HOW-TO: Install white LEDS for your AUTO Gear selector
 

Haven't seen anyone do this yet, so i figured i give this a shot.

TOOLS NEEDED:
Soldering iron
Rosen core
6 White 3mm LEDS (preferred) or 5mm LEDS
6 470 Ohms resistors
Breadboard
Dremel
sand paper
Flat head screwdriver
Hot glue gun
Heat shrink
Snap or slide connectors


First, remove the gear selector trim from the car. Remove the shifter trim, then remove the 4 screws holding the gear selector trim. Then remove the bulb socket. the gear trim is held by 4 plastic tabs, just lightly pry each one around. Disassemble like shown:
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213379778

second, cut out a piece of the breadboard to fit it in the gear selector like so.
Goal is to try to get it sitting as low as possible so more light output can dissipate to reduce hotspots.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213379944

Third, Wire your LEDs:
Add a dot of hot glue on close connections from shorting out.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213379783

solder on + and - connections, wrap w/ elect tape, then heat shrink. afterwards, lightly sand off the tip of the LEDs to reduce hot spots if you want.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213379946

fourth, refer back to second step. place board as low as possible, then hot glue both ends.

Results:

it appears a rather bluish b/c of the blue overlay underneath the display. theres nothing you can do about that.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213380254
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213380258

now go cut off the stock bulb harnesh off and then connect it to your LED wires:
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213385933

reassemble and your done
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1213385935

one other side note. for the last 2 LEDS displaying gear 2 and gear 1, you will be able to see some of the white and the led itself off to the side in the passenger seat, as you can sorda see in the above pic already. Not necessary but i went ahead and took care of it. just get like 1/2 inch high, 1.25 inch long piece of plastic and just stick it beside it. you can use black electrical tape as well.

maaaaan i been wanting to do this for a while it looks nice man how hard was it to remove everything?
good job

did you try wetsanding the color overlay to get rid of the blue?

Daaag thats hot, thx my man, Do u have pics of it inside your car?

You can use 800/1000/1500 grit sand paper to sand away at the blue, it SHOULD come off but no guarantee as I found out for the gauges..

if you do that, wouldn't it scrape off the black overlay as well?
thats kinda what i was afraid of so i left it alone.

The black is on the outside of the acrylic, the blue film is on the inside. I think.




I think we need a sticky update with the how tos that have been created in the last few days. Haha. Nice job man.

negative, i looked underneath it, the blue film is on the outside.
i agree on the sticky update.

thanks mang

Hmm. Is the black on the outside like I thought?

man i really should of just taken a pic of it but now its already put back and i don't feel like removing it again lol.

the black is on the outside but its like painted on, or i guess overlayed.
i know for a fact that, that can be scratched off if not careful cause i noticed some of it coming off in the corners to where i could see through. so i just covered the PRND21 display and painted the whole black area black again.

and i'm guessing for the blue overlay, its on top of the black overlay. thats why i didn't wanna mess w/ that.

Nice job as usual G4

looks good reminds me of my setup have to re do mine it was a pain getting the perfboard to stick didnt think of the hot glue idea

I have an auto..I am thinking about doing this..but also as a side note..I really like your shift knob...where did you get it?

I have tried to remove the blue tint from the letters, and its not easy to do. There are 3 layers to this, black, white and blue. They are like this:

Blue(top)
White
Black(bottom)

When you go to sand off the blue(yes, it does come off), its hard to keep everything even. In other words, you sand off some blue, but start to sand off white, and eventually(if you're stupid) you will sand off black. Its a delicate process.

I ended up just sanding off all of the white in the lettering, so they are now see through, and then I took a black marker and filled in some spots where the black wore thin. It turned out ok, and now the blue is gone.

I will get some pics later.

wow, 3 layers, screw that. yeh posts some pics man. so did you actually do the LED mod or did you just sand those off for the fun of it lol?

looks great

G4,

I have had the LED mod done for quite a while. I will get some pics when I finish putting my car back together tonight or tomorrow.

I like it. But I would like it better red led.

Nice job G4nismo. With all these LED How-to's you're producing, we're gonna have to change your username to Mr. LED ;)

Your How-to's give me the confidence to tackle these mini projects myself. :thumbsup:

I'm going with a red and black leather interior,

red + blue = purple :(

I had done that.
 

but it was more simpler... not as bright, but ehh... it worked for me..

I changed the stock bulb to a blue bulb..


:google::laugh::goofy:

looks good nice job!

shift knob info ?

Nice job!

No offense here, g4nismo. Your method gives 100% even light.

Here I have a quicker way of doing this. I ordered one of those 5-led light bulb,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/194-1...spagenameZWDVW, (this is not a ad, this just shows where i got it from) You can get any other kind as long as they have leds facing sideways, not only to the front only.

I directly placed the original bulb with this LED bulb and cut two strips of aluminum tape as reflectors. The bottom is actually rounded and could give a pretty good reflection.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...gearboxled.jpg
At night, it looks like
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...oxlednight.jpg

Again, no offense.
Love your radar detector work!

Peace~

nice work, you want to LED my whole interior for me?ha, with all these write ups you are making me want to LED some of my interior.

I did the same as Tk563..

Used aluminum tape on the entire inside of the housing and a nice tower bulb. Bright and even light.. looks great. I give you props, that is about the most complicated way I've seen to make the light even lol

I appreciate it......

I did this too, but i only used two 3mm leds, simply rigged them up to the existing connector, twisted in place, and bam! blue PRND12! I was going for white too, but in the long run im happy with the blue because everything else in my car is blue :)

while we are on the subject....do u know how to do this with the speedometer?

i love the vw lighting blue and red...i been wanting to do that or something close to it ...


gives a more vibrant feel without the tacky replacement gauges...

any input? plz feel free to start a new thread as i dont intent on starting a new subject here.