searched up and down, left and right and couldnt find any how-tos on changing up the leds in your window switches....

i had attempted this last january and nothing has failed since...


heard a few buddies say, "oh its just a green tint on the bottons"...
that is a negitive..
all LEDs are green...

Front doors have the SMD LED
Rear doors have the 3mm LED (same size that is in our security LED)

if someone does find a write up, cool...
if not, i can tear apart the switches in the AM and do a write up for yall...

 

a view a little further for people that doesnt know what im talking about...

 

Cool!

Did you have to take the door panel off or does that section just pop out to get to the lights??

 

Panel has one philips screw in the handle...

When removed, its either clips or a set a philips that holds the switches to the panel...

Give me a few and ill have detailed photos...

 

photos took awhile but are up...

(supplies needed)
philips screw driver (to remove the panel and switches from the panels)
flat head screw driver (to remove the little plastic/rubber in the handle)
soldering iron
solder
white LED strips bought from autozone ($20 bucks for a pair of 12 inch strips)
time and patients soldering

before i started, i desoldered the pure white SMDs off the strip...
take note that SMDs are mostly made of plastic so excessive amount of heat will ruin them... make sure your soldering iron has a fine point to it...

pictures are not the best but you will get the picture....
start with the front...
1) remove that little plastic/rubber peice in the handle using your flat head

2) remove the only screw holding the panel in place with the philips


3) once panel is popped out, you will see two sets of wiring harnesses.. using your flat head, push the connector out carefully...


4) once harnesses are unhooked, now remove the switches from the panel... there will be three philips screw holding it in place


5) with the switches now out, take a look at both long sides of the box... you will see two clips on each side holding down the board into the switches... carefully using your flat head, pry at the clips to unclip the board from the box


6) since the board is now open, you will quickly notice the 5 SMD LEDS attached to each switch... (they have the yellowish tint lense on it)


7) desolder the old SMDs one by one and take note where the notch is on the SMDs... the notch is the + side of the SMD...

8) once you have one done, hook the switch up to the car and test it, if it illuminates move on to the next one... if not, make sure the polority is right...

9) once all the LEDs are soldered in, reverse the install... pushed the board back onto the box... bolt up the box to the panel using the 3 philip screws... plug harnesses up and slid panel back into the door panel and bolt it down...

everything i have done is at YOUR OWN RISK..
be careful and take your time..

 

the rear panels are basicly the same removal, different LEDs...
do beleive 3mm that can be bought at any radioshack...

1) remove that plastic/rubber peice with your flat head

2) using the philips, unscrew and lift the panel up...

3) with the panel up, unplug the harness..

4) once unplugged, you will notice that the rear isnt bolt down but its just clipped in to the panel...


5) using your flat head, pry the switch out... with switch out, pry board off of box

6) with the LED now visible, you see that it isnt the same as the front door switches


(i had inspected the factory LED and noted the + side of the circuit) (anode lead is smaller + ) (cathode lead is bigger - )

7) pull using most force on the green rubber, the LED will slide right up...

8) using needle nose or tweesers, untwisted the factory green LED and pull bulb out..
replace with your own bulb of your choice...

9) find out what side is your + on your LED and on the base... line up the rubber and slide right on...

test if necessary...

install is reverse as removal...
push board back onto box till it clips, push switch assembly back onto the panel till it clips.. plug harness up and bolt down the panel...

everything i have done is at YOUR OWN RISK..
be careful and take your time..

 

I personally went with glueing the leds inside the switch part therefore being able to led all 6 switches. Also by not soldering to the board you can go brighter since the resistors on the board are rated a bit too high.

Nice write up, it'll help a lot of people

 

if further questions, feel free to inbox me...

everything was done off my HTC EVO and at 4am

will go more into details if needed

 

all my other lighting is 3Med...

Dome, map, door, license plate....

 

You got to step your dome light game up lol j/p. Boards look nice.

 

One very simple and very dumb questions...Do the new bulbs just drop in or how does it go when you replace them? Ive never done anything Light/electrical wise. But I want to switch my door locks to where its blue and eventually my gauges

 

Can I use the 3mm for the front instead of using the SMD Leds?

 

The 3mm should solder right in... might need a resistor depending on ohms, voltage and all the other bs.

 

Can you tell me a little more about what smd LEDs you used?

 

Cool wright up, nice pics.

In step #4 you don't need to remove the master switch from the panel, just pop out the circuit board, pointless to remove the whole switch. Just saving someone time

 

You don't have to remove the switches from the panel but I was doing this write up via phone at 4am and forgot what all I did..

 

Nice!