Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Hi. I wasted about 3 hours trying swap binnacle bulbs in my Rover. The needle for the engine temp didn’t illuminate but the dial did.

Naturally I bought the wrong bulbs assuming they needed the cap and bulb - they didn’t. Just the capless miniature bulbs. But there are 2 sizes of bulb - the side dials are both T5 and the 3 main dial ones are T6.5. I was amazed to see these were clear bulbs with little orange rubber sleeves. The larger ones looked a bit “bleached”.

For anyone who has had the binnacle out it’s a pain of a job involving feeding the Speedo cable through the bulkhead ftom the engine bay.

So any tips on lighting the temp needle? I’m guessing I may need to replace the T6.5s to get it to light as the new T5 behind the temp dial didn’t do it.

I would go LED.

You can get T6.5 in LED guise prefitted with resistors.

If you want to keep the factory look, go with warm white.

Where can I find these please? I’ve been struggling! Also does anyone know of an effective orange filter (paint or sleeve) you can buy to put over it?

I've just read this thread. I didn't have to look too far:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23540881527

Otherwise, buy branded T5 and T6.5 bulbs, such as those made by Osram.

MatthewL wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 8:28 am Where can I find these please? I’ve been struggling! Also does anyone know of an effective orange filter (paint or sleeve) you can buy to put over it?

I had a look on eBay and found these in orange. I will warn you, although the seller lists them as being LED, the illustrations are of conventional filiment bulbs.

They should work fine as is though.



T5 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134965857705

T6.5 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226448520679




I also found the pics of my ROVER 25 dials with cool white LEDs behind them. They still lit up OEM orange but with a nice modern glow.

Johnny 216GSi wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:19 am I've just read this thread. I didn't have to look too far:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23540881527

Otherwise, buy branded T5 and T6.5 bulbs, such as those made by Osram.

Linky no worky pal, think it's short a number.

Thanks Rover Cabby - I’ve now found those. Wow - they like to charge for a tiddly bulb but needs must! Hope they last better than recent Chinese bulbs I’ve bought. There’s no way these days to tell whether a product is good quality and higher price doesn’t seem to be a guarantee!

No problem. You could sell the ones you use on to someone else.

If they are LED, I might be interested.

Yep - I’m expecting poor quality filament bulbs. Ordered 19th Jan. die 24th Feb apparently. Should have tried to find sone in the U.K…..