I have done it for the community, but it had a price to pay which was too much for what I have done (to see the payment go all the way down) Also please feel free to correct my english.

BTW Good luck finding that light bulb I still have not found one, they don't sell it in the auto parts stores and dealer only sells the switch as an assembly

Tools Required:

A pair of medium sized DSM trained treeshade mechanic hands.
A Swiss army knife(with a flat screw driver) or a small flat screw driver (like the one used to open up hand watches)
A piece of cloth

Step One:

Pry open the switch board. I did it with my fingers, however if your hands are too big or the board is too tight inside use a flat screwdriver wrapped in a cloth to pry it open.



Step Two:

Disconnect the wire harness by pressing small tabs on the harness, shown with red arrows in the picture.



Step Three:

Look at the back side of the switch, you can see there a small hole with two contacts, that is our light bulb you can use voltmeter to check if there is voltage on those contacts and be sure that the light bulb is burned and you don't have anything shorted. Make a quarter turn in counter clock wise direction to unscrew it. You can now try to pry it form there with a small screw driver. When I tried it was possible but was leaving little nicks on the switch I did not like that and proceeded with opening the switch.





Step Four:

Open the switch by inserting the screwdriver between the cover and the wall of the switch on the back side. Try to unhook the two small teeth as you apply the some pressure to open the witch. Be careful if you pull too much the switch might open too fast and you will loose a little rubber piece used to short the buttons or the 4 way button that you press to adjust the mirror. Don't move the screw driver too much so you don't damage anything inside just try to get the two locks on that wall, I applied almost no force to get it open.



Step Five:

Now turn the switch over and push out the little yellow light bulb.
Reassembly is the reverse of the steps above except you may tighten the bulb as you put it in, or at a later time, also make sure that rubber buttons are in their original positions and the 4 way switch is firmly in place.



LED PART

I had a blue 5mm led handy, so I connected it and tried to see what it will look like inside. It can fit very tight and nice in there but dose need some careful direction adjustment so that the switch is illuminated evenly. Note my ghetto voltage source from the lighter, DONT dot it like that.

1st picture is LED in total darkness
2nd picture is LED with one reading light on ( I have sunroof so I don't have one dome light)
3rd picture is LED with two reading lights on

Picture are out of focus cuz #1 no flash #2 shaky hands

I think it looks pretty good





The Price I had to pay:

While I was playing with camera, switch and LED some mother fucker made a U turn and scratched my moms car and I didn't see it cuz I was too busy

I just want to get some feedback. This is my first attempt at a DIY.

Is this understandable? Is this useful? Did I screw up the grammar? How is the picture size? Etc…

Originally posted by gramozeka
I just want to get some feedback. This is my first attempt at a DIY. Is this understandable? Is this useful? Did I screw up the grammar? How is the picture size? Etc…

pic size is pretty big but thats okay. looks like a 15 minute job.

It looks good, but I'd rather have a teal backlight to go with my other HVAC colors.

Everyone and their mom does blue.

Very nice work, i will start working on adding this sometime sunday.

For a write-up added to the mainsite, i would say picture size is fine. for the forum its kinda big but considering we are putting this on the mainsite and i need to save the picts to add them, you did just fine.

Points awarded and i have save this to my pc

To all:

I did not leave the led in there I just tried it out to see how it looks. Doesn't make sense to have everything amber and that thing blue. If u deside to conver you will have to get creative with the power source, it is not too bad though.

eclipse982nrRST :

Just to replace the light bulb it took me less than 15 min. If LED is your goal it will take a little more time.

dsmmyth:

I agree but you can use any color LED in there, don't use white I tried it didn't look good... Came out kinda yellow.

Star Turbo Talon:

Dude I remember u said u might have a spare switch with a light bulb? Can you check if u still do? Now you can take out the light bulb using my DIY, and send it to me :-D

You wouldnt need to change a power source for the LED, LED's in general require less power to illuminate.

Gram i got the write-up on the mainsite, the pictures will take me a day to get hosted and added. As for the lightbulb, i will see what i have for ya.

Have you tried a light bulb from a maglight? they are very small too

Terry

On step three you are not checking voltage, you are checking resistance.

eclipse_99rs:

Yes you are correct if you are checking the light bulb, what I did but have not realize that I expressed it wrong in the write up is that I decided to check if the voltage is bing supplied there so while the switch was plugged in and lights turned on I checked for voltage.

For the purpose of this write up you are correct. I have changed step three see below if it is acceptable now.

Star Turbo Talon:

Step 3 should be replaced with this:

BTW I first typed this up and than cheked that you already chaged it good job. Here how I would have done it, but your way works also, short and to the point

Look at the back side of the switch; you can see there a small hole with two contacts that is our light bulb. You can use voltmeter when the switch is plug in and the lights are on to check if there is voltage being supplied on those contacts. Once the switch is unplugged you can use ohmmeter to ring through the light bulb to check if it is burned out indeed. Make a quarter turn in counter clock wise direction to unscrew it. You can now try to pry it form there with a small screw driver. When I tried it was possible but was leaving little nicks on the switch I did not like that and proceeded with opening the switch.

Back to your remarks I think the light bulb come together with the plastic base that u can see from the back side of the switch, I was unable to take that apart, so I think it is a very specific light bulb. I didn't want to abuse it and I was also very careful about the amber condom on the light bulb but now I don't care I will try separate the light bulb form the base.

The voltage source is abundant there it is just that I wouldn’t mess with the switch print board, but rather hack in to the wire harness. It is hard to explain but the little contacts that are used by original light bulb are very small and it will be hard to solder anything in there, it is possible and if done will be a very neat thing.

Also do you think u can put my Name some where in there?

Thanks