I just finished my LED Swap from Orange to White. Here are my notes to help the next fella! I will try and rank in the most confusing (to me) to the least.
Question: I believe it's normal due to some energy stored in capacitors on the PCB but did anyone else have the LED's flash when desoldering? Thought that was strange. I guess the wick was make the electrical connections. I was worried that I was going to short the board.
As for the HVAC controls and a few other push buttons install was straightforward:
1) Remove the old bulb
2) Guess the direction of LED. Insert new NEO LED. The sizing is obvious. See shopping list below.
3) Install in vehicle and turn lights on. Figure out which ones did not light up then go back and remove them and flip them around. LED's are diodes, they won't allow current in the wrong direction. Just flip em around to get them working.
It's either the DAC or the Center Diff switch, it required trimming of the NEO-3W LED. It doesn't go all the way into the slot because of the length of the LED lens. I just ghetto rigged it by grabbing a steak knife and sawed off the lens to the shortest I could without getting near the metal part of the LED itself.
Install time: 25 minutes.
Other helpful hints in the pics:
*I replaced all Orange LED's with White except for the Low Fuel.
*Notice the lack of "perimeter" LED's on the non-Limited edition.
I also switched out the HVAC controls and miscellaneous switches with the NEO-3's and NEO-4's. It was a simple guessing plug-n-play game.
Lastly my shopping list:
Weller soldering iron (Amazon)
Weller ST7 Extra Tip (Amazon)
Desoldering Wick (Amazon)
Tip Cleaner (Amazon)
Soldering Resin (Slow shipping on Amazon)
PLCC-2 White (Oznium)
*I ordered 30 for $23, only ended up needing 12
NEO3-W 3mm NEO3-x Cool White
Qty: 11 (used 8)
NEO4-W 4mm NEO4-x Cool White
Qty: 5 (used 3)
74-W Cool White
Qty: 2 (used 1)
Total: $26
So in total I spent $50 on LED's (more than I needed to). And the soldering stuff was an investment since I will use it on other projects (such as ongoing headunit install).
- I have the Sport Edition, for us the needle backlight is the backlight for the rest of the gauge. For instance, there are three LED's surrounding the needle for the Speedometer. The way that the light is dispersed it also provides the backlight for the numbers (aka perimeter). Limited gauge has separate LED's going around the perimeter.
- I used 12 white PLCC-2 from oznium. I ordered 26 because I couldn't find a straight answer on this thread about how many I would need.
- Don't forget to take a picture of the needles for reference on reassembly.
- I had to have my Weller soldering iron on highest setting (5) to use the Solder Wick to remove the stock LED's. I found the trick is to hold it just a second longer than you think you need to. No longer than 6 seconds or so. Other than that lift up one side as suggested. DONT FORGET to turn your iron down (I chose level 3) when soldering new LED's on! You only need a insy tiny bit of solder on the new LED's as well
- I used a flathead style tip that came with the iron to remove stock LED, and then used a ST7 Weller tip when soldering the new LED on.
- I used Q-Tips and a little Isopropyl alcohol (70%) afterwards to clean up some gunk.
- When you're finished solder
- Swap Time (not including dissassembly/reassembly): 4 hours.
Question: I believe it's normal due to some energy stored in capacitors on the PCB but did anyone else have the LED's flash when desoldering? Thought that was strange. I guess the wick was make the electrical connections. I was worried that I was going to short the board.
As for the HVAC controls and a few other push buttons install was straightforward:
1) Remove the old bulb
2) Guess the direction of LED. Insert new NEO LED. The sizing is obvious. See shopping list below.
3) Install in vehicle and turn lights on. Figure out which ones did not light up then go back and remove them and flip them around. LED's are diodes, they won't allow current in the wrong direction. Just flip em around to get them working.
It's either the DAC or the Center Diff switch, it required trimming of the NEO-3W LED. It doesn't go all the way into the slot because of the length of the LED lens. I just ghetto rigged it by grabbing a steak knife and sawed off the lens to the shortest I could without getting near the metal part of the LED itself.
Install time: 25 minutes.
Other helpful hints in the pics:
*I replaced all Orange LED's with White except for the Low Fuel.
*Notice the lack of "perimeter" LED's on the non-Limited edition.
I also switched out the HVAC controls and miscellaneous switches with the NEO-3's and NEO-4's. It was a simple guessing plug-n-play game.
Lastly my shopping list:
Weller soldering iron (Amazon)
Weller ST7 Extra Tip (Amazon)
Desoldering Wick (Amazon)
Tip Cleaner (Amazon)
Soldering Resin (Slow shipping on Amazon)
PLCC-2 White (Oznium)
*I ordered 30 for $23, only ended up needing 12
NEO3-W 3mm NEO3-x Cool White
Qty: 11 (used 8)
NEO4-W 4mm NEO4-x Cool White
Qty: 5 (used 3)
74-W Cool White
Qty: 2 (used 1)
Total: $26
So in total I spent $50 on LED's (more than I needed to). And the soldering stuff was an investment since I will use it on other projects (such as ongoing headunit install).
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