I've seen a few people have listed doing the LED conversion to their car. If anyone's done it and can tell me a little about, how much it costs for the parts, how difficult it is, etc. please fill me in.. the soddering iron seems a little to tricky for my taste, but i'm interested. Thanks.

 

I just purchased a set of 98 Maxima switches. I am going to test out the conversion on it first, and let you guys know how it goes.

 

That's nice of you to do the 'pioneering' ... seeing you could have just purchased a 95-96 set and saved yourself the trouble... Thanks!

My doors don't match now that I only did the front ones... Hope you get it to work though I think the desoldering will be a royal PIA.

 

well... color me confused.. I have a '96 but i guess i still need to buy a new "set".. what the hell's going on.. how can i do it? and how does it look.. i need details!

 

so far i have all the door switches in my car blue LED and my security light.

my next project coming soon will be Blue LED gauge lights... muhaha!

 

Check my sig for a link to a how 2. . . If you know how to solder and want to try it it looks good, but the driver's side is kinda difficult and I would look at it first if you want to do it. . . The other 3 are easy. . . There are also pics.

 

Yes, I know I could have got the 95/96s and saved trouble, but I wanted to see if it could be done with the 97+.

So hopefully I can get it to work. If i mess up, what the hell...$20.00 down the drain...not as bad as having to pay Nissan $100+ to replace them

It shouldn't be MORE difficult than a Nokia cell phone conversion.

As for you guys with the 95/96, follow the link from Adidas_Boy, the conversion is simpler on the 95/96.

 

Just make sure to get the polarity correct. . . I know someone that tried it on a 2K and ended up frying a relay, which is not good. . . I know how to tell the polarity on a round LED but the square ones don't have any tell tale signs.

 

The polarity on the bulbs is easy to see - one wire is longer than the other. But for figuring out the matching, how do you tell which is +/- on the LED already mounted on the circuit board? Is it the pattern of the metal of the resistor inside the bulb?

Also, the 5v 12w LEDs at Radio shack are $2.99 a piece. Expensive! It boggles my mind, when comparable LEDs in other colors are only $1.29. I got the blue 3.7v LED for the security light, and that one was $3.99! For a measily little bulb... Are there any cheaper alternative sources out there?

One other thing - the center console LED's. I haven't found any blue equivalents. The standard white replacement bulbs are cheap, only $1.99 for two. Did you change yours to blue, and if so, how'd you do it?

Thanks!

 

Forget my question on the Polarity. I read further in your installation instructions and got my answer! Thanks again.

 

If you want blue, then you have to pay the money for it. Since blue is a relatively new color and they still are rather expensive to make, they are one of the more costly LEDS. Whites are more like $4 a piece, and I have heard rumors of purple that are $10 a piece. The older tried and true bulbs are going to be cheaper, with red being the cheapest, as they have been made for so long it is cheaper to make.


The problem with the center console lights are that there are only 3 of them so you need them to be bright and you need them to shine light at a very wide radius. LED's, especially blue ones, tend to only shine at most about 40 degrees in radius, so they won't work for this use. I don't think they make blue bulbs to replace these, and the stock ones have blue condoms on them, so I don't know how well they work. If you do happen to replace these with a bub that produces a better white light, please let me know as I would like to match these better to the switches.