I had trouble with dim light, as I have seen others have. I tried some of the suggestions, but still was not satified. The single best improvement was pulling the instrument bezel away from the gauges about 3mm. Use washers or make spacers, as I did. The result are bright as any lights I have seen. You should make sure the light switch ground is ok, first. A bad ground leaves the lights very dim.

164 bulbs do help as well as painting the rear of the gauge panel silver. The biggest thing I did was use white face stickers- huge difference.

I would also go with the white face guages or use the l.e.d hyper white wedge bulbs

Do the hyper whites generate alot of heat?

no because they are L.E.D's, real sweet light

I tried the brighter bulbs and white face guages. Moving the bezel out 3mm made the biggest single difference. The way it is designed, the light must reflect off 3 surfaces before you see it on the guage surface. Moving the bezel, takes away 2 of those surfaces.

Zuwn, Did you paint gloss white the complete gauge before you placed the stickers? The outer edge of the gauges reflect the light as well. Mine are very bright & easy to see day or night.

No, I did not paint the guages before the decals. That may help, didnt try it. I favored the the black anyways, and went back to black, still plenty light.