Decided to bust out the digital camera this time after an unsuccessful 1st install without a resistor. Used the 5V Blue LED with a 330 Ohm resistor.

Switch underneath
Switch disassembled with parts Blown out 1st LED still on it...
LED and Resistor
LED and Resistor on Switch

Final Work:

 

sweet!

 

very nice, good too see someone else manage to do it.

 

can you do this with the hazards too??

Ant

 

howcome your clock isn't lit up and the other stuff?

 

It's brighter and also partially due to angle, too.

I didn't take apart the hazzard switch but I think I would want to keep it red... maybe brighter? A project for another day.

 

looks nice man, im acutally in the process of doing that myslef to my ACC. was it hard taking the switch apart? and do you have to take the whole consoul apart or just pop out the upper part??


thanks
Cris

 

looks good. how do you remove the a/c unit? none of my button lights work in that entire unit, (the digital display does however) could i have blown a fuse?

 

you may have blown a fuse, but ill tell you man, those damn things burn out all the time, thats why im going to put mine to LED's to last forever (hopefully)

 

The left bank ( you know the temp change buttons) have all blown out and dont light up how much of a pain is it to change those to leds. Thanks Brian (A write up would be awsome on how to do this)

 

You only have to remove the top vent portion... Which will take a lot of finesse the first time. The switch is popped out by depressing a lock from behind then pushed out the front. That part is fairly easy... In fact, I think I swapped the Hazard and Defroster switches a few years ago.

The switch itself is taken apart by separating the top cover (black) from the main assembly. Pry the sides (black part) from the main portion (blue) as see from pic#1.

 

thanks man, i have taken all that stuff out before, if i remember correctly all you have to do is just pop out the clips at the bottom w/ a screwdriver and then pull down and torwards you. does that sound about right?

 

is the LED a 5 volt or a 5mm, also did u buy these components at radio shack?

 

This is OT but there was a really interesting article i read a long time ago. It dealt w/ LEDs and stuff. I think that's a good industry to invest in now. Car manufacturers are planning to switch ALL bulbs, inlcluding headlights, to advance LEDs. There are also plans to do so w/ street lamps/lights. It cuts power usage down to 25% and are more efficient and brighter. Cool stuff

edit: Here is the link to the article

http://optics.org/articles/ole/7/5/7/1

check it out, pretty interesting

 

looks sweet

 

hot sh*t...anyone ever try changing the blinking light color from green to whatever on the dash?

 

Very nice post! Thanks for detailed pics too.

 

i did that like last week, i found it sooo tricky...
both hazard and defrost switches done.... i would recommend 3mm leds for this project


and on the stock stereo (non bose) i changed the display from white to blue also... that looks VERY nice...

display being the part that shows the current station you're on...

 

Yes the LED was both 5V and 5mm... same as for the window switch modification ones from Radioshack.

Anyone got some pics of the manual climate control modification? Come on guys... break out the digital cameras and "share the wealth"

 

i just redid the climate last night.... with 3mm leds.
had 5mm blues in there before, now 3mm blues I find the 3mm
light up the console better. But still the ac button just doesn't light up bright.

but do change the stock display i mentionned above! even in the daylight it looks sweet and bright!

 

No pics? hehe... I guess I will have to just start 'prying' again.

Do you have the PN for the 3mm blues (so I can determine the right resistor to use)? How many will I need to buy.

 

a led like this would be perfect... it's got a great viewing angle...
only prob is it's sooo freaking dim....

i'm going to check what wavelength and viewing angle the leds i buy are. they are the perfect blue!

they are 3mm blue leds, and the run on 3.5 volts. the lights in the climate control run (when i checked) at 10 volts.... but i've been getting 11.56 volts from every other light. i'm wondering if it might be 11.56V either way, i used a 430 ohm resistor 1/4 watt.

the light that lights up the station display... that runs off like 4 volts i think... i just directly plugged the led in and it worked right away. it looks very nice! i cannot stress enough.

WARNING: When i changed the light for the display, and put it all back together, i could not get my cd player to work... and it still doesn't work. I don't know why and i don't see how it could be related yet.... but i'm looking into it. either way i can't stop staring at the display. hehe

 

a picture is worth a thousand words! (hint hint)

 

Hey guy's all my bulbs on my AC unit went out except the digital thing, Those bulbs are 2.50 each and that's not the problem but i was wondering if i could do anything else as a mod to make it light up with-out having to buy those from the stealership.

 

this is just my opinion, but what is with the fabric on your dash??? I dont really like the look of it, but whatever suites you...

 

Nice, I may hay to try that myself!!!

 

What size resistor did you use, and does it go on the + or - side? Also, is the longer needle the positive? I did the mod for the window switches, but it seemed that I had to sodder each one in differently. Thanks

 

Resistor size was in original post... I think I put it on the + side... but I don't think it matters, though.

The fuzzy carpet is to keep the dash from cracking from the UV from the sun... I didn't put it on for aesthetic reasons