The Complete DIY LED Conversion Project

Difficulty Level: If you have ever wired in a stereo you can do this mod. Do it at your own risk!

Total Items Needed for Complete Conversion.
~38+ 5mm 2400+mcd 20mA LED's
~7 3mm 2000+mcd 20mA LED's
Two 760 Ohm Resistors
Two 600 Ohm Resistors
One 330 Ohm Resistor
Three 220 Ohm Resistors (You don't have to use these exact size resistors. You could use Seven 220 Ohm resistors but you run the risk of the LED's not lasting as long.)
Soldering Iron
Solder (not plumber solder)
Solder sucker or Solder wick
Wire Cutters
Wire (I used wire wrap. Very thin stuff. You can use a little thicker but don't use too thick. Too hard to work with!)
Wire strippers
Philips screwdriver
Stubby philips screwdriver
Small flathead screwdriver
Eyeglass Flathead screwdriver
Shrink wrap or electrical tape/liquid electrical tape
Crazy Glue

Number of LED's = Size of Resistor to use. (15mA used, LED's are 20mA but I didn't want to max them out.)
1 LED = ~760 Ohm
2 LED = ~720 Ohm
3 LED = ~680 Ohm
4 LED = ~640 Ohm
5 LED = ~600 Ohm
6 LED = ~560 Ohm

Any more than that and use this formula to find the Resistor value
# of LED's times .6 = (a)
12v - (a) = (b)
(b) divided by .015 = Resistor value

UNHOOK THE NEGITIVE FROM YOUR BATTERY TO REMOVE THE POWER TO YOUR CAR BEFORE DOING ANY WIRING, CUTTING, OR SOLDERING. AFTER REMOVING POWER, WAIT 30 SECONDS FOR THE CAR TO DISCHARGE.
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The Removal of The Center Console

Items needed for this part.
Flat head screwdriver (small).

1. Remove the Ash Tray inner liner. I just pops out.
2. Place a flat head screw driver under the center console in the ash try and pry gently until the right hand corner "pops" open.

3. Holding the center console from the bottom (in the ash tray)with your left hand, work your way around the center console with the flat head screw driver gently prying the center console open with your right hand.

4. Once you've worked your way around the center console it will be attached by 5 cables. Three at the top. Two at the bottom. All the cables are keyed and have tabs to push to release them.

This ones kinda hard to remove. Use your thumb and squeeze it between the top of the white connector and bottom of the black connector. Press hard.

5. Congrats! you have the Center console out. Now time to change those HVAC dial bulbs!

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HVAC BULBS

Items needed for this part.
philips screwdriver
(At least) Eleven (I used 22) 5mm 20mA 2400+mcd LED's
Three 3mm 20mA 2000+mcd LED
Soldering Iron
Wire (not too thick)
Solder (not plumbing solder)
Crazy Glue
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Two ~220 ohm resistors
One ~330 Ohm resistor

1. Remove the HVAC dials.

2. Turn over and remove the 4 screws from the back.

3. Dail Bulbs
Looking at the dials from the back, looking at the clear reflectors; Only the Temperature Dial (LEFT) works with one LED. Even Suprebrite LED's are not bright enough to put enough blue through the clear plastic pieces of the other two dials, RIGHT and MIDDLE dial. So we will need to remove the plastic light-reflectors of the right and middle dial so that we can mount LED's in front of each number/setting.
Each clear reflector has one screw. Remove them, then the reflector.

3b. Once you have the reflectors removed you can begin placing the LED's in there spots. I pointed the longer (positive)leg/pin of each LED toward the center of the dial. I bent the positive leg down and applied "Crazy glue" to hold the led in place. I left the shorter(ground) leg alone.

Once I all the LED's in place. I soldered a wire to all the positive (bent/longer) pins. Then I soldered a wire to all of the shorter (ground) pins. NONE OF THE SHORTER PINS SHOULD BE CONNECTED TO THE LONGER(BENT) PINS!! Longer pins are connected to longer pins and shorter pins are connected to shorter pins. For the middle dial I used 12 LED's so I soldered a 330 ohm resistor, one side to the longer (bent) pins and the other side of the resistor to a wire that I ran from positive on the control board. I soldered a wire from the shorter(ground) pins and ran it to the control circuit board as well. Then I trimmed all the wires using wire cutters. I did the same for the other dial but I only used 10 LED's on it and used two 220 ohm resistors in series instead of the 330ohm . DO NOT put ALL of your 22+ LEDS in serires! I have 12 LEDS that go to one 12v source and 10 LEDs to another 12v source. Both dials do NOT got to the same power (bulb) source. Put everything back together.


The bottom Right image shows all the LED's and resistors in place. The other pictures show different stages I went through before I finished with the Bottom Right (the way I currently have the LED's setup). I started with just one LED for every setting but found it wasn't bright enough for me, so I added more LED's and changed the resistor from where you see it on the other pictures to where you see it on the bottom right picture. Also the bottom right picture has the control board upside-down compared to the other pictures. It's no biggy, just remember which side is positive on the control board.

3c. If you choose to do as I did and only put one LED into the Temperature Control Dial, then all you do is remove the bulb from the control board. Do this by removing the three screws that hold the control board on. Turn the control board over and turn the bulb (like you would to remove any bulb). Solder the positive lead/leg to one end of a 760 ohm resistor. Make it short. Solder the resistor right at the top where the lead goes into the LED. Feed both the resistor and the ground lead through the big hole and "bend the other side of the resistor" up through the "small positive hole" of the control circuit board.

Bend the ground lead of the LED through the "small ground hole" on the control circuit board. Make sure the new LED is the same height as the old Bulb use to be. Solder both leads. Cut the excess leads off.

4. Button Bulbs
To replace these LED's you will need three 3mm LED's.

Make a mental note as to the way the LED's are to go in by looking at the LED that is still in the control board. Look at which way the big piece is facing. look at the picture above for reference. Replace one LED at a time.
Remove the control circuit board by removing the 3 screws holding it down, If you haven't already. Turn over the control board and remove the solder from one of the LED's using a solder sucker or solder wick. Remove the old LED. Slide the new LED in, facing the same as the old one, until it can not go any further and solder the ends. Cut off the excess leads. Place the control board back into the case and screw it down.

The Left dial has 10 LED's. The middle dial has 12 LED's. The Right control only has one.

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Fog Light

Items needed
flathead screwdriver
eyeglass flathead screwdriver
220 ohm resistor (Or higher ohm resistor so long as it is very small in SIZE. Don't go any smaller in OHM RATING!)
One 3mm LED 20mA 2000mcd

1. Remove the fog light. Do this by pressing the clips that hold the fog light in and press from the back to the front of the console cover.

2. Open the switch. Look at where the cable plugs in and you will notice a small hole. Small enough to get a #1 flat head screwdriver in and pry (not too hard!). We do this to apply pressure on the clips. Using a eyeglass flathead screwdriver pry the side open enough for the clips can slide under. Repeat for all 4 clips. Each clip will "pop" free because of the pressure being applied by the other #1 screwdriver.

3. Once the switch is open. Remove the LED by twisting the bulb and pull out.

4. This is where it's going to get tricky because you have to fit a resistor and an LED in a certain area. You can not have the resistor stick out past the sides because it will catch when sliding it back into the console. It has to sit flush.

5. To do this you will need to bend the LED and make sure that it doesn't stick out too far because it will hit the switch when you press it. The negative lead of the LED will be soldered directly to the negative on the switch. The positive Lead will be soldered to one side of the small 220 ohm resistor and the other side of the resistor is soldered to the positive side of the switch.

6. Once the Switch is back together, slowly place the switch into the console. If ya feel any binding, your resistor caught the side, remove switch and try again :)

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Ash Tray and Cigarette Lighter

You can buy replacement LED bulbs from Superbright.com for the Cigarette Lighter and Ash Tray. The LED Bulb is a #74. If you dont want to wait for these to be shipped to you and you have a couple of LED's in-hand; you might as well continue with this DIY.

Items Needed for this part.
Soldering Iron
Solder (Not plumbing solder)
Stubby philips screwdriver
wire cutters
wire strippers
wire shrink wrap
Two 760 ohm resistors
Two 5mm 20mA 2400+mcd LED's
eyeglass flat head screwdriver

1. Grab the stubby philips screwdriver and remove the four screws that hold the Ash Tray(A/T) cover on.

2. Now you can reach the Ash Tray bulb. Grab a hold of the bulb connector and twist and pull. It should come out easy.
3. Grab the wire cutters and snip the bulb connector off the wire (keep the bulb connector as we are gunna re-use it to hold the LED in place).
4. Strip some insulator off of the green(positive) and black(negative) wires.
5. Take the connector and remove the bulb. Then using a very small flat head screwdriver pry the pins out of the bulb connector. Do this by putting the flat head screwdriver behind the back of the pins and pry away the center. Then push them through the bottom. Now you have an empty bulb connector.
6. Take your 5mm LED and place in the bulb connector, each leg(pin) feeds through each hole.
7. Solder one end of the 760 ohm resistor to the longer of the two legs(pins). Cut enough shrink wrap to cover both the 760 ohm resistor and the Green wire with a White stripe whose got an stripped end. Place the Green wire through the shrink wrap you just cut. Solder the other end of the 760 ohm resistor to the Green wire. Slide the shrink wrap over the exposed wire and 760 ohm resistor. Heat the shrink wrap to shrink it to the exposed areas.
8. Cut another piece of shrink wrap to cover the black wire and short leg of the LED. Solder the Black wire to the short LED leg(pin). Slide shrink wrap over and heat.

9. Repeat for the Cigarette lighter bulb.

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Ignition key light

I can tell you how its supposed to work but I haven't been able to remove the bulb, yet.

1. While the center console is off, reach in behind the Ignition switch by going over the stereo. Grab the black connector (you can see it, its facing the stereo), twist the black connector and pull. I got the bulb connector to unhook and pull out a little but couldn't get it to come out all the way.

2. I can only assume you would do the same as the rest of this DIY by pulling the bulb, replacing it with a 3mm LED and resistor while still using the stock connector (just like the ash try and cigarette lighter).

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Trunk and Glove compartment Lights

Items Needed for this part.
Flat head screwdriver
Solder Iron
Solder (not plumbers solder)
Two 600 Ohm Resistors
TEN 5mm 20mA 2400+mcd LED's

Trunk
1. There is two types of Trunk lights. There is also two types of wiring done to these lights. Some of the wiring is Positive (red) wire to the short side and the black or green (ground) is wired to the long side. And vice versa. The picture on the left was not taken by me, it was taken by Labmixz (he also has a LED DIY) at Newtiburon.com(http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91)

Image on the left shows positive to the short side and negitive to the long side but the image on the right show the opposite. Make a note of which way your trunk and glove box is wired.

2. Remove the Light by placing a flat head screwdriver in the slotted section and prying it out.

Look at where the RED wire goes. IF the red wire goes to the short side, follow the instructions. If the Red wire goes to the Longer side, do the instructions the same but wire the LED's long leads to the resistor and the resistor to the longer side and the ground leads (short leads) of the LED's to the short side.

3. Remove the negative off of the car battery. This is to prevent a fuse from blowing. 10mm wrench used to loosen the nut.

4. Unplug Light. Press the release button on the side facing out.

5. Remove Bulb. Pry the long end away from the bulb so that it can slide out sideways.

6. Replace by placing 5 LED's in line tying all the long leads together by bending them horizontally and soldering them together.

7. Solder the one side of the 600 ohm resistor to the sort side of the bulb housing. (unless your wiring is backwards, in which case, solder 600 ohm resistor to the long side).

My trunk was backwards so this is why the pictures shows the long side as positive.

8. Bend the short leads of the LED to the opposite side of the longer leads.
So the Longer leads go one way and the short leads go in the opposite direction. Place the short leads through the hole of the longer side of the bulb housing. Solder the short leads together and where the leads come through the hole.

9. Solder the long leads of the LED's to the resistor.

Again, My trunk was wired backwards so the image above reflects that. The picture above also shows two resistors and that's because I couldn't find a 600 ohm resistor so I put a 220 ohm resistor and a 330 ohm resistor in series, which adds their resistance's together. This gave me 550 ohms resistance, which is close enough for the girls I go with. (j/k)

10. Cover your connections with electrical tape or liquid electrical tape so that the connections do not short.

11. Reconnect the light and close the trunk.

12. Hook the battery back up (just to test the light).

13. Open the trunk. The light should come on. If it didn't come on then you probably have something backwards, Unhook the battery, check the wiring, and the direction you installed the resistor and LED's.

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Windows Door Switches

Items needed
Philips screwdriver
Three 3mm 2000+mcd LEDS
Soldering Iron
Solder (not plumbers solder)
wire cutters
eyeglass flat screwdriver

1. Remove the two screws at the front of the door.

2. There are three screws at the back of the door. They are hidden by screw "caps". Pry them out with a eyeglass flat screwdriver.

3. There is a "slot" or "hole" in the top of the handle that is big enough to fit a big flathead screwdriver. Pry the top half of the handle off. It should "pop" out.

4. With the "half handle" removed, four screws need to be removed. The screw at the bottom of the handle might not need to be removed, but I did anyway. Just in case :)

5. To get the door skin off, start at the front corner by the tweeter and pull the door skin free. Work around the door until you get back to the window on the other side. Here you will notice that the door skin must LIFT UP to unhook from the door.

6. Once you have the door skin completely free unclip the cables.

7. To remove the window control switches, unscrew two holders and press the tab in, located in the middle.

8. Once the window control switches are free, you will need to remove the switches from the case to get to the control board. To do this, (from the side that has the white connector) locate the first set of clips found on each side (three of them per side)press the window LOCK switch and pry (gently)until it lifts up. Keep doing this for all 6 clips. Then go to the second set of clips and this time press the windows up/down switches with one hand and pry (gently). I'm talking about the second set of clips down from the side that has white connector.

9. On the drivers side door control board has two 3mm LED's. These LED's are bent.

10. There is two ways of replacing the stock 3mm LED's.

10a. Way #1. Make a note as to the orientation of the LED so you know which way to install the new LED. Cut the LED OFF just under the LED. Cut the NEW LED legs short and Solder to the remaining legs. Make sure it's still the same height as the old LED. Do the same with the other LED.

10B. Way #2. Make a note as to the orientation of the LED so you know which way to install the new LED. Turn the control board over and locate the LED solder hole. Using a Solder Sucker or Solder wick, remove the solder from the LED's solder hole. Remove the LED. Bend the new LED the same as the old LED. Install the New LED and check for proper height. Turn the control board over and Solder. Cut off excess leads. Repeat for the other LED.

11. Re-install everything.

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Blue Door Lights DIY

Items needed
Dremel
florescent lense cover
clear silicone
small flathead screwdriver
2 168/192 superbrite LED replacement bulbs (Http://www.eautoworks.com listed as "22498-T11 super bright LED Wedge bulbs OEM light Bulb with Build in 4 super LED. Manufactory part no: 194 , 168 , 158 , 12256 , 12961 ��� (BLUE LED ONLY)." or use this link but I have no idea as to how long it will last Click Here for Super brite LED Wedge bulbs
scissors
paper or cardboard

1. You will need to remove the red lense cover. There is six spots that hold the cover on. Three on the top, Three on the bottom. Remove top off first by putting the flathead screwdriver behind the red lense and prying towards you. Be careful not to get behind the white shell that is holding the red lense.

2. The easiest way to remove the old bulb by pulling toward you and rocking the bulb back and forth. Replace the bulb with the LED replacement bulb.

3. Take the red lense and put it on a piece of paper. Trace the lense on the paper and then cut it out with a pair of scissors. Take the paper over to the florescent lense and trace the pattern out on the inside of the lense.

4. Using a dremel, cut out the lense. Once the lense is out round off any sharp corners and flatten any bumps.

5. To keep the clear lense replacement in its place, apply two or more dabs of clear silicone and allow to dry.

Image on the left show the stock light and image on the right show the new blue LED light.

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