emelianenkov
New member
[MENTION=87178]NuclearN8[/MENTION]
Get the Neo-3mm bulbs for the knobs. The Neo-4 work for the HVAC screen
Get the Neo-3mm bulbs for the knobs. The Neo-4 work for the HVAC screen
DIY: Interior LED swap (cluster, HVAC, switches, window, *steering wheel)
- Thread starter darkie3495
- Start date
emelianenkov
New member
[MENTION=87178]NuclearN8[/MENTION]
Get the Neo-3mm bulbs for the knobs. The Neo-4 work for the HVAC screen
Get the Neo-3mm bulbs for the knobs. The Neo-4 work for the HVAC screen
O-kay. I have news and good news.
News: I got the EL film, and decided it'd be too annoying to figure out how to wire up an AC inverter just for a backlight, but putting the film up to the back of the screen did in fact yield good results despite the dimness of the film's light output (probably has to do with the minimal stuff-in-the-way between LCD and backlight). Plus it makes an annoying high pitched noise because of requiring AC, that would probably drive me nuts.
Good news:
I changed out the LEDs backlighting my stereo (haven't done it with the HVAC yet, but I suspect it'll work similarly except there might be hotspots) to more of the same LED, but with a resistor with half as much resistance (150 ohms) again.
Daytime does not a lot of difference since more of the light used to see it is from the sun than the backlight but it did help a little.
Night time however is ridiculous. The phrase "night and day" comes to mind.
I did two things to the LED backlights on the stereo LCD: pointed them more directly toward the diffuser plastic piece behind the LCD, and halved the resistor's resistance for each.
Awesomely (by which I mean badly) contrast-balanced pictures are attached. For comparison, note that all I changed between the two pictures is the stereo LCD backlight (and I fixed a broken backlight LED on its right dial; and the car changed location; and the camera angle was a bit different). Before has a broken left LCD backlight as well, but the right side is as bright as it was before it was broken.
So I know not too many of you care about my stereo work but my point is: we could apply this principal of halving the resistance to the HVAC (and possibly getting some nice plastic diffuser film or something to anull hotspots). Same concept as the 12v mod: the LEDs take the same ~3v regardless, we're just letting it have more power by raising voltage or lowering resistance, which balances out in the amps. (The amps control how bright the LED ends up being.)
The only potential problem here is that too much cranking up the power will kill the LEDs faster by making them melt themselves, although mine haven't died yet so 150 ohms (at the original 6 or 7 volts that the stereo backlight contacts give) seems to be ok for the moment.
Edit/Also: in case anyone was wondering, I'm just using a bag of 100 extremely generic cool white bulb LEDs I got from somewhere in china on ebay for $3, and some resistors from Fry's.
News: I got the EL film, and decided it'd be too annoying to figure out how to wire up an AC inverter just for a backlight, but putting the film up to the back of the screen did in fact yield good results despite the dimness of the film's light output (probably has to do with the minimal stuff-in-the-way between LCD and backlight). Plus it makes an annoying high pitched noise because of requiring AC, that would probably drive me nuts.
Good news:
I changed out the LEDs backlighting my stereo (haven't done it with the HVAC yet, but I suspect it'll work similarly except there might be hotspots) to more of the same LED, but with a resistor with half as much resistance (150 ohms) again.
Daytime does not a lot of difference since more of the light used to see it is from the sun than the backlight but it did help a little.
Night time however is ridiculous. The phrase "night and day" comes to mind.
I did two things to the LED backlights on the stereo LCD: pointed them more directly toward the diffuser plastic piece behind the LCD, and halved the resistor's resistance for each.
Awesomely (by which I mean badly) contrast-balanced pictures are attached. For comparison, note that all I changed between the two pictures is the stereo LCD backlight (and I fixed a broken backlight LED on its right dial; and the car changed location; and the camera angle was a bit different). Before has a broken left LCD backlight as well, but the right side is as bright as it was before it was broken.
So I know not too many of you care about my stereo work but my point is: we could apply this principal of halving the resistance to the HVAC (and possibly getting some nice plastic diffuser film or something to anull hotspots). Same concept as the 12v mod: the LEDs take the same ~3v regardless, we're just letting it have more power by raising voltage or lowering resistance, which balances out in the amps. (The amps control how bright the LED ends up being.)
The only potential problem here is that too much cranking up the power will kill the LEDs faster by making them melt themselves, although mine haven't died yet so 150 ohms (at the original 6 or 7 volts that the stereo backlight contacts give) seems to be ok for the moment.
Edit/Also: in case anyone was wondering, I'm just using a bag of 100 extremely generic cool white bulb LEDs I got from somewhere in china on ebay for $3, and some resistors from Fry's.
Attachments
Last edited:
WI_4Runner
New member
Super easy - I had the same issue a few months back. I went to my nearest Toyota dealership and showed this picture to the service counter guys, they knew the exact part and they had bulbs in stock. Few bucks each - would suggest you do ALL 3 at once to avoid having to revisit same issue down road. The bulbs look like little tiny bullets and can be removed with a screwdriver. Pop em out, pop new ones in, secure in place and stick your display back in the dash.
Follow the lead for removing the AC display per this youtube link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfSir5-xIMU
Should take you no more than 5 minutes.
CookieRoe
Senior Member
Your theory of "overheating" the LEDs is valid, don't forget you might also "cook" the HVAC circuits. I don't know how hot it would get if we went your route. Wish you luck on your cheap chinese LEDs, I've had bad luck with them. Buying from ozium (and superbrightleds.com), although more expensive (from china also, but apparently of better quality), are better longevity-wise.
emelianenkov
New member
Nah it would be ok
cmandrews13
New member
Superbright LED's - quick question, I went to replace the NEO 3 bulbs in my switches (Inverter, RSCA, etc ) and found that the Neo 3 from Superbright LED's are too tall for the application, are these able to be ground down to the proper height or any other suggestions?
cmandrews13
New member
Excellent, thank you!!
emelianenkov
New member
gshadow325
New member
just ordered my leds from lighthouse for cluster, steering wheel and doing a ambient light mod. details on the latter to come 
emelianenkov
New member
Also ordered leds to change up my interior. I'm going red. I'm sick of the blue
Ask10
New member
Here comes a very simple moron question from me... 
I'm confused on something very very simple. In the beginning of the write up, the OP says to use PLCC-2 SMT LEDs which when I look them up here at Oznium (3528 Surface Mount PLCC-2 SMT LEDs), they're little square things. But in the write up on the instrument cluster, they look like generic Radioshack LEDs with "bare wires", and in the original bulb housing pics they look different as well.
Compare this to the link.
Did I miss a step where you have to remove the LED bulb from the square casing? I don't mind doing so, I'm just confused on this point because I've never done this before.
Thanks in advance for any clarification.
I'm confused on something very very simple. In the beginning of the write up, the OP says to use PLCC-2 SMT LEDs which when I look them up here at Oznium (3528 Surface Mount PLCC-2 SMT LEDs), they're little square things. But in the write up on the instrument cluster, they look like generic Radioshack LEDs with "bare wires", and in the original bulb housing pics they look different as well.
Compare this to the link.
Here is the orange LED that you want to replace
Here it is after the swap (be careful..you can see my iron accidentally touched the plastic harness next to the LED)
Did I miss a step where you have to remove the LED bulb from the square casing? I don't mind doing so, I'm just confused on this point because I've never done this before.
Thanks in advance for any clarification.
Last edited:
emelianenkov
New member
Working on a project for SEMA. 
arty:
arty:
CookieRoe
Senior Member
Working on a project for SEMA.
teasers??? hints???
Similar threads
