instrument lighting

jpliii · 11th April 2003, 04:38

I notice other that my instruments buttons etc, light up and orange color but my tac, speedo gas, and water temp are all yellow, other BMWs are all orange everywhere, is this a trait of the M5s or is this new.
BTW
the other BMWs im speaking of with all orange are a 02 E46 330i and a 98 E36 M3 sedan
My car is an 03 Beast

sptbike · 11th April 2003, 12:45

The M5 and M3 ... and maybe a couple other recent models have grey dials for the speedo and tach. These are lighted differently than the standard BMW dials and accessories which are lighted RED. Supposedly... the red hue reduces eye strain and night blindness (the reason airplane cockpits are lighted red at night). The grey dials are lighted more orange than red.

But still very pleasant in my book.

Bob

oh yea... it's just my 2 cents worth...
don't spend it all in one place...

Digi · 11th April 2003, 15:46

I believe the red dash lighting is the same red light. Just the Grey background produces this orangey color.

kevin034 · 11th April 2003, 16:54

Is that word in the dictionary ... I wonder. HMMMMMM ....

Quote:

Originally posted by Digi
orangey color.

Digi · 11th April 2003, 17:13

Actually, according to my Webster's Dictionary, the word can be spelled orangy or orangey and is an adj. : resembling or suggestive of an orange (as in flavor or color).

I thought I made it up!

sptbike · 11th April 2003, 19:37

I'm so happy this has been resolved by a higher authority. So are the following colors (colours) OK also:

Redey
Bluey
Yellowey
Greeney
Whitey?
Blackey?
Grayey?
Pinkey?
and everyone's favorite ...

Carboney

atomic80 · 12th April 2003, 04:36

You guys are a riot!

On a more serious note, this topic has been covered in the past. I wondered at one point why I was seeing a more yellowish dashboard light in the speedo/tachometer in a friend's M5 whereas mine was more orange like the rest of the dashboard button lights. I never did get a straight answer from anyone here. The other M5 was an early 2001 build M5 with the grey gauges and yellowish gauges and mine is a late 2001 build M5 with grey gauges and my gauges are orange. Go figure!

MEnthusiast · 12th April 2003, 05:10

the best answer I can discern is that they wanted another way to differentiate the M cars. I think this is a mistake- I prefer the standard "orange"/"red" look.

schnelleM5 · 12th April 2003, 05:52

It appears from the discussion that there are two distinct colors of gauge lighting for the M5 gauge cluster. I was curious about this myself, as I have always thought that the orange instrument and dash lighting was a BMW trademark...until I saw my instrument pod illuminated at night for the first time. I have the soft, variable yellow gauge lighting on my '03, and thought that this was standard on all grey gauges. I find the soft yellow lighting quite easy on the eyes against the grey gauge faces. It has a very classy look, IMHO, although I also like the traditional orange on black gauges on my 540 and 320.

Based upon Jason's description it does not appear that there is any consistency in the gauge lighting color, if indeed the early '01 build also has the yellow gauge lights and his late '01 has the orange gauge lights.

I cannot believe that this inconsistency would be due to supplier issues, and feel that there has to be a logical explanation for this situation.

Anyone?

atomic80 · 12th April 2003, 07:04

I wouldn't go as far as to say that my gauge lights are as orange/red as the clusters in other BMW's. It's a bit more orange than that..

Here's a picture.