The sleeve is for color, not brightness. Install the bulb and see what it looks like. It definitely shouldn't. E distracting, it's pretty dim bulb and the light is "traveling through" the plastic part that the bulb sits in, being dimmed further.

If the color is off, grab some bulbs from the salvage yard and either install them and see if they work as is, or try to remove the sleeves.

An LED only projects light from the top. You need it to project light from the sides. You need an incandescent bulb for this application.

 

Thanks for your thoughts.
I know the sleeve is for the color, but filtering for color also reduces brightness to some degree.
I am also aware of the directional nature of the LEDs. I see more and more after-market units that include some diffusion of the light, rather than unidirectional. For this specific application, it's the only thing I would consider, for the reason you cited-- what gets lit up is the surrounding plastic piece. I get all that.

I'm in no pinch-- if I don't replace the bulb at all, I am fine with that. I just happened to be "next door" at the cup holder, and thought I would ask the world to see if someone has any experience with a suitable LED replacement.

 

The only led bulb that would even fit there would be just the diode itself. No room for reflectors or unidirectional diodes. I think you're stuck with incandescent.

 

I've put LED in my snowmobile an 4 wheeler gauges like these:
http://industrialleds.com/37-led.html?gclid=CLHl5ojPkL8CFSxo7AodTQ8AaQ

 

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Thanks. Yes, that's the ones I am seeing that look interesting. It's got a 'dome' to diffuse the light, so it is not uni-directional. Just need more info. on the exact dimensions. I'll dig deeper on that supplier. Thanks again.

 

If you want to put a standard LED there, you also have to find a place to put a resistor. The standard bulbs run at 12v while LEDs use 3-5V. Therefore you will need a resistor to limit the voltage and current.