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Old 09-14-2009, 03:39 PM   #1
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HVAC Leds (any Color)

HVAC Leds (any Color)
Parts required:
Soldering gun, solder, Solder flux, Desoldering wick, small tool to pry with (small screwdriver will work), small tool to scratch with (small screwdriver will work here too), 7mm socket, needle nose pliers, 4x270ohm 1/2W resistors. (very important that you get this exact value)

Step 1: Remove shift bezel and radio bezel. Disconnect the wire harnesses and HVAC hoses
Step 2: Remove the HVAC controls. 4x7mm screws (one in each corner) [Ignore the blue circle for now]


Step 3: Remove the knobs from the front, and unclip the black plastic on the front, and back. ( I don't have the knobs removed in the pic below)




Step 4: Pop the circuit board out of its retainer. It shouldn’t take much, so if it’s being stubborn, don’t force it. Pry lightly somewhere else.


Step 5: IMPORTANT. See that white wire clip that’s under my finger? DO NOT PULL THIS OUT LIKE I DID!!!! This isn’t supposed to come off like this. Turn the unit over, and pry the white clip (circled in blue) back, while pushing the two white holes inward. It should push that whole module out through the front. I thought that white wire clip just pulled off… it did… it pulled right off the circuit board. If you do this, you must resolder the wires TO THE BOARD. It’s not hard, but it’s unnecessary.


Step 6: Carefully place the circuit board down, and examine the bulbs. Note where they are, and where their contacts are on the other side. I have them circled in red.






Step 7: Heat the soldering iron, and begin removing the old bulbs. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN WORKING WITH CIRCUIT BOARDS!! See all those little solder joints around? Yes? DO NOT TOUCH THEM. If you join any of the solder spots on the board, things won’t work. Important things.
You can remove the bulbs by heating the back of the contacts, and prying on the front with the needle nose pliers. Don’t squeeze too hard, the bulbs are glass, and they will break. Once the solder is hot, they pull out very easily.


Step 8: Use the desoldering wick to remove the solder from where the bulbs used to be. You will know your done, when you have 2 empty holes like I do. If its sealed over with solder, you didn’t remove enough yet. If you did remove a bunch, and there’s still a little solder “cap” on it… just hit that spot with the soldering gun and try to persuade the solder to each side of the hole. Most of the time it will open itself up. Again, BE VERY CAREFUL TO ONLY DO ONE AT A TIME, WITHOUT TOUCHING ANY OTHER POINTS ON THE BOARD. Also DO NOT HOLD THE SOLDERING IRON ON THE BOARD FOR A LOOONNG TIME. All those light green lines are “traces” they have copper under them and spread power from one spot to another. If they get too warm, they will detach from the board. If this happens, congrats, you fubared it. Get another and try again.
Step 9. Insert leds from the front. POLARITY IS VERY IMPORTANT. If you numbered the lights 1-8; the top 4 left to right, 1-4; the bottom 4 left to right, 5-8 the polarities would apply as such… (THIS IS LABELLING IS AS IF YOU WERE LOOKING AT THE BACK OF THE CIRCUIT BOARD, NOT THE FRONT!)
1 2 3 4
- - + +
+ + - -
5 6 7 8
+ + + -
- - - +

So... 2 pictures up... the 4 holes shown, the top two are negative and the bottom two are positive. They line up vertically. The first negative and the first postive are for bulb #1. The second two holes are for bulb #2... and so on.


All the holes are top and bottom. It will be up to you to determine which side of the leds is positive and which is negative. Positive is the Hot, or 12v wire. Negative is the ground.

Step 10: Place solder flux around the opening of each led, on the back of the circuit board. This step will greatly assist soldering them in place. Even if your solder has flux already in it, use extra around each lead, on each led. Now put a bead of solder on the tip of your iron, and touch the base of each lead, as it touches the circuit board. The flux will pull the solder into place, on the board, around the lead (number 1s in picture). DO NOT TOUCH THE OTHER LEAD OF THE LED. Do one at a time, be very careful. YOU NEED A GAP BETWEEN THE TWO CONTACTS(number 2 in picture below). If you use too much solder, you will join the power and ground, and prevent these from lighting. Not just one, ALL OF THEM.


Step 11: Trim the extra leads off the leds. (do not leave it like the picture below)


Step 12: Take the 4 resistors, twist the ends together, so they are in a cluster, and solder the ends. What you just produced is one resistor with a 70ohm resistance @ 2Watts. This is MANDATORY.



Optional Step, But important Note. TEST BEFORE MOUNTING. It’s important to test each led before you attempt this, you don’t want to get this far before finding out one led is bad… thus making all of them explode. In order to test this, you need a 12V power supply, with your big resistor on one of the test leads. It doesn’t matter which one, just one of them. On the front of the circuit board, you can see the Pins where the connector attaches. (12 pins in 2 rows) On the front, there is a letter in each corner of the little box of pins. The letter you’re looking for is G. The power for the lights, in 3 pins inward, from G. The ground is the pin immediately next to this, farther from G.
G * *(+)(-) * *
Touch your power lead to the power pin, touch your ground to the ground pin. (WITH THE RESISTOR) and you should have 8 lit leds. If you don’t, you did something wrong, go back, and do it again. If they get uber bright, and explode… you did something wrong, go back and do it again (with new leds)
Step 13: Reassemble unit, Scratch off the blue film from the inside of the HVAC controls if you need to.


Step 14: Mount unit
Step 15: Find the gray wire on the harness, Cut it, and solder your big resistor in line with it. Heatshrink it back together, and give it some electrical tape for good measure.


Step 16: Wait for darkness, and kick on your lights. Admire your new colors. Your done.


Incase you wanted to know… math for the resistor:
8 Leds @ 0.020A = 0.16A
13.8V(operating Voltage) – 3.6V (led forward voltage) = 10.2V
10.2V/0.16A = 63.75 Ohm ~70 Ohm

12V*0.16A = 1.92W ~2.0 Watts
Therefore, You need 70 Ohm @ 2 Watts

.... to get 2 Watts, you need 4x 1/2W resistors in parallel… so….

4x70ohms = 280 Ohm. Closest common resistor is 270 Ohm.

270/4=67.5 Ohm @ 2 Watts.
The reason for all the ~ (approximate values) is because all resistors have a tolerance. Most common is 5%.

I calculated this for my white ones (3.6) (which share voltage rating with blue and UV) and then again for the red/yellow/orange, and the resistance remains the same, when you take the 5% tolerance into account.
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Old 09-14-2009, 03:45 PM   #2
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Very good write up! Whats the time involved?
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Old 09-14-2009, 03:45 PM   #3
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If anyone can't figure this out now... I'll personally hit you in the face with a tack hammer... I made this as thoughtless as possible


Time: 3hrs taking your very sweet time

Skill level: Moderate to easy. If you know how to solder, its cake. If you don't, it'll be a little tricky.
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Old 09-14-2009, 03:57 PM   #4
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excellent!

I have some LEDs burned out or very very very weak... Its the ones for the push buttons in my case.

One question about the resistors... Why? Why do you need the resistors but the stock ones didnt?

So what colors did you use and how many LEDs total?

Get us the Rat Shack part numbers! lol

Im going to do this, tomorrow!
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:03 PM   #5
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8 leds. I used white. (skimmer!)

resistors Part number : 271.1112 (comes in a pack of 5 for $0.99)

The stock bulbs are halogen, they run on 12V. Leds do not... so you need resistors.
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:18 PM   #6
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And the last thing...

Looks like you missed 4 of them on the buttons?

You have the actual buttons, my A/C one isnt bright at all... cant tell if its on or off...

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Old 09-14-2009, 04:31 PM   #7
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those green circled ones weren't touched in this mod. I have no idea about them.

I know they are leds(stock), but unknown voltage, or type.
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:52 PM   #8
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The only thing I dont understand is which way you put the leds in the top and bottom holes on the board. Is the top hole + or -. Or does it even matter? I just figured put the long lead through the top hole and the short lead through the bottom hole. Please explain or correct me.
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:54 PM   #9
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reread step 8. I tell you what the holes are, you need to know what lead is + and what lead is - for the leds your using.
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Old 09-14-2009, 05:27 PM   #10
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Ok, I got it now, I might have to look into this.

Also, where you say heatshrink the resistor in-line with the gray wire, you mean cut it, strip it, twist it, solder it, tape it, right or something else?
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Old 09-14-2009, 06:01 PM   #11
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yes. You will need to physically cut that line in half and place the resistors in line with it.

Are the lens in the cover over it colored? Or is this something we can overcome you think?
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Old 09-14-2009, 06:07 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan from Ohio View Post
Are the lens in the cover over it colored? Or is this something we can overcome you think?

i don't know what your referring to... is what lens cover colored?
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Old 09-14-2009, 09:07 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cherrington17 View Post
i don't know what your referring to... is what lens cover colored?

This part:



So trying to make the already blue/red colors into something different would be interesting...
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Old 09-14-2009, 10:23 PM   #14
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i didn't bother with that, since i want it to stay red/blue.

by the looks of it, its a white film on the back, and colored on the front. so.. you could scratch the front off, and leave the white film... BUT i'm not sure how you'd go about having mixed colors then. Maybe mount two leds on the back, at the base of the arch, in different colors, pointing them toward the middle.

i don't know.
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Old 09-19-2009, 12:18 PM   #15
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nice write up Ill be doing this on my spares for practice
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Old 10-07-2009, 04:30 PM   #16
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Bad news... The buttons at the bottom... that lit up blue in my pics...

yeah... they ENTIRE ASSEMBLY is blue plastic. Nothing to scratch off. Gotta live with it, or find out if other models have clear ones with a coating.
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Old 10-07-2009, 04:53 PM   #17
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I bought the stuff to do it, now to just DO IT... lol
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Old 01-09-2010, 10:47 AM   #18
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Ok I know its been some time, but Im finally doing this. I waited until I was switching out my HU.

My main reason here was my A/C button light was out.

After getting it all apart the buttons lights are 3 green 5mm LED's. The Defrost is smaller LED (orange). The rest as Chris pointed out are bulbs.

I will be switching them ALL out except the small orange one.

Also not the clip circled in blue is a real SOB! I pried it out and it snapped off... The plastic is brittle, you would be better off de-soldering the connection at the white plug.

Of course if your doing this project you need to have the proper Soldering Iron. Im using a Weller WLC-100 w.062" tip. Im using Chemwik de-soldering braid as the Rat Shack stuff is worthless crap.

If anyone wants this mod done but doesnt have the equipment I will do it for a nominal fee.
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Old 01-09-2010, 11:11 AM   #19
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And to just note this isnt an job for someone who isnt good with soldering. Heck I thought I was fairly good and I just broke a trace. Now I have to repair it. Argh. Wont be bad though, just amp going to add a jumper wire in its place.
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Old 01-09-2010, 05:20 PM   #20
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Ok all done, tested and fully installed.

Its nice and bright now, thats for damned sure.

The buttons for fresh, recycle, A/C and defrost are LEDs. My A/C was burned out, now its perfect!

If you replace these make SURE you note which side is + and -. I didnt and had to look at Chris's pictures CLOSELY, and then follow traces... I got lucky.

Also note that the LED mounts are a bit different than the bulbs. I ended up breaking two traces and lifting one in this project. I had to run one wire jumper and use the leg of one LED as a jumper.
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