Dimming the High Beam instrument lamp

[skipdh]

Hi All

Maybe it is just me but when I am drving along with the high beams running I find the blue indicator on the instrument panel to bright and distracting. It appears in my model (07, 4.8, ST) that it is not dimmed like all the other instrument lamps.

So I found the right wire and inserted a couple of 33 ohm resistors in series with the lamp. So total 66 ohms. I used 1/4 watt resistors which are suitable as the dissipated wattage is only 0.19 watt each.

First a schematic of where we are breaking into the circuit.
highbeam dimming.jpg
Next find connector and right wire. We are looking for red wire with blue stripe on M21.
highbeam dimming 2.jpg
Which is located here behind the kick panel on drivers side.
highbeam dimming 3 pic m21 location.jpg
So we need to cut this wire.
highbeam dimming 4 pic red blue wire E127.jpg
And I used a screw terminal to mount the resistors on.
IMG_3911.JPG

Now the lamp is about a third of the brightness as before and much more easy on the eyes whilst driving at night.

Hope someone finds this useful. It has been annoying me since I've had the car.

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