97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Tools Needed To Do Bulb Swap
Large and regular size Flathead Screwdriver
Phillips Screwdrivers
Scissors
Reflective material (foil)
Glue
Beer or Mixed Drink of Choice (assuming over 21 of course)

Tools Needed To Do LED Addition
Scissors
Wire Strippers
Soldering Iron
More Beer or Mixed Drinks (assuming over 21 of course)

There are many ways to accomplish this task, I went through several methods through trial and error, I used a spare climate control, which I ended up ruining with super glue. There are several things to take into consideration when doing this mod. My original plan was to solder LED's and resistors onto the board like the 2nd Gen DIY guide, however superbrightleds just came out with the Neo Gen bulbs for the guage cluster and I tried them out and they work great. Here is the bulbs that I used, the size needed is the NEO4-X or NEO 4 mm which when I bought them were the only size they had, they have since added other sizes. Autolumination also sells the same bulbs, but I used the superbrightleds ones because every LED bulb in my car came from them. The LED bulbs are essentially identical to the filament bulbs, only they are led's with resistors built in.


5 bulbs are required, but I bought 6 just so I'd have an extra which came in handy when I had to do the modification.


Let's get started

To remove the Climate Control, use this DIY to remove the wood trim. The climate control is actually attached to the wood trim, be very careful not to snap the wood grain piece, you must remove the long wood grain piece along with the climate control. In addition to the screws that diy shows you, there are also 2 screws holding the climate control underneath the climate control, which requires the center console be removed, you also have to remove the glove box to get to the screw and clips holding the wood grain to the dash. Here is the location of the screws, note the wood grain would still be attached (not shown)


Use a flathead to pop the clips from the back to avoid breaking the clips, to do this lay on your back in the passenger side footwell looking up and push the metal clips with the flathead and slowly work the wood grain out. Once you get the wood grain and climate control out, drop it down and remove the 2 plugs to set it free. Then unscrew the 2 screws holding the cc to the wood, then using a small flathead, gently pry the clips up and pop the cc loose a bit at a time until all clips are removed and you will get it free and ready to go. To open the wood grain, remove the 2 screws holding it together in the back.


Then gently pry the 2 top clips up to pop the top free, then gently remove the bottom 2 to open the cc.

If you're looking for the easy way to swap LED's, simply turn the bulbs about 45 degrees and replace the bulbs with the LED bulbs. The brown are the stock, the gray is the new bulb.


Plug the unit in and turn the headlight switch on to test that all the bulbs are in the correct way, because they are polarized and only work one way.

The light output from the LED bulbs, unfortunetly does not carry all the way down the channels for the Mode|Fan|AC, because the light is more intense and doesn't direct sideways. There are 2 channels that carry the light down to the end to illuminate MODE and Manual.


Here are the channels I am describing, to get to them remove the 6 screws holding down the board, and remove the board. You can leave the wire harness connected or remove it from the back piece to give you more room, however it's a tight fit to get the plug hooked back up.


To help with the light reflection issue, you can use some reflective material to try and redirect the light, or even fashion some sort of mirror, however space is VERY limited, and all the buttons have to push through, I didn't have any tin foil which would have worked way better, so I used a capri sun container, though I don't think it was that reflective.


What I did was cut 2 thin strips the width of the channels, and super glue them into the channels to try and redirect more light. You can eyeball the size by laying the strip along the top of the channel, once you trim them down, you will slide them into the inside upper part of the channels where you will be gluing them.


Then superglue them inside on the top of the channels and use something long and thin to hold the strips in place while the glue dries.


This will help get some more light down the channels, if attempting this BE VERY CAREFUL TO NOT SUPERGLUE ANY OF THE BUTTONS IN BETWEEN THE 2 CHANNELS! Those are the MODE|FAN|AC buttons in between. If you use tin foil you may get more reflection and thorough light output, however this what what I ended up with. You can stop here if you're happy with the results. Plug the 2 plugs back in and turn your headlight switch on to the first position to test the output before putting everything back together.




PART 2: THE "FUN" PART
Now people on here that know me, know my OCD when it comes to details, so the lack of light output getting to the MODE and Manual words bothered me enough to want to try and add some more LED's to the mix. I bought a set of Pilot prewired LED's, but you can get them from superbrightleds or ebay as well, I got my set from an autoparts store.


To do this part, you have to unscrew the 6 phillips screws holding the board to the face plate and remove the cc. After removing the screws, you have to pop the clip on each side holding the board in place.


Here's the idea of what I went for, I trimmed the wires down, and ran 2 led's into the front and into the 2 channels.


If you're gonna be on call for work, do it in style


My first attempt was to run the wires through the nice open holes I found, however these are the holes for the defroster and recirculator buttons to push through, so don't run them through here.

I discovered this failure when I tried to put the cc back together, there is little to no room to run the wires and you have to be rather tricky to run the wires so they don't get in the way of the buttons, because they all push back between the board and front plate.

My solution for running the wires, was to use the existing holes for the wire harness for the cc. Since I was running an LED to both channels, I ran one through the top and bottom. However you have to be very careful how you run the wires, because the board can get stuck on the wires, or the wires can get in front of the buttons.


To power the LED's, simply strip both sets of wires, and twist them together. Then with the board and the back part of the cc with the wiring harness connected, plug the unit back in, and ensure that all your bulbs work if you haven't already, also test your led's and find out which way the positive and negative wires connect, by touching the back of the bulb, make note of this, because it is how you are going to solder the wires to the back of the bulb. Test the bulbs before and after the soldering to ensure they're getting power.
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Carefully pry up the pins on the back of the bulb and hook the sets of wires to them, bend them back down and solder the wires to the bulb pins.


If you solder then run the wires like I did, run them through the top and bottom channels shown above.


After some maneuvering and bending of the wires I was able to tuck them in a way that did not interfere with any of the buttons. Before you screw the cc back together, test ALL of the buttons by pushing them in. The board may sit a bit back from where it used to if it's sitting on the wires at all, but the buttons should still make contact. After you ensure that all your buttons are working (I had the most trouble with my AC button) place the board back down all the way, ensuring that you bent the wires to stay in the channels, this part is tricky and took me several tries. Gently snap the board into place and then gently screw the board back down, but ensure if there is a bulge that you don't over tighten and snap the board. Screw the board down with the plastic cover which you will have to trim slightly to allow the wires to run through cleanly, not much trimming is required. Ensure ALL the buttons work by pushing them, and also plug in the cc and test that your ac and all your cc functions still work. Then you can put the cc back together by snapping the clips back together, and putting the 2 screws back into the back of the cc.

Once assembled, plug it in and give it one final test, before putting everything back together. Then, snap the cc back onto the wood grain, and screw it back on to the wood grain. Then plug the 2 plugs back into the cc and pop it back into place by popping the wood grain clips. Then screw the wood grain and climate control back in from underneath.

The finished product

It has a bit of a hot spot from the LED facing out toward the middle, I could continue to mess with it, but this project took me about a month to complete, and my goal was to get the light all the way down the channels, so I'm happy with it, and it looks better than before. If you have any questions or issues, feel free to PM me.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Phew that writeup took almost 3 hours to write, someone better enjoy this!

Gnate

iTrader: (10)

looks good, thanks for the thorough write-up

Berksallday

First off I just wanna say thanks for putting this up. So I'm on the superbrightleds web site. Should I be purchasing the 4mm NEO4-x which are priced at $1.29? Just wanna be sure before I waste my time by ordering the wrong bulbs.

purple3.0haze

Is there any way to do this with incandecent bulbs

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Yes, the 4 mm Neo4-x is the part number, the bulbs I used had the part number NEO4-G however because the X is the color, so G is green. I updated my error

I'm really confused by this question, you're replacing incandecent bulbs with LED's that last longer and burn brighter

Mach30SiR

I'm wondering too about the incandecent bulbs. It would spread the light and more evenly. I know you can, its a matter of finding the correct colors ect...

Looks great! I just started driving 1.5 hours each way to work, early in the morning. I'm some what regretting the LED swaps I've done, they are so bright. Great work Chris...do you konw of a place that sells regular colored bulbs for this?

Mach30SiR

I just looked at that webpage. those neo4's have resistors already on them?!?!?!?! Where have I been? Thats so much easier than soddering the resisters on. I'll be able to finish up in no time now, its just a matter of swapping the bulbs!! Great find! Thanks!

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

I'm so glad I held off on soldering the resistors, cuz these bulbs came out, SO much easier. I have not found colored bulbs this size, but they are incandescents in there so they exist, just don't know if you can get colored or brighter ones, however the smaller accessory bulbs in all the switches have colored rubber sleeves over them.

ACL512

would these work?
http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/NEO.htm

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Yes that's what I have linked and referenced above, the 4 mm

ACL512

i just asked cause you said that you could find colored ones well they have colored right there that's y i asked

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Um no, I did colored LED's, I said I didn't know of incandescent light bulbs in different colors

ACL512

ooooooooooooooooooooohhhhh. i see well good write by the way.

GRNMCHN03cl

Nice nice. I always wanted to to blue leds behind my speedometer. Wonder how hard it would be.

DoubleSh0t

iTrader: (1)

It's pretty easy. There's a separate DIY for that.

purple3.0haze

I'm really confused by this question, you're replacing incandecent bulbs with LED's that last longer and burn brighter[/QUOTE]

i just want to change it over to a blue or purple bulb

Berksallday

Just curious, does this only change the color of the buttons on the climate control or will this change the color of the center part(where it shows the seat and different speed levels) as well. If this mod doesn't change the center part then how would you do that?

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

There's a diy to do that, I did that WAY before I did my climate control, climate control was done to match the guages

Here's a pic showing that they match, that's before I did the second part of the diy to fill in the cc lighting


LED's are a much better brighter option, that's the point


Yes, it only changes the buttons as pictured, the seats and speed levels are a light up screen like a calculator, they sit behind a green plastic shield. You could try to change the color of that, or put something over it like the clock diy, but it's glued in, so you'd have to do some work but it's possible

starboy2nv

iTrader: (2)

great job chris. i shall be doing this when i get my car back.

TrueNorth

The lights for my "mode", "fan" and "ac" buttons all stopped working at the same time. Could it possibly be a fuse or do I have to replace a bulb.

This DIY is WAY to complicated to a NOOB like me. I am not excited to pull my car apart or mess up my wood trim.

Berksallday

You probably need to replace the bulb.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

It's really not that hard, and it sounds like a bulb that needs replaced

BArtkowsky

one thing i have a question about... The Clock, Climate controls have a reg bulb that twists out already and they are being replaced with soldered in led bulbs? if they are twist out socket bulbs what is the number for the reg bulbs to replace them?

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

they're neo 3 bulbs

datdrkidd92

Hey i decided to change my lights because they havent been working but after doing so they still domt work does anybody know whay can be the problem i was thinking a blown fuse but domt know which one ! A pic would be great! Thanks

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

They are polarized, and only work 1 way, so you can try twisting them the other way.