Blue Leds In The Gauges...

[PlainOldOlds]

Ok, so I ordered some blue inverted lens LEDs off eBay, to throw in the gauge cluster. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not, but I only paid about $11 for them, so why not.

[attachmentid=9462]

A loose LED 194, a stock condom wraped 194, and one fitted with my trusty butane powered soldering iron...

I had to really work to get the 194s out of the condoms, the rest was easy. The plastic bases of the LEDs slid right in, and I just bent the wires over and dropped a little solder on them.

[PlainOldOlds]

[attachmentid=9464]

Here is one going in my center console, to show what they look like lit up. They light a deeper blue than they look in the picture, more on that later.

[PlainOldOlds]

[attachmentid=9465]

Here is a side by side.

[PlainOldOlds]

[attachmentid=9466]

Here's the end result.

[PlainOldOlds]

[attachmentid=9467]

And a wide shot. The red glow is from the 3 red 9 LED arrays I have in the dome and mirror. I got them months ago, they (and 2 red 194s on the floor) came from superlumination.com, who I would buy from again. Not the cheapest, but reasonable and with quick shipping. These blue 194's came from "besthongkong" on eBay, and he took his sweet ass time shipping them, but they were cheap and worked very well.

Overall I'm happy. They are a little bit of a deeper blue than most LEDs I've seen, and going through the blue filter built in to the cluster the color is a little deeper than I'd like, but it looks real tight. Well worth my $11 and the hour it took to do it. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Opinions?

[2fst4u]

yeah, the inverted tip seems to spread the light well. i'm likin it. easy mod, nice look.

[Cyber Knight]

That turned out beautifully, well worth the time and money (even tho it wasn't much).

[Pilate]

Looks sweet...definately cheaper than buying new gauge faces. Are your stock needles orange??? Mine are white.

[PlainOldOlds]

Thanks guys!

My needles are orange, but as you can see with blue lights they end up the same color blue as everything else. I'd love to have them light up white. I'm considering messing with them a little, but it looks like a real PITA. I think I'm going to focus on the A/C controls next.

[cherrington17]

definitely seems to spread the light really well.

now you got me thinking if i want to do this.... hmm....


nice job. thanks for the pics too. i've heard alot of people do this, but not many take pics to show what it ends up like. :thumb:

[PlainOldOlds]

It's only 6 small bolts. 2 holding the plastic shroud, 4 holding the cluster down. The bulbs twist right out.

Here is the how-to I got my inspiration from:
http://invision.aleromod.com/index.php?showtopic=3387

[PlainOldOlds]

Oh! I just realized I should add... when you try to remove the 194s from the bases, the thin glass "plug" on the back of the bulbs will break apart by where the wires come out... but most of it won't fall out until you finally get the bulb free. So do it over a workbench and make sure you don't get little shards of glass all over the floor, on your pizza, etc.

[whiteliquid]

Here are my guages, i changed my lights out a while back, i didnt know that you could change the ones out from under your shifter tho, thx for the idea.

Pics are crappy quality had to put a neon tube close to the dash just to get the guages to show in the pic(guages are very bright in person, camera just sux)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/LILD23/000_0093.jpg

[PlainOldOlds]

Woah... your post sucks, so long as I have to side scroll to see each line of yours and mine... fix your damn images... It was all properly formatted until you posted! I hate to say it, but I hope an aleromod.com mod deletes your post , and this response to it, to fix my thread...

[freakout]

Looks damn good. So they make an inverted tip for leds now? Gotta get me some and get rid of the circles on the floor.

[El Pablo]

thats pimp dood

[cherrington17]

freakout, just take a dremel and sand down the tips of your current ones. just make it flat... that'll get rid of your "spots"

[PlainOldOlds]

Sorry for biting your head off, [/drunk]
You do need to resize that though. :P

[freakout]

thanks

[PlainOldOlds]

After a few days of driving with my blue cluster, I have to say I LOVE IT!
But the A/C and Radio next to it, it looks out of place...

My next focus is the A/C controls, which I hear are soldered to the control unit.

I haven't taken mine apart yet, so I don't know... But I'd like to color match the
blue 194s in my cluster and see what it looks like, they seemed too blue but now
that I've gotten used to them, I like it!

Only thing left after that, is the radio! ;)

[cherrington17]

smlz did a good job w/ her radio. Check the how to for that...

and i think you can get blue 3mm leds from oznium which would probably fit into the control cluster.... if/when you do the control part, take some pics.. i want to see what one looks like incase i deside to do mine. :thumb:

[PlainOldOlds]

I took apart a spare I bought to hack at today. The bulbs
are indeed soldered in to the circuit board, and right down to the
base, just as had been reported. Main lighting is done with incands,
the buttons are another story.

I'll post all about it when I can upload the pictures, I'm considering
my options, and will post again soon!

I'll go look for Smlz's radio...

[cavaliers60]

How many LED's did you use for the cluster and the shifter lights??? I don't really want to take my dash apart twice... once to figure out how many, and twice to put them in. lol Looks really cool, I want blue like that to go with my midnight blue alero. Thanks for this neat mod.

[PlainOldOlds]

5 in the cluster (I think, lol!) and 1 in the shifter. Someone has posted a picture of the openings and polarity on the back of the cluster, search for guage cluster.

The shifter does look a little bit brighter around N/D even with the inverted LED but it's not bad. You should look for that other thread, he used 3 standard sized LEDs per opening in the cluster, after trying 1 and not being happy... I tried a single 194 mount (much easier) first and was happy enough... but his way is probably brighter.

As for taking it apart twice, I just drove around with the cluster unscrewed and the trim off until I got my bulbs, it lays right down in there even without being screwed down. It's not pretty, but it's fully drivable without the 6 screws and trim piece. :)

Sorry I haven't had an update on the a/c controls yet, I've been busy trying to stop the water from coming in through the doors, among other non-Alero things!

I used black silicone caulk on the passenger side door, above where the stock (and poorly installed) butyl was... It was 64 out today (WTF? This weather is VERY unusual in NJ!) so after 2 days to cure, I hit it with the hose and it seemed to work well enough, so I put the interior panel back on.

It's a temporary fix... removing the stock adhesive didn't seem to be going anywhere and it's cold out. Caulk stinks a few days when curing under ideal temp, but who cares... I'm a man I can deal with that!

I'm probably going to do the driver side Monday if it's not raining or snowing. In a few months when it warms up more, I'll probably re-do both doors the right way, with new plastic and butyl.

Anyway, I'm thinking about trying to find little bulb condoms to go over the stock incands in the HVAC controls, I really don't want to try desoldering them from the circuit board and installing LEDs there, because my soldering skills suck. I'm sure I'll have to, but I'm trying to avoid it. Either way I'm determined to change color of the HVAC controls (and maybe the radio) before summer rolls around.

[cherrington17]

circuit board soldering is quite easy. espicially w/ leds. they only work one way. find the leads on one side, follow through to the other, and hit it w/ the gun. then repeat for installing.

... w/ all the LED work i've done, i've found we have alot of members afraid of soldering... :lol:

only one way to get better at it! :thumb:

[PlainOldOlds]

Oh believe me, I've done my share of it... I just try to avoid it.

[eag182]

Yes I tried but never got the hang of it. Its not fun to work with a 300* piece of metal so close to your skin.

[cavaliers60]

I think for the cd player, I'm just getting a new one... My stock one is crap... Skips all the time...

[cherrington17]

Yes I tried but never got the hang of it. Its not fun to work with a 300* piece of metal so close to your skin.


ohhh, the burns i have... but its good to get a project done and done well. if it costs a few patches of skin... i don't care. skin grows back. :lol:

[PlainOldOlds]

I think my main problem, is I need a good adjustable power iron. I have an electric I paid $1.99 for 10 years ago, it gets way too hot... and a butane one, which is a gem on the road, but really is no good for fine work. Its great for attaching RF connectors to coax or soldering power connectors, but you can't really use it on a circuit board.

[cherrington17]

that makes sense. now that you mention it, i'm completely burned through the tip on my "good" one. i have a 45W one that will melt anything. :lol: its a little too high, but good for doing small stuff.... i can heat it up, unplug it and work for a little while. (as well as silver bearing stuff... needs to be ridiculously hot)
but i have a 20W one thats perfect for car stuff... but the tip is toast on it.

and sry... kinda pirated your thread. doh!

[PlainOldOlds]

Its ok this thread is a mess anyway, I even flipped on a large image poster while drunk one night. It's all good. :)

In other news, it rained hard today and the passenger door didn't leak... once the rain stops I can fix the drivers side and move on to the rest of the interior lighting while huffing the fumes. :P

[cherrington17]

i think i've taken a full year off my life w/ all the solder i've breathed just setting up the second "theme" of lights in my car. :o

.... CAN'T WAIT to take a few more off... :biggrin:

[slowandlow]

can you post a link to where you got the led? i rended a g6 last week and the red was sweet i would eather do red or blue.