covering various interior lighting challenges. CLICK HERE to get to it, then go to post #54 on the third page. Maybe something could be learned and applied to your instrumentation lighting.

[coolchas11]

I stand corrected. E450. Thanks for the responses.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

coolchas11-

1) Do you have the illumination adjustment turned up all the way? Your owner's manual (link here) should tell you how to do that.

2) There are several threads on how to add LEDs to the outside of the instrument cluster.

3) Replace some of the bulbs with brighter LEDs. I have the dash off in our coach at the moment. I chose to pull the instrument cluster and replace six of the 14 bulbs with LEDs. Those six bulbs illuminate the analog gauges. I have not put things back together yet, so I can't say if it will improve things. I'm hoping it will. If not, at least the LEDs should reduce the DC current needed and last longer than the bulbs.

It is easy to replace the bulbs on the instrument cluster for our 2007-chassis F-53.

That said, you would have to do some digging on the Internet to figure out:

a) If your 2019/2020 E-450 instrument cluster already comes with LEDs
b) If you can easily replace the bulbs on the cluster

[Ron Dittmer]

Keep this in mind for any LED light bulb for your vehicle.

Unlike regular light bulbs, LEDs are polarized.

When replacing your standard bulbs with LED bulbs, you must have power applied to determine polarity. If an LED bulb is not working, remove and put it back in at 180 degrees. It works only in one of two possible orientations.

[Phil G.]

My ancient 2005 Class C's E450 dash lights change brightness based on two conditions:

During night driving they're dimmer so that they don't glare in your eyes.

During daytme driving they're brighter so that you can see them better.

Now here's the problem -> how the dash light circuitry determines whether you're driving at night or in the daytime seems to be ... whether or not you have the headlights on!

This seems kindof dumb to me - there should be a separate dash light control that allows the driver to set their brightness regardless of the outside natural light conditions. I would think that the later model years of the Ford E350 and E450 chassis have a more driver-pleasing way to set the brightness of the dash lights - but maybe the later model years use the same setup.

My main problem with my 2005 E450's method of "automatic" setting of dash light brightness is this: I like to drive during the daytime with my headlights on for ultimate safety, so ... MY DASH LIGHTS ARE ALWAYS TOO DIM DURING DAYTIME DRIVING!!

[THenne1713]

Originally Posted by coolchas11

The gauges on our F450 are not bright and difficult to read during the day. Any suggestions or products that have been used to address this issue?

MY 99-E450SD DASH WAS Dim/ INTERMITTENT as you turned the dimmer; replacing headlight switch cured the issue.

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by Phil G.

My ancient 2005 Class C's E450 dash lights change brightness based on two conditions:

During night driving they're dimmer so that they don't glare in your eyes.

During daytme driving they're brighter so that you can see them better.

Now here's the problem -> how the dash light circuitry determines whether you're driving at night or in the daytime seems to be ... whether or not you have the headlights on!

This seems kindof dumb to me - there should be a separate dash light control that allows the driver to set their brightness regardless of the outside natural light conditions. I would think that the later model years of the Ford E350 and E450 chassis have a more driver-pleasing way to set the brightness of the dash lights - but maybe the later model years use the same setup.

My main problem with my 2005 E450's method of "automatic" setting of dash light brightness is this: I like to drive during the daytime with my headlights on for ultimate safety, so ... MY DASH LIGHTS ARE ALWAYS TOO DIM DURING DAYTIME DRIVING!!

Your owners manual says you have a simple rotating dimmer control to dim or brighten the instrument lights, like most vehicles built for the previous 40 years or more. Page 43.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/parts-ser...owner-manuals/

There are actually three revisions of the manual, the above is the 1 st printing. The other two read the same.

Charles

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by coolchas11

The gauges on our F450 are not bright and difficult to read during the day. Any suggestions or products that have been used to address this issue?

You do have the dimmer thumbwheel turned all the way full bright?

https://www.fordservicecontent.com/F...US_05_2018.pdf

P 48 notes that if the battery is disconnected you need to follow a procedure to re-program the dimmer control. It is in the manual

Charles

[coolchas11]

Thanks for all your replies. Checked out every one of them, including the dimmer switch. On a lark I stopped in at an auto supply store (O'Reilly's) and explained the issue. They had an array of items, one of which is two small lights to affix on the instrument panel. Plugs into the cig lighter. Might do the trick! Appreciate your help.

Charlie