Pics dont even do them justice cuz the LED's are so bright they light up the entire center console from the reflector behind the shifter.





Had the doors switches done as well this was the easier part. The LED's light up the whole top part of the door handle

 

Localized, but not bad at all!

 

Could you post a step by step for changing these? Control lights diminishing!!!
Thanks.

 

+1 on the how to....

 

Good

Better

 

Looks good, except your driver's side window switch may need adjusted. Need to angle the LED more to illuminate the logos better. Other than that, it's fine.

 

Metal I was just curious why you felt your way was better? Seems a simple solder onto the existing board is a bit easier than creating a new circuit and cutting the old one. I'm not an engineer so i could be missing something here. I like the results of both methods was just wondering What your thoughts were on a method versus.

 

Ah, I knew this question would come up! Alright, well...

(1) Bypassing/removing the OEM LEDs is ntohing short of a nightmare. There is a pinhead worth of solder onto which the new LED attaches and soldering is quite difficult.

(2) The bulbs require a good deal of redjusting just to make them fit using the first method

(3) MANY people here whom have done it the original way hav had their entire switch fail due to the LED being bumped against an errant peice of trim, thereby ripping the one lead of the LED off and tearing the super-thin copper lead on the OEM circutboard

(4) Aiming the bulbs using the first method is an exercise in futility. My method allows for PERFECT aim of the LEDs.

(5) No touching the OEM controls leaves you with all of 0 risk of damaging the sensitive board.

...I'm sure there are others, but these are the main ones. Also, just a pic to compare...here is a pic of Todd's controls being powered off of 12V. Then is a pic of mine. Mine is being powered off of 9V, it's even better under 12V.

You be the judge.

 

Thanks Metal, I completely agree with you, your method is more pleasing...thats for sure. You might also put up this pic, the results from the first method. Just for comparison.


I am going to give your method a shot though.

Wish me luck.

 

Yeah, I agree. But, to each his own. I think this way is alot more work. It's all in the tools being used. If you have a good, fine tipped soldering pen, you can solder the LED to the circuit board with minimal problems and complications. The object is not to use too much solder. If you do, and if the leads would happen to bend in any way, this puts more stress on the circuit board because of the "heavy" amount of solder. A small amount would just break the leads of the LED and save the circuit board from being damaged. What I did for this mod was cut the leads real short on the LED's and soldered them to the board leaving a short amount of height of the LED (to save the trim from bending the LED). If any adjustment was needed, I just used a small set of needle nose pliers to bend the LED. Also, another tip I use, is whenever I remove old led's from a circuit board, I always leave the leads from the old led's and solder the new led's onto the old leads. But, Metal, you're the guru of LED mods and I'm not knocking your methods or anything, I just feel any method is acceptable just as long as it works. Whenever tackling any type of mods, just as long as you take your time, there will be less complications.