yeah some dood just did it with LED's that acost 4 bucks a peice. hold on i'll find teh write up i saved got it. sorry if you wrote this i dunno who you are

k....I got the answers to this problem as I just changed my HVAC colors last weekend. I had wanted to do this for a long time but thought it would be too much of a headache. Contrary to popular opinion, the color of the illumination is determined by the bulb color. I have seen a lot of people say that it's determined by the color of the lexan or the gauge trim itself. I changed mine to blue and it looks unbelievably tits.

First thing to do is remove that upper vent piece. That's not all that easy because there is a vent cable that runs from the vent piece down to the vent behind the radio. You can detach it pretty easily by opening the glovebox all the way and getting to it from the side. Once the vent piece is loosened, unplug all your buttons up there. Now, there are only two bulbs that illuminate that whole HVAC piece. One of them is located in the top of the a/c button, if you have one. And the other is located at the top of, and behind, the HVAC dial assembly. In order to get to the dial assembly bulb, you must first remove the a/c button. Once you get the a/c button removed, you can remove the dial assembly bulb with a really small set of needle nose pliers. Just use the pliers to perform the 1/4 turn in the clockwise direction as you are looking at it. The bulb in the a/c button is easily found once you get the button removed.

Now, which bulbs to use??? Easy. You don't use bulbs at all. You use LED's instead. And not just any kind of LED. You want to get gallium nitride LED's. They are extremely bright and perfect for the job. They are kind of hard to find in some places and are also kind of expensive (appx $4 ea). But, these LED's are rated to last for 100,000 hours and use less current than bulbs. Plus, you can get them in several different colors. Here is a website for the maker of the LED's that I used (http://www.varad.com). These are the same LED's that are used in Photon lights, which some of you ravers might know something about.

But wait, you can't just hook up these LED's straight to 12v. They are rated at 5-6 volts. So, you need to put a 330 ohm resistor (easily found at Radio Shack) inline on either the positive or negative lead, doesn't matter which. But, just make sure you have the polarity right on the power hookup. The size of the LED is perfect for the dial assembly bulb. I just removed the bulb, cut the leads from the LED down to about 1/4"-1/2" and inserted the leads and LED into the bulb socket, keeping in mind the polarity. I then cut the positive illumination wire (green w/white tracer) and soldered the 330 ohm resistor inline. All of your positive illumination wires in the dash are green w/white tracer. And the negatives are black w/yellow tracer.

You have to be a lil more creative with the a/c button. The bulb in that button is much smaller than the other one and is actually part of the socket. I just removed the bulb, made the hole big enough for the LED to fit into it snugly and inserted LED. You really don't need to glue the LED into the hole if you're careful about how large you make the hole. I then had to do some tricky soldering to get those leads connected. Just make sure you don't forget about the resistor. It only takes one time burning up one of those nice $4 LED's for you to learn your lesson. The same thing can be done for all the other buttons in your dash as well as the cig lighter illumination ring...and even the speedo/tach illum if you want to.

Here's a tip: You know those lil red, blinking LED's that come with car alarms? Well, those bitches are bright as hell and you can use those if you want red illumination. They might look really big in their red, plastic assembly. But, the actual LED can be removed from it's housing and it's extremely small. What you need to do is grab the two wires coming from the LED in one hand and grab the LED itself in the other and pull. If it's being stubborn, you can take some pliers and put pressure all around the housing at the base where the wires come out. That will break the glue seal and enable you to remove it easier. The 330 ohm resistor law applies here with this LED too. You might have a hard time finding some alarm LED's in your local Radio Shack. Try going to your local Circuit City or Best Buy and asking their car stereo installers if they have any extra laying around that they might be willing to sell for about $1 each. Any installer worth their weight should have some and be more than willing to sell them. I should know, I have been an installer for 14 yrs.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions or need help in obtaining the correct LED's, feel free to email me at poplife319@earthlink.net.

GOOD LUCK!
pop


I just got into my dash to start messing with this. I went into it thinking it was going to be a huge project so I ripped apart the center console, took out the radio, disconnected all the cables going to the heat/AC controlls, then I realized has I removed the vent plate at the top then reached behind I coulda had it out in about 2 min.

THIS IS SIMPLE! The toughest part is finding a new bulb! Just get a flathead, pry the center vent plate off, squeze the clips on the sides of that ac switch and pull it out, then reach down in between the on/off switch and the heat level adjuster and turn the bulb socket a 1/4 turn. DONE!

The gotcha.... All the other comonents have the leds built into them. The defrost, rear wiper, ac, fog light, hazard, cruise, all have little pain in the ass leds in them that you gotta switch.

http://www.ocaddict.com

thanks beefgg for the sig