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California98Civic · 07-11-2015, 01:36 AM

I have always found dash light bulb info a little confusing and elusive. There is contradictory stuff online and searching the factory manuals has not yielded simple answers. BUT... in the factory service manual, which I was just checking again to try and respond to your question, there are two wattage types listed in the gauge cluster: there are several 1.4w bulbs (indicator lights) and several 3.4w bulbs ("gauge" lights). So I would imagine these are different numbers. The dome light and license plate is listed with a third wattage (5w). I have to assume that they might have different numbers, but the FSM does not say. It only lists the wattage. I have seen 194, 168, and 74 listed online. I thought 194 was correct. That said, just now reading again online, it seems the main difference between 194/168 is wattage, not fitment. The 194s appear to be what the FSM calls 3.4 watt and the 168 appear to be the 5 watt.

I would bet it looks like this: 74 is 1.4 watt and smaller, 194 is 3.4w, and 168 is 5w and the same fitment as 168. I see a Sylvania bulb on Autozone listed as a "194" and rated about 3.7 watts and a "74" that is 1.4 watts.

Does that make better sense?

If that's true, then I might have slightly misdirected you, by suggesting 194 when 168 was what you needed. But in reality, since we're going for LED anyway, these numbers are moot if the 194/168 fitment is the same. I am going to edit my above post and my garage page now.

07-11-2015, 01:36 AM	#7 (permalink)
California98Civic Cyborg ECU Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Coastal Southern California Posts: 6,299 Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe Team Honda 90 day: 66.42 mpg (US) Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike 90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US) Thanks: 2,373 Thanked 2,172 Times in 1,469 Posts	I have always found dash light bulb info a little confusing and elusive. There is contradictory stuff online and searching the factory manuals has not yielded simple answers. BUT... in the factory service manual, which I was just checking again to try and respond to your question, there are two wattage types listed in the gauge cluster: there are several 1.4w bulbs (indicator lights) and several 3.4w bulbs ("gauge" lights). So I would imagine these are different numbers. The dome light and license plate is listed with a third wattage (5w). I have to assume that they might have different numbers, but the FSM does not say. It only lists the wattage. I have seen 194, 168, and 74 listed online. I thought 194 was correct. That said, just now reading again online, it seems the main difference between 194/168 is wattage, not fitment. The 194s appear to be what the FSM calls 3.4 watt and the 168 appear to be the 5 watt. I would bet it looks like this: 74 is 1.4 watt and smaller, 194 is 3.4w, and 168 is 5w and the same fitment as 168. I see a Sylvania bulb on Autozone listed as a "194" and rated about 3.7 watts and a "74" that is 1.4 watts. Does that make better sense? If that's true, then I might have slightly misdirected you, by suggesting 194 when 168 was what you needed. But in reality, since we're going for LED anyway, these numbers are moot if the 194/168 fitment is the same. I am going to edit my above post and my garage page now. __________________ See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.