dash light mods

[etlsport]

i plan on changing all the green lights on my dash/console over to blue,

raquethomas, what did you use to dye your bulbs blue? and do you have any suggestions for how to get to all of the bulbs that need to be done? and does the TOD display green because of bulbs? looks a little different than the rest of the green lights. sorry about the 20 questions, i suppose ill find out a lot of this when i start pulling everything apart

ill also be on the lookout for blue LED bulbs to fit into the dash to match my dome lights and horn lights

[LittleBeast]

TOD lights are led's about the size of a pin head. Not worth messing with and you probably would never get them back together again. Trust me I took the entire TOD light housing apart and even thought about taking of the LED's and putting my own in, but it looked WAY too risky. I replaced all of my interior lights to blue LED's, behind the gauges is no big deal they are just normal 194's, four of them to be exact. If you get some brand of led's that are oversized you might need to drill holes in the back of the gauge cluster. MOst will be fine. The white reverse glow gauges are nice as well, I have those in too. The other bulbs in the interior in order to be replaced with led's like I did have to each be custom fabricated. Because the "bulbs" you are replacing are grain of wheat or rice bulbs, because they are that small. If you are interesting in doing this the hardest one to convert is the power and winter buttons below the shifter on the center. Take those apart carefully to see the worst of it. If you really want to do this trace the power wire back and put in line resistors directly on power wire right before it gets into the housing on each individual light for the new led's (so as to avoid craming the resistors into the housing with the new led). It is quite a process took me two days with the interior completely tore apart, but it was worth the time, but I am talking custom led install for every single bulb. If you have any questions feel free, I am sure I missed something or called something by the wrong name. I have tons of pics of the install but my roommate has not sent them to me yet, I saved them on his computer right before my computer bit the dust.
In Christ,
Ryan H

[LittleBeast]

Oh yeah and if you really want to do this buy the LED's on EBAY from china they are 50 for $10 free shipping. And they come with free resistors to work with 12v.

[Spike]

I think we all would like to see some of the work that people have done to customize their dashes.

[wintermute]

Hey Ryan, I want to swap over the AC unit bulbs to LED.

Do you by any chance recall which resistor you need to step down the load for the LED?

If I'm using something like these in place of the incandescent bulbs, what should my resistor be rated at?

http://www.amazon.com/TOMTOP-50Pcs-Light-Discrete-Luminous/dp/B00B99A3LM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360359290&sr=8-1&keywords=discrete+3mm+led


TOD lights are led's about the size of a pin head. Not worth messing with and you probably would never get them back together again. Trust me I took the entire TOD light housing apart and even thought about taking of the LED's and putting my own in, but it looked WAY too risky. I replaced all of my interior lights to blue LED's, behind the gauges is no big deal they are just normal 194's, four of them to be exact. If you get some brand of led's that are oversized you might need to drill holes in the back of the gauge cluster. MOst will be fine. The white reverse glow gauges are nice as well, I have those in too. The other bulbs in the interior in order to be replaced with led's like I did have to each be custom fabricated. Because the "bulbs" you are replacing are grain of wheat or rice bulbs, because they are that small. If you are interesting in doing this the hardest one to convert is the power and winter buttons below the shifter on the center. Take those apart carefully to see the worst of it. If you really want to do this trace the power wire back and put in line resistors directly on power wire right before it gets into the housing on each individual light for the new led's (so as to avoid craming the resistors into the housing with the new led). It is quite a process took me two days with the interior completely tore apart, but it was worth the time, but I am talking custom led install for every single bulb. If you have any questions feel free, I am sure I missed something or called something by the wrong name. I have tons of pics of the install but my roommate has not sent them to me yet, I saved them on his computer right before my computer bit the dust.
In Christ,
Ryan H

[hughesdt]

What you do is subtract the battery voltage from the LED voltage (13.8-3.6=10.2V) then divide my the led current (20ma), 10.2V/20ma=510 ohms. Ohms law, E=IR. If you put 2 LEDs in series 330ohms. Most LEDs are 20ma, but their voltages vary.

Dan

[wintermute]

Thank you for explaining. Found a handy LED bulb calculator ta boot for those interested and afraid of maths:

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

:p


What you do is subtract the battery voltage from the LED voltage (13.8-3.6=10.2V) then divide my the led current (20ma), 10.2V/20ma=510 ohms. Ohms law, E=IR. If you put 2 LEDs in series 330ohms. Most LEDs are 20ma, but their voltages vary.

Dan

[UWVX89]

I'm curious how much effort it takes to get in to replace the dash lights, Mine have burned out and I have to use cellphone to read gauges at night.

[tom4bren]

I'm curious how much effort it takes to get in to replace the dash lights, Mine have burned out and I have to use cellphone to read gauges at night.

I assume that you've tried the dimmer knob at your left knee to see if that's the problem. My dash lights are constantly getting turned down by accident because of where they placed that thing. IIRC, all the way dim basically turns them off.

[etlsport]

The gauge cluster lights are very easy.. Pull the dash trim off then 4 screws to loosen the gauge cluster. I didn't even unplug it, just felt around behind it and there are 4 bulbs back there. Just a quarter turn and they come out. Standard 194 bulbs with a green sock over the tip. I believe you can even remove that sockand put it on your new bulb. I replaced mine with white leds. Gives a much cleaner look

[ABDragonVX]

The gauge cluster lights are very easy.. Pull the dash trim off then 4 screws to loosen the gauge cluster. I didn't even unplug it, just felt around behind it and there are 4 bulbs back there. Just a quarter turn and they come out. Standard 194 bulbs with a green sock over the tip. I believe you can even remove that sockand put it on your new bulb. I replaced mine with white leds. Gives a much cleaner look

Just for clarity, if I was going to do the white leds in the gauges, each one would require a resistor?

[UWVX89]

No haha the dimmer nob does nothing, they're gone haha but I will be looking into replacing them cause it's annoying.

I assume that you've tried the dimmer knob at your left knee to see if that's the problem. My dash lights are constantly getting turned down by accident because of where they placed that thing. IIRC, all the way dim basically turns them off.

[LittleBeast]

No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

[wintermute]

AWESOME info. Thank you.

I was searching all over the interwebs for these, and couldn't find them. I was about to wire them up myself, but this will be much easier.




No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

[ABDragonVX]

Thanks for the info

[Mile High VX]

No the bulbs for the gauges are totally different than the small bulbs that would need to be wired by the user. Since I wrote this reply though there has been quite a leap in products for these types of led upgrades. You no longer need to worry with resistors or rewiring, just get the right sized LEDs already made up for you from V-LEDs. There are 4 x 194 bulbs behind our cluster gauge (rpm, mph, etc), there are multiple of these bulbs inside the A/C:
http://www.vleds.com/bulb/t3-t4-t5-b8-5d-led/amber.html
And there is one of those in each button in the interior.

Is it the same bulb for the "light" that shows if the Cruise is on or the Heated Mirror or the Rear Defrost?

[LittleBeast]

Is it the same bulb for the "light" that shows if the Cruise is on or the Heated Mirror or the Rear Defrost?

The light in the instrument cluster (gauges) that shows if cruise control is on or off is a "74" sized bulb. In fact all those indicator (dummy lights) are 74 sized bulbs.

The rear defrost bulb would be one of the "T" bulbs I provided the link for. You need to pull it out measure (in mm's) and compared with the detailed specs that V-LEDs provides.

The only bulbs that I would suggest checking on would be the side view mirror adjustment bulb. If I am remembering correctly that one was hard to figure out, but then again it might just be a "T" bulb, but I know that the power/winter buttons will need a little custom fabrication. Looking back on that one I think you might be able to modify one of the sizes (probably the smallest one) of the "T" bulbs and mak it work. You will have to discard the screw in base and wrap the leads around the custom installation of the bulb of the winter/power button.

BE VERY CAREFUL when you are disassembling the power/winter buttons as they are preloaded with a really small spring and ball bearing that will shoot out if you don't take your time.

[LittleBeast]

Oh I also forgot to mention that there is 2 bulbs inside each of these buttons/switches that illuminate when pressed. One is just a "T" bulb, and the other is one of those "T" bulbs but has a green rubber tip on it. So I used one blue for the general illumination of the button and one white for the "on" position.

[wintermute]

Thanks to etlsport, the littlebeast, and hughesdt for the posts and advice on this one. Just wanted to post an update on my progress. I ended up swapping out every light in the cabin with blue LEDs with the exception of the door open cabin light which I swapped for a white LED. In the process since I had the console out, I ended up tackling the project to swap the gauge faces for the electroluminescent Trooper faces in silver. I'm pretty happy with the results.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/2/image21.jpg

[wintermute]

Swapping out the LEDs in the AC climate control unit was a bit of a pain, but I was able to remove the original green LEDs and replace with lovely blue new ones without too much of a hassle:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/image-8.jpeg

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/image-2.jpeg

And console in progress:
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/image-3.jpeg
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/image-4.jpeg

[wintermute]

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/image-1.jpeg

[wintermute]

A better shot of the AC unit. Button LEDs are a little too bright currently for my taste, so the next project is to change out the resistors to knock them down a little.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/ac.jpg

[Jonnie]

Wow!

[whitebreadx]

I this the Web site you bought it from.
http://www.makotoautotrends.com/checkout_payment.php?osCsid=h7hn4qdck0510vqsib30q6 9tm5

[EVO]

That my friend is POPPING!!! NOICE!

[wintermute]

Yeah, that's where I ordered these. They are one of the last places on earth I think that still has some in stock.

I have been looking into custom printed EL gauges with a few different EL panel manufacturers and it seems achievable.

Thanks for the kudos everyone. Would not have been possible without this forum.


I this the Web site you bought it from.
http://www.makotoautotrends.com/checkout_payment.php?osCsid=h7hn4qdck0510vqsib30q6 9tm5

[whitebreadx]

Was it hard yo install the whole unit its self.... I had seen this a couple of mounth back but was too scared to attempt install

[whitebreadx]

Oh and quick question how did you get your shifter like that... that is super nice

[FenderBender]

WOW that is sweet. Nice job

[wintermute]

Installing the dash mods actually wasn't that difficult at all. I was a little wary of tackling the job, but I read through all the posts I could find here and decided that it was very doable. I would say it just requires patience. The hardest parts for me were the actual trimming of the gauge set to fit the Trooper gauges into the VX console. It is a bit of trial and error trimming bits off with an x-acto blade and a straight edge, then checking the fit and placement. The EL material is very thick. It's like multiple layers of sheet plastic. The other hard part is just making sure not to break off the plastic tabs when disassembling and reassembling the dash.


Was it hard yo install the whole unit its self.... I had seen this a couple of mounth back but was too scared to attempt install

[wintermute]

Thanks! Shifter is really easy. Just remove the center console and the plastic shifter cover. Underneath the shifter bezel there is a light assembly mounted to the vertical wall of the shifter assembly that just twists out. You'll see the wire sticking out. This bulb can just simply be removed and replaced with the LED of your choice. It uses the T5 wedge.


Oh and quick question how did you get your shifter like that... that is super nice

[ipd]

Has anyone done a bulb swap on a manual climate control? Anyone know what type/s of bulbs it takes?