I have been reading several posts about replacing the LEDs in the window switches.....some of them say that I need to solder resistors on the new LED, some say I dont....Im not sure what to do, can someone set me straight? Do I need resistors or not? thx

 

Which method are you using?

 

metal just give him your method its soooo much better than doing it to the board. not to mention i runied the board that way and had to replace it.

the jist of it is you put the led's in a series and wire it like this, so all the negs are connected and all the pos' are connected. go to home depot and buy the marine adhesive that you can see in the background. apply this where you can see it on my board to hold the contacts down and even seperate them. when done i even just coated the underside with it to be sure none of the bare metal would come in contact with the baord:


drill a small hole in the side of your piece nad thread the pos and neg wire through each side:



if my meory serves correctly, splice the neg wire to the black wire on the harness and the pos wire to the THIN red wire with the white line. metal can verify these wires. and voila! only mines red


oh and i put a resistor in the pos wire before splicing it in just to be safe

 

pb, like Merovi said, my method will allow you to do this mod without ruining your OEM board. Merovi, myself, and I am quite sure MANY other .org modders ruined thier OEM board whilst soldering directly to the board...

 

Hey Dan

Where's your how-to?.....i'm seriously considering doing this. Also, is it possible to get superwhite leds vs just blue and red? Another?......what color would you choose that would look better and be easy on the eyes on black interior?

 

Well, in all honesty any color will be easy on the eyes so long as the MCD (Micro Candle Display) value is low enough. I think OEM runs around 2500 MCD. My blue LEDs are 8,000 and my whites are 20,000. I think any color would look good if done right. Search on ebay, there are a ton of colors available, just keep in mind that the lower the MCD, the less intense (albeit easier on the eyes) the light will be.


Here is the link, I bumped it to the top for easier access.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....=1#post4410574

 

great! i appreciate the assist. I'll start searching for needed materials, and let you know the outcome.

 

I am going to change them out this weekend finally...

 

I did mine too last night. For those who have more soldering ability/experience and want to solder the LED directly to the board use 3mm LED instead of regular 5mm LED. This is the best way for space issue. Using a 5mm LED can ruin your board if the LED is not properly aligned with the switch. I use this ''Third hand tool'' to solder the LED on the board.



Really helps out to do a clean job. Took about 45 min to do all the 4 doors.

 

Again fellas, I highly encourage using my method. There is NO CHANCE OF BOARD DAMAGE WHATSOEVER.

 

i've re-solder leds on boards on my 4th gen, not ruined anything, all of the buttons work well. now i'm about to do that to my 5th gen, have not opend door switches yet, are they any different? what seems to be da issue?

 

you used 5mm leds right, to clarify for everyone?

 

yes! 10char