A/C, De-mister replacement back light

mongoose15

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Lifetime Premium Member
A few people, have said that their dash light for the A/C and demister switch is blown. After trawling through Google and a trip to mitsu :evil: , i decided to make my own.
So here we go.

Tools:
Soldering iron + solder
flat blade screw driver
jewelers screw driver set
small pair of side cutters

DSCF2611.jpg



most importantly you'll also need one T5 led for each switch. I used some from Jaycar
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD

but any T5's should do, like these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2X-T5-1-SMD- ... 43a25f02f0

Step one

Remove air con surround panel using flat bladed screw driver.
(i forgot to take a pic at this stage so heres the one from latez dash light diy)

download/file.php?id=282


Step two

To remove the A/C and demister button reach in behind them and push them out towards you

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Step three

Disconnect the plug from the back of the switch
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Step four

Using a small flat jewelers screw driver pries the top half of the switch off these two little clips

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We are only interested in this part

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Step five

Grab your T5 led and carefully remove the actual LED and any resistors etc. from their plastic housing

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As i was using the led from jaycar i had to use the small side cutters to crack the led however the leds from ebay may just push out once the legs are straightened

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Step six

Now to attach the led

First we need to work out which is the negative leg of the led and the negative pin on the switch.

LED-Polarity-Tester.jpg


pinpolarity.png


Test fit the the led and any other components, make sure that the led does not stick up above the flat surface of the switch otherwise the switch will not work

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Step seven

Solder the led to the pins and trim any excess lead.

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Step eight

TEST IT before you reassemble the switch - i was being *wally*y and skipped this step only to find i didn't solder it properly :evil: :evil: :evil: so TEST IT

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works now :oops: :D :D

Step nine

Put switch back together again. once again TEST IT make sure the switch does what it is supposed to do - click on and off

if it doesn't open it back up and and check that the led is not obstructing the white slider thingy and that said slider thingy is seated properly

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Step ten

Rinse and repeat for the other switch. Reinstall the switches into the dash and replace the surround panel.
Your done :clap: :clap: :clap:
Enjoy a drink whilst your waiting for darkness to check out your handiwork

The final product

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This same process may also work with the Hazard switch as well.
 
10/10 bro top effort ;)

what was the cpu fan for tho?
 
Cheers res. it's an extractor fan for soldering as I do a heap of electronics stuff for uni
 
very nice!!
my demister light isn't working so i might try this one day.

and my 'on' lights on my demister switch is orange, and A/C is green. but yours look both green (unless you changed one).
weird.
 
I changed it from my test ac switch because mine didnt work it's what started the whole process
 
very interesting mate,
i never thought about doing this at all,
i reckon i might have a look into doing my power window switch now (might be a little harder)
also, do you happen to know the ratings of the resistors (note... im not too electronic savy, but very willing to learn! learn by doing)
 
OH so that's what they were talking about, I wasn't understanding, I thought it was in the speedo housing >.<. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure mine doesn't work :O.

Must do something about that.
 
1% resistors have 5 bands.

The sequence is

Digit 1, Digit 2, Digit 3, Multipler, Tolerance

Would need assistance from the OP, but it looks like a 1% resistor, possibly; 6.25k
 
I did this today, not as hard as it sounds

I didn't bother soldering, I cut the LED's out of the little plastic/rubbery thing that they're in and put my own ones in. Means they line up perfect and you don't need to solder. Can confirm the back of the hazard light is the same as well, but a little harder to snap apart.
y4uhy2ab.jpg


Hazards one looks like this
pu9epupa.jpg
 
Woah wait that circle with a triangle hazard switch is meant to light up? Did not know that lol!
 
haha yeah i was the same, but when I pulled it apart there is definitely a light in there. I'll take a pic tonight, there's one of my dash before in my ride thread. Now all I need to figure out is the tiny light in the power windows switch haha
 
Hmmmm hold up, I think mine does light up actually I can't remember tho. I've been away from my car for too long :(
 
y4ara4y3.jpg
what it's supposed to look like :)
I stuffed up the actual 'on' light for both the demister and AC, want them to be coloured though so to eBay it is!
 
How many T5 lights are there in this cluster? I've ordered 10 blue t5 LED's from jaycar/willtronics, does the shroud really just click off? i was under the impression i'd need to take the whole centre console out and work my way up to it.
 
r4z0r84 said:
How many T5 lights are there in this cluster? I've ordered 10 blue t5 LED's from jaycar/willtronics, does the shroud really just click off? i was under the impression i'd need to take the whole centre console out and work my way up to it.
check out this thread, everything you need to know is in here
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=722
 
cesario said:
r4z0r84 said:
How many T5 lights are there in this cluster? I've ordered 10 blue t5 LED's from jaycar/willtronics, does the shroud really just click off? i was under the impression i'd need to take the whole centre console out and work my way up to it.
check out this thread, everything you need to know is in here
http://auslancer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=722

Awesome exactly what i needed to read! already have changed the speedo lights just wanted to get the whole dash looking nice. get my t5's tomorrow yay :D
 
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