Has anyone replaced the rear window switch LEDs. They are frickin tiny. Just want to know if there is a trick.
well, I guess I need to brush up on my soldering skills, or my iron is too big. I fried the ones in the board and couldn't get my 5mm to stick. Well, at least they are not green.

 

you need to use 3mm

they arent too hard ive done em twice (red, blue)

its easiest if you cut the leads on the original ones along that plastic thing and solder the new ones right there instead of soldering the new ones to the holes in the circuit board

 

check my cardomain, therea write up on one of the pages.

 

wow your switches are different then mine 99se5spd i didnt realize they changed later in 4th gens too i had a white plastic piece with a 3mm led on it

 

I desoldered the old tiny LED, covered the contacts with black electrical tape and then soldered one lead from the new LED to the tiny resistor on the board and the other lead on the LED to the terminal pictured below.

Unlike most LED installations, the negative lead of the new LED goes to the resistor and the positive lead goes to the terminal on the board.

 

yea the little square leds are a ***** to work wiht. i did not even desolder mine. There ar 4 contacts that connect up to the led. i found the positive and negtive and jus soldered the new led on it. When you out a new led it will not send power to the old one.

 

So I'm reviving an old thread because it's the only one that mentions what Igobuk did--connecting the LED directly to the resistor/terminal rather than the contacts under the stock LED. However, his circuit board (1997 Max) looks quite different from my (1999) circuit board. Here's what mine looks like. The resistor is in the same place, but I don't know which terminal to connect the positive lead of the LED to...



I appreciate any advice.

 

whats the purpose of doing it how Igobuk did it? I used the stock contacts and it works fine.

 

the one in the top left corner (half cut off, looks like it may be r10). what i ended up doing after trying a few different methods was burn out the oem led with a 9v battery and then do the direct method.

 

i tried it that way and ended up messing up the board because it just took more effort (heat) to get it to stick.

a technique i have leaned when dealing with oem boards is to pool up solder on the points before you actually mount the led. that will mean less time (heat) when you actually attach the lead. the oem boards seem to be pretty heat sensitive.

 

just desolder and resolder new one, simple as that!

 

You don't have to use 3mm, I used 5mm and they worked out wonderfully. But if your doing the driver panel, I suggest sanded 3mm because with my sanded 5mm I still get visible hotspots on the window lock and driver-side window switch where it says "AUTO" due to more transparency.

 

Thanks a lot. I was thinking that must be it but I wanted to be sure. It's actually R18 as you can see in this view. You were referring to the terminal just to the right of the "R18" label if you're reading it right-side-up, right?



Brent, I have to do it this way because I totally chewed up the contacts trying to get the surface mount LED off. On a 95 or 96 Maxima it's easier because you have a regular LED there rather than a surface mount.

Did all of you guys sand your LEDs? I wasn't planning on it because I figured the stock rubbery caps are meant to diffuse the light, but I'll have to see how it looks.

 

I did this when i led my interior. By far the easiest and quickest way. It might not be the best way or proper but it works.

 

correct.

 

I would sand for the switches. It cant hurt. And it will make the light even. I didnt do it on my drivers front and wish I wouldave.

 

Thanks. I will just solder the positive lead to R18 and the negative to the resistor. It will take a little more work but it's my only good option at this point.

I finished my fronts and they look amazing. Very close to perfectly even illumination. MOHF, I did not sand at all. The driver's door is the only switch unit that doesn't have the transparent rubber caps but they look fine. And I'm a perfectionist.

 

oh ok, i never knew that. but when i did look at the pics again i was thinking that i didnt remember the LEDs looking like that.

 

yeah man, you 95-96 guys have it easy. me being a perfectionists as well i really tried to switch to the early model so i could have a clean mount but it just wasn't gonna happen. i burned up a couple switches tryin to get an oem look but had to settle for the the other method. i don't know why it bothers me so much but it does.

 

Well, I'm all done and I'm happy with the results. Here are some photos of how I did it. Pretty straightforward, less than 30 minutes per side once you figure it out. I used a nail clipper to scrape off as much of the stock surface mount LED as possible (didn't bother desoldering), then covered the spot with electrical tape. Next I took my new LED and bent the leads so it would sit right. The negative connects to the resistor (just to the right of the LED) and the positive connects to terminal R18. I added a little bit of solder and made sure the connections were good. Finally, I trimmed the rubber cover so the wire would fit. Be careful not to cut into the round cups that go under the switch.

 

Here are the results (rear and front for comparison). I did not sand any of the LEDs (I used 3mm 10,000 MCD LEDs from an eBay seller in Asia) and I did not cut the rubber cap things at the top.






Thanks for the help BlackonBlack and Igobuk!

 

np. looks real good bro. i hope mine come out as good, since i haven't had a chance to power any of my led interior pieces up. i also used high power leds (11,000 mcd blue) so hopefully i'll get a nice even color as well.

 

any of you guys think i may need diodes for the leds? i have heard that if you dont use the diodes the leds will fail premature do to voltage back feeding through the led. i have done led hazards and defrost bout a year ago still going strong no diodes used. also have done climate control,gauge needles and bose radio, also no diodes used and some of them have gone out in the bose radio and these are such a pain to do over again. gauge leds have gone out less than a year old now. so i need to do these over again and was wondering what you guys have experienced and how long you've had your leds installed. i used all 3mm leds (except hazard and defrost used 5mm)and the resistors that came with the leds.

 

Where did you hear about that? I would imagine that anywhere you're just replacing LEDs (e.g. windows switches) the stock electronics already include diodes or whatever is necessary to protect the LEDs. But in the hazards and gauges you are putting LEDs where there were regular bulbs so perhaps that is an issue.

Did you check the connections to make sure the soldering didn't come loose due to vibrations? There are many other reasons your LEDs could have gone out.

 

I haven't checked the leds for the gauges yet..but it makes sense because I used the bulb connector and just put the wires to the led under it and twisted the connector in place. I doubt they all came loose though. the leds for the bose radio are soldered and I doubt they came loose,they flickered for a while before they failed. as for the diodes there was a post a while ago debating the need for them,I think it was metalmaxima that said you need diodes not sure. I don't want to start hear say but the person that said you need diodes seemed to know what they were talking about and my leds have failed in a short period of time.

 

No, diodes arent necessary. They might help, but not necessary.

An LED is a diode...so you are going to use a a diode to prevent another diode from burning out. What about the first diode? Continuous chain?

 

yes a led is a light emitting diode but it doesn't function as a diode which is a electrical gate valve allowing voltage to flow in one direction only.so its not the same.

 

Thanks for the info--I'll have to search for that thread. Metal Maxima is the guy who completely tricked out his interior with LEDs. I have a lot of respect for him, but I bought some custom LED door lights and a dome light from him. The first set of door lights burned out within a month because he made them way too bright (not enough resistance) so he sent me replacements. Now I just noticed that one of the LEDs in the dome is burned out and the rest will undoubtedly follow. So maybe diodes are the answer in these applications? I'm planning on buying SMT LED bulbs from V-LEDS or another vendor. I would hope they include the proper resistors and diodes but maybe not....

 

diodes may very be what is needed. unless they shipped me the wrong resistors with the leds which might not be allowing enough of a voltage drop or too much of voltage drop not sure. anyhow i have to do them all over again and im going to use diodes this time and see if they last this time. so it will be resistor,diode then led in series for each led. im just glad my defrost or hazard leds havent gone out. these are different leds than the ones i used for the gauges.