chuckd

Link no work

chuckd

I put in my gauges yesterday, and took my dash apart again today to go at the a/c panel. Anybody have any suggestions? I read wild bills stuff, but any other hints would be great. Specifically with wiring. I plan to slice into the original light with a t-clamp, but as far as getting all the leds in there securely is whre I'm at a loss. I'm thinking about running some in series in groups of 2 or 3 to simplifiy things. Thanks

broknlgs24

ok guys and gals. i keep reading and reading about these blue dash lights. i received my gauges from speedhut and installed them already. w/ the dash apart, i was looking into tackling the blue dash lights mod; however, i am confused about something. i noticed that every bulb in the dash is clear (a few have the green condom thing). i looked at the what i am confused about is, even if i change to a blue bulb, i noticed that the colors i do see (mainly green) comes from a film on the actual layers of the gauges (ie. PRMD2L). so, if i just change the bulb, how is it that i will get the blue glow if the color of the layer is green or yellow? is there a way to remove that film?

Wild_Bill

You can take them off real easy, especially on the hazard and defrost buttons, just pick at the corner of the film with a razor blade and it will come right off

broknlgs24

excellent. i'll have to check it out this weekend...

ibsprocket

I'm also looking to do this mod in the near future. There's definitely a lot of helpful information out there. However, I was wondering if anyone has more information pertaining to 98+ (i think) style 4runners. Was there anything in particular that was easier, more difficult, or just plain different between Wild Bill's description and your experience on the new models. Also, does anyone have some pics of their new model with their lights changed. Any help would be much appreciated

Phoenix12

Looks like 194:
http://www.sylvania.com/auto/carapp/

Hope that helps. I'm thinking of this mod meself...

chuckd

For my odo/needles I replaced the three stock bulbs with two blue and a white led. My needles light up well and I can see my odometer in the same blue as my gauges. Some people have complained about having all blue back there being too dark.

chuckd

Bill,, when you drilled the holes for each led behing your a/c, did you take that piece out? I'm just wondering how you did the wiring back there.

Wild_Bill

At the time I did not take it out, just did it all in dash. I ahve since taken out for other reasons, but be for-warned that getting the cables for the controls in out and back in the little clips can be a real pain in ass. The only way I found to get them back in was holding them in place then popping them in with a c-clamp.

chuckd

Got the heater control, ac button, back window, and ect. I found an easy way to do the heater. Take a mini blade fuse and break it, but keep the two blades. Then solder the leds you have wired up onto the flat ends. then stick the ends with holes in them into the top and bottom slots of the original bulb socket. This way i made two strings of four leds each and then just plugged them in. I am going to redo it later in the week with a red behind the heat display. The buttons were easy as well, once I figured out that on the ac and back window positive is the outermost metal thing and negative is inside. I don't know if that makes sense but I think it would if you were looking at it. Not a difficult project once you get started I think.
ibsprocket, I could take some pictures of what my opened buttons and stuff looks like if you would want.

chuckd

Just wondering, has anyone come up with any new way to change the clock?

bike4miles

I don't really convert the stock lighting. I just went all indeglo.

chuckd

I think that heater control would be a bit bright for my taste. But it matches the halo in your gauges. What's that big glowing thing toward the bottom?

bike4miles

That is a not smoking cigerett lighter (doesn't light cigeretts, just lights up ). Got it on ebay along with everything else you see in the picture.

boogyman

do you have a writeup of everything you've done?? I really like the blue lights under the driver's dash.

-Russell

sick4runner

i just converted mine to red led's but my digicam is out so i will post pics later, it took about a half hour to do the dash and only twenty or thirty bucks

bike4miles

No but since your interested I will put one up some time.

boogyman

cool, thanks

Phoenix12

I'm close to pulling the trigger on this but the heater thing has me worried. Pics would be great, and maybe something of a wiring diagram? Did you put a resistor on each LED or just the beginning of the series? Virtually zero experience with this stuff here. Thanks...