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Plasma dials Escort Cosworth
Electroluminescent films, also known as plasma films, were used for the backlighting on the Escort Cosworth.
These foils are supplied with approximately 100V AC by an inverter inside the instrument cluster, causing them to glow.
The result is a uniform illumination of the entire dial in a glare-free, homogeneous light.
However, plasma films tend to lose their luminosity as they age.
After about 7000 hours the luminous intensity is only about 50%.
Some areas are no longer excited by the electric field and dark spots appear.
Unfortunately, due to ignorance of this technology, the instrument cluster was often "repaired" with light bulbs
In addition to the aging of the foils, it can also happen that the inverter is defective and the foils are no longer supplied with voltage.
Diagnosis by exclusion method helps to find the exact cause of the error.
Further information about the inverter can be found in the chapter:
There are several companies that specialize in replacement films or customer-specific films, but only a few that can also offer the background like the original films in silver metallic.
Some companies offered this color and if so, then at relatively high prices.
Replica products usually had their own external inverter, but there was no room for it in the speedometer housing. So it had to be placed and connected externally.
This was the incentive to look for our own, cheaper solutions.
With over 15 years of experience in the field of speedometer repairs on Cossie, I have already been able to implement various solutions.
The dials I developed work with the original inverter and have the same surface and luminous color as the originals from the factory, but in contrast to the factory foils around the odometer, they illuminate up to 1mm to the edge area.
The edge areas of the original films are sometimes very large, which means that unlit areas appear under the needles or at the edge of the film. These edge areas are important for the lifespan of the films, but they have been reduced to a minimum in the new films to avoid unlit areas.
left original, right new slides, .
Unfortunately, the colors are difficult to display on the screen, the brighter the slides appear more blue,
although they appear green to our eyes.
Nachtansicht
Fehlerstellen Originalfolien
Vergleich Tagansicht
Nachtansicht
In the instrument cluster, the design changes are limited to small details such as the edge lighting.
The boost pressure display on the additional display was expanded from 1.3 to 1.5 bar in order to align the scale angle with the neighboring displays for optical reasons. This expansion fits without any adjustments to the measuring instrument.
In performance-enhanced vehicles, the boost pressure is usually higher than 1.3 bar anyway.
This so-called standard kit was developed as Plug`nPlay
Designed to replace original watch faces.
It is an inexpensive solution because it can be easily sent in a letter and can also be installed by skilled craftsmen/mechanics.
This kit is an ideal solution if shipping the instrument cluster back and forth does not make economic sense.
The price for a kit is 130.- Sfr.
Further information and orders at
With the additional displays, it is also possible to replace the battery display with an oil temperature display.