im having he hardest time getting the bulb out of the black base. any tips?

 

Wrap the bulb in a towel and break the bulb with pliers, then pull the remains up and out. You can try to wiggle the bulb with pliers, I did and ended up spraying my face with broken bulb fragments.

 

Precision flathead screwdriver, wiggle and twist at the narrow side, go side to side, be gentle, and patient.

Oh, and wear safety glasses just in case. RR5's suggestion is a decent one, but sometimes the wires in the plug fall apart, leaving nothing to pull the remains out with. This means you have to dig them out, which will likely damage the contacts or break the socket unless you're very careful.

As I stated earlier in the post, if you are having a really hard time, use a very small drill bit, pop through the bottom of the socket but not into the bulb, then just use something (drill bit will work just don't spin it obviously) to push it out.

 

Even if the bulb were broken, you can still use something to press against the bulb while pushing upward to break the bulb loose.

+1 on the precision flathead screwdriver.

 

5 minutes after i made that post, i found the perfect tool. haha. i actually used a pair of needle nosed pliers and a pair of normal craftsman pliers that had kind of a round opening half way down. i pulled and bam, came right out. busted two, saved two. not bad.

also a note for future installers, there are four little tabs inside of the base. use like a small knife to bend those in to create a snug fit for the LED. also, there are two bent metal tabs coming out of the sides of the base. make sure they are making contact with the circuit board.

So happy with my Cool White LEDs



Thats the tool i used, in the middle. The rounded opening was perfect. used another pair of pliers to hold the base and pulled straight out!

 

dang ive been reading this thread for almost an hour it was that great i just recently purchased my car and was wondering if i cud do anything about the brightness of the gauges after this thread im most definitely going for the warm white to keep almost the stock look thanks guys

 

i have been following this thread and i am very confused hoping someone can help me out. i would like to do my whole interior with leds. would like to just do the drop in bulb method. for the gauges i am doing cool white would like to know what size bulbs to get for the hvac i have a 2002 Nissan maxima se. also what bulb for the key ring and the gear shifter, glove box and the coin holder. the only one that i know for sure is the gauges. thank you for all the help. going to be buying everything from superbrightleds.com

 

This thread is mainly about the cluster lights (and some HVAC) so I'd suggest you check out this one by Tyutyunnik who goes over changing the rest of the interior to LED. He also sells the exact LED panels/converters/etc that you'd want and his service is excellent (got mine from him).

http://forums.maxima.org/6th-generat...pic-heavy.html

 

Thank you however I am looking for the 5th Gen and only for the hvac/keyring/coin holder/ glovebox and shifter/ everything else I have done already or know exactly what to get . Please help

 

What I was trying to say is that this is the wrong thread for that stuff. However, since people keep asking your answers are already buried in this thread. All you had to do was read it or use search

searched "shifter":
http://forums.maxima.org/8063224-post404.html
http://forums.maxima.org/8063911-post407.html

"ring" (also includes coin/mood light):
http://forums.maxima.org/8066411-post419.html

"HVAC":
http://forums.maxima.org/8025096-post99.html

"glove":
http://forums.maxima.org/8115058-post478.html

And here's the general Maxima bulb chart I already posted.
http://www.moodym.com/maxima/tech/maxbulbchart.html

If you need more detailed part information (some bulbs go by different names) or have other questions, I suggest you make a post in one of the correct threads about Interior LEDs (like Tyut's thread I linked earlier) or make a new post. Tyut, Tunermax or one of the other LED gurus should be able to help. Good luck!

 

thank you that helped just pmed tunermax lets see thank you

 

+3798432897 Cluttering up threads to ask questions that have already been answered within that thread is lame. Also, many people become annoyed at having to spoon-feed those who don't put any effort into research. Count me as one of that group. IJS...

 

SeedyROM just gave you one of the most helpful and considerate responses you can expect on here. You didn't get bashed, you were helped.

The PM I received from you asks me to do all of the work and tell you exactly what ones to buy. Sorry, you will have to stop being lazy and READ the posts that SeedyROM listed. Search and you will find.

If you have any complicated questions, or are truly not understanding after you show me that you've actually searched, then I'll try and help if I can.

I have a watermain broke, a house to take care of, and now a 5.5 that I'm tearing the engine apart on, I don't have time to spoonfeed you, do some work for your pudding.

Also, SeedyROM has put together one incredibly informative thread here, so please don't post back in this thread unless it's relevant to the Gauges, or to post pictures of your gauges once you get things installed.

 

Wow, Tuner... I know exactly how you feel. I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped.

 

Has someone been doing the MP marathon?

 

 

MP? That's the Princess Bride, Matt.

I swear, it's like I don't even know you, man...







Oh, look! Post #500! And a really useful one, too.

 

Princess Bride? I'm feeling the same John. MP = Monty Python....

#501 to get back OT

 

Thought I would add to the tangents of this thread..

So i want to replace the bulb bellow the gear selector but I am unable to remove the grey top (I am not talking about the shift trim obviously) . I know Tuner has pics of the 01 shifter disassembled with less installed but it seems to be a PITA to remove the one pictured here
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0113_large.jpg

I know i am making this harder than it is...

 

You have to remove the screw under the ashtray piece. Remove the 'liner' in the ashtray and you'll see it. #2 Phillips (star) screwdriver.

Then The most recommended way is to use a putty knife with a cloth or clean rag wrapped around it so you don't scratch the trim. Slip it in the gap on the driver side, by the cig lighter, that's the largest easiest point to start the removal. Then it will just pop out.

 

I know how to remove that trim, its the grey top where the P,R,N,D etc. are illuminated. It feels like I am using too much force while trying to remove it and I was just wondering if there is a screw or something I am missing after i remove the shifter trim.

I want to take out the incandescent bulb that illuminates those and put an led strip in its place. I know you removed that trim and soldered led's there but I can't seem to remove this grey shifter cover that has the illuminations.

 

I'm such a noob with youtube. Oh, look...! 480p resolution.

Weird to hear "radar love" when I turned on the car radio.

Hmm, yes, there be hot-spots. But certainly it's good-enough.

 

Lookin' good Rochester! You wont even really notice the hotspots peripherally after a few days

 

Oh, the LED's have been in there a long time now. And although I know there are hotspots, it wasn't until I made and watched this video that they seemed more obvious.

I'm figgerin out youtube, is all. Don't mind me.

Static lighting isn't exactly "video" matierial, LOL!

 

Come on John, I KNOW you cued that up! Freakin' hilarious buddy, I love it.

Albiet, with your expansive retro knowledge (ummm... seasoned experiece), I would have thought maybe paradise by the dashboard light would have cued up.

 

perfect

 

I swear it's true. FM 95.1 Rochester... classic rock.

http://www.fox951.com/main.html

Clever.

I just realized, you can see the filtered clock in this video:

 

I used these bulbs from superbrightleds.com, come with the base already. They work great, little hotspotting but not much.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...ecs/74_t15.htm

 

Awesome find. I still need the 2 bases for the trip & temp/DTE,etc gauge.


Is it the WHP or W?

 

Awesome starter install for a guy like me just beginning mods on his car. Warm LEDs from superbright look 100x better than factory. Thanks everyone!

Edit: Well so much for excitement, I went to drive my girlfriend to her house tonight and on the way there I noticed that one of the bulbs would randomly flash or turn off for a second for no reason every few minutes. Any idea why this may be? I was thinking maybe just a crappy connection to either the socket or the LED assembly, or maybe just a bad bulb, but I wanted another opinion before I took my dash apart again.

 

I used the WHPs but I am sure they both will work, just the WHPs will be brighter.

 

Most likely is a bad connection so open it up and pry the pins out a bit gently and re-seat it. In my limited experience it's rare for an LED to blink if it's bad, usually they just die.

Good luck!

 

Still loving the gauges, but the HVAC bulbs didn't do it for me. Really bad hotspotting and I gave in. I sent out my HVAC unit to Shinjiduo, who is selling the LED converted parts in the Classifieds section. Hope to have a very uniform blue HVAC unit soon, will post pics.

 

Thanks Seedy, just went out and moved things around and tried reseating and adjusting but the results were the same . I ended up calling SBLEDs and they're sending me a new LED cause they say this one is possibly broken, whatever that means. I put in the stock bulb which seems to work fine, so that tells me that it at least was the LED itself that was the issue.

 

Bummer, sorry to hear about that. Many thanks for reporting back so we can get an idea of issues. Thankfully this appears to be one of the very few we've had with them.

 

Yeah hotspotting sucks, I'm with you!



I still need to redo mine, there are two dim spots.

 

That's more like it. Before I basically only had ECON and MODE.

 

I know EXACTLY what your talking about.
Tuner that STILL looks amazing. I kind of forgot about this thread.

 

Thanks, and I only reallyneed to aim a pair of them again, but I'm going to try some SMD's I got in instead I think. I have bigger things on myplate for a while, so I'll just live with it for now

 

after finally struggling with the cluster and having to purchase a brand spanking new one i finally got the chance to drop in the warm white led's and woww these baby look amazing. i really recommend this to everyone.