dash light mods

[etlsport]

i plan on changing all the green lights on my dash/console over to blue,

raquethomas, what did you use to dye your bulbs blue? and do you have any suggestions for how to get to all of the bulbs that need to be done? and does the TOD display green because of bulbs? looks a little different than the rest of the green lights. sorry about the 20 questions, i suppose ill find out a lot of this when i start pulling everything apart

ill also be on the lookout for blue LED bulbs to fit into the dash to match my dome lights and horn lights

[LittleBeast]

TOD lights are led's about the size of a pin head. Not worth messing with and you probably would never get them back together again. Trust me I took the entire TOD light housing apart and even thought about taking of the LED's and putting my own in, but it looked WAY too risky. I replaced all of my interior lights to blue LED's, behind the gauges is no big deal they are just normal 194's, four of them to be exact. If you get some brand of led's that are oversized you might need to drill holes in the back of the gauge cluster. MOst will be fine. The white reverse glow gauges are nice as well, I have those in too. The other bulbs in the interior in order to be replaced with led's like I did have to each be custom fabricated. Because the "bulbs" you are replacing are grain of wheat or rice bulbs, because they are that small. If you are interesting in doing this the hardest one to convert is the power and winter buttons below the shifter on the center. Take those apart carefully to see the worst of it. If you really want to do this trace the power wire back and put in line resistors directly on power wire right before it gets into the housing on each individual light for the new led's (so as to avoid craming the resistors into the housing with the new led). It is quite a process took me two days with the interior completely tore apart, but it was worth the time, but I am talking custom led install for every single bulb. If you have any questions feel free, I am sure I missed something or called something by the wrong name. I have tons of pics of the install but my roommate has not sent them to me yet, I saved them on his computer right before my computer bit the dust.
In Christ,
Ryan H

[LittleBeast]

Oh yeah and if you really want to do this buy the LED's on EBAY from china they are 50 for $10 free shipping. And they come with free resistors to work with 12v.

[Spike]

I think we all would like to see some of the work that people have done to customize their dashes.

[wintermute]

Hey Ryan, I want to swap over the AC unit bulbs to LED.

Do you by any chance recall which resistor you need to step down the load for the LED?

If I'm using something like these in place of the incandescent bulbs, what should my resistor be rated at?

http://www.amazon.com/TOMTOP-50Pcs-L...screte+3mm+led

TOD lights are led's about the size of a pin head. Not worth messing with and you probably would never get them back together again. Trust me I took the entire TOD light housing apart and even thought about taking of the LED's and putting my own in, but it looked WAY too risky. I replaced all of my interior lights to blue LED's, behind the gauges is no big deal they are just normal 194's, four of them to be exact. If you get some brand of led's that are oversized you might need to drill holes in the back of the gauge cluster. MOst will be fine. The white reverse glow gauges are nice as well, I have those in too. The other bulbs in the interior in order to be replaced with led's like I did have to each be custom fabricated. Because the "bulbs" you are replacing are grain of wheat or rice bulbs, because they are that small. If you are interesting in doing this the hardest one to convert is the power and winter buttons below the shifter on the center. Take those apart carefully to see the worst of it. If you really want to do this trace the power wire back and put in line resistors directly on power wire right before it gets into the housing on each individual light for the new led's (so as to avoid craming the resistors into the housing with the new led). It is quite a process took me two days with the interior completely tore apart, but it was worth the time, but I am talking custom led install for every single bulb. If you have any questions feel free, I am sure I missed something or called something by the wrong name. I have tons of pics of the install but my roommate has not sent them to me yet, I saved them on his computer right before my computer bit the dust.
In Christ,
Ryan H

[hughesdt]

What you do is subtract the battery voltage from the LED voltage (13.8-3.6=10.2V) then divide my the led current (20ma), 10.2V/20ma=510 ohms. Ohms law, E=IR. If you put 2 LEDs in series 330ohms. Most LEDs are 20ma, but their voltages vary.

Dan

[wintermute]

Thank you for explaining. Found a handy LED bulb calculator ta boot for those interested and afraid of maths:

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

What you do is subtract the battery voltage from the LED voltage (13.8-3.6=10.2V) then divide my the led current (20ma), 10.2V/20ma=510 ohms. Ohms law, E=IR. If you put 2 LEDs in series 330ohms. Most LEDs are 20ma, but their voltages vary.

Dan

[UWVX89]

I'm curious how much effort it takes to get in to replace the dash lights, Mine have burned out and I have to use cellphone to read gauges at night.

[tom4bren]

I'm curious how much effort it takes to get in to replace the dash lights, Mine have burned out and I have to use cellphone to read gauges at night.

I assume that you've tried the dimmer knob at your left knee to see if that's the problem. My dash lights are constantly getting turned down by accident because of where they placed that thing. IIRC, all the way dim basically turns them off.

[etlsport]

The gauge cluster lights are very easy.. Pull the dash trim off then 4 screws to loosen the gauge cluster. I didn't even unplug it, just felt around behind it and there are 4 bulbs back there. Just a quarter turn and they come out. Standard 194 bulbs with a green sock over the tip. I believe you can even remove that sockand put it on your new bulb. I replaced mine with white leds. Gives a much cleaner look

[ABDragonVX]

The gauge cluster lights are very easy.. Pull the dash trim off then 4 screws to loosen the gauge cluster. I didn't even unplug it, just felt around behind it and there are 4 bulbs back there. Just a quarter turn and they come out. Standard 194 bulbs with a green sock over the tip. I believe you can even remove that sockand put it on your new bulb. I replaced mine with white leds. Gives a much cleaner look

Just for clarity, if I was going to do the white leds in the gauges, each one would require a resistor?

[UWVX89]

No haha the dimmer nob does nothing, they're gone haha but I will be looking into replacing them cause it's annoying.

I assume that you've tried the dimmer knob at your left knee to see if that's the problem. My dash lights are constantly getting turned down by accident because of where they placed that thing. IIRC, all the way dim basically turns them off.

[LittleBeast]

No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

[wintermute]

AWESOME info. Thank you.

I was searching all over the interwebs for these, and couldn't find them. I was about to wire them up myself, but this will be much easier.

No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

[Mile High VX]

No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

Is it the same bulb for the "light" that shows if the Cruise is on or the Heated Mirror or the Rear Defrost?