OCDjG

So I'm driving my car around the other night and I find myself getting frustrated. Why? Because the interior lights are dim and ugly. I'm further frustrated because I have those gauge face overlays on and they don't work right. It flickers on and off when it feels like it. So I just ordered some leds. I'm getting 50 white leds and 50 blue leds. They are 3mm super bright ones (I think they are rated at 10,000mcds). What I want to do is make the center console and gauges bright white to keep a rather stockish look, and do the buttons on the center console (ac), shift lights and blinkers on the gauges blue. Who has done this LED swap in their 6th gen? Pics and advise please as this is going to be my first time attempting this swap. Thanks!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i did it on my 7thgen, just open up all the parts and fit the leds in. be sure you know a bit about how to wire the leds (they need resistors). check hidplanet.com forums led section for more info.

DieMaster

iTrader: (5)

i used to have blue for the ac light and grean for the recirulate and amber but i swaped in autoclimate control form the hybrid, PIP (project in progress)

i have a white backlighting in my 7th gen. i ca ntake pics if u like. i origionly did blue but the glare was too much. hurt my eyes. actualy orange or red is the bes b.c it dosent destroy your night vision.

OCDjG

Yeah I saw your DIY thread. It came out nice. I've worked with LEDs before. I retrofitted some in my technic 1210 turntables. I'll take some before and after pics of my little project.

Yes please take some pics I would like to see it. In my old 6th gen accord I had a complete blue led swap with blue leds in my air vents. I loved the way it looked and it didn't bother my vision all that much. I would've gone blue for this car, but I wanted to try something different.

Here is a pic of my old ride...

and


Oh and here is a pic of my technic led mod...

DieMaster

iTrader: (5)

heres mine. nothing fancy i just like cool white and the fact i never have to relace them or worry about them burniout.

EDIT: the more bluish ones were some cheap 5mm leds i got from china and the bright white ones are quality NTE 3mm.

OCDjG

Your coding is right, but no pics. Weird.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i see the pics

trubluciv

that is really awesome...i like that.....how did you do that to your headunit...i have the same exact one....the Panasonic.....i want to do that....

OCDjG

I guess my computer was trippin earlier I see the pics now...Anyhow DieMaster excellent work! Yeah thats basically the look I'm going for for my car as well. I got the leds in so when I get to it I'll post some pics.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

most newer radios use SMT leds which you can find around ebay (the good toshiba ones). im gonna be playing around with my deck so ill post pics if i can find leds for it.

OCDjG

I finally had a chance to start my retrofitting project yesterday. I got the 5 main bulbs replaced with LED's. I found that there were 4 small bulbs and 1 larger bulb that lit up the gauges. So what I did was retrofit 2 leds to the four smaller bulbs, and 3 LED's to the larger bulb. Its looking better than what I had so far but it still needs work. I got hot spots in two areas that I have to address and I haven't worked on the blue LED's yet. I don't have pics as of right now, but I'll post some up either tonight or tomorrow as I plan on working on the gauges some more tonight.

I do need some technical advise however. For the shift control lights (i.e. P, R, N, D, 3, 2), is there a specific way to remove those bulbs? I didn't want to break them and they seem rather delicate.

I also want to add accent lighting in other areas of the car like in the cup holder for example. Would there be any other place I should add some LED's as well?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the shift light bulbs twist off, then pull out. but they have a tendency to get stuck so use a small pair of pliars to pull them out once unscrewed. cup holder leds are pretty easy, you can usually do it from the sides by pulling off that plastic trim piece rather than removing the whole console. for hotspots, i find that a piece of white paper usually blends the light together better. you can put it behind the dials.

OCDjG

Ah, thanks gearbox I'll try that tonight with those lights. Just to double check, those will require resistors as well right?

Well I plan on swapping out the bulbs behind my center console anyways so at the same time I was going to add LED's to the cup holders. I was thinking either that or adding 1-2 LED's above the cup holders (under the center console) to shine down onto the cup holders as an accent light. I'm not sure which option to go with yet.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah all leds need resistors. they only can take 2-4 V (depending on color) before they burn up.

DieMaster

iTrader: (5)

yea theres a good tutorial on LED twist bulbs someware. i saved the page at home but i'm at work now not working lol. i'll find it tonight.

OCDjG

Gotcha. I thought so but I was not 100% certain. Yeah I've based the resistors I'm using on the information from your DIY thread (14v power source) and ohms law;

R=(V1-V2)/mA
V1= Power source
V2= LED wattage
mA = milliamps (usually 20mA or .02)

Posted that up for anyone wanting a quick reference.

Yeah if you can find that that would be great.

OCDjG

Finally I'm pretty much done with my led conversion. Took me a little longer than I expected. I haven't taken pics yet but I will have some up soon. The center console was a major PITA to do, not because it was hard to install the leds, but because it was such a pain getting it out of the car! Honda did not make it easy for us DIYers to remove that console. Once I get pics taken I'll post them up.

Just a teaser though I'll list what I did.

For the gauges, I installed cool white diodes, 11 leds total, as the backlight. I retrofited blue leds into the shift lights (P, R, N, D, 3, 2), but I left the "P" and the "N" red. I left the blinkers green since I simply got tired of soldering .

For the center console, I replaced two bulbs with 4 cool white leds to light up the back and I replaced all the buttons, with the exception of two, for blue leds. The two other buttons, those being the front defogger and the vent control buttons, I chose white leds for them. Originally they were orange while the rest were green. The rear defroster button thats located above the console next to the vents, I simply removed the blue nipple and left it amber. When activated the light is amber already so now it simply matches.

I abandoned the accent lights idea for now since I couldn't decide on whether if I wanted the light to shine down onto the cup holders or in the cup holders themselves. Later I plan of playing with my radio to see if I can throw in some blue leds. Currently its red.

OCDjG

Here are the pics...



They still need some work, the gauges that is. Behind the fuel/temp gauge I sanded down the leds to see how well it would disperse the light. I was not happy to see the output though. I proceeded to take care of the rest of the leds and I forgot to redo this one. The P, R, N, D...lights have been replaced for blue leds but I need to re-aim some of them and I also need to redo those with a higher resistor because they are too bright. Here is a pic so you can see what I mean...


Overall though I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I'm going to be fixing those few bugs probably this weekend and I may add some leds in other parts of the car too. What are all your thoughts on my work? Any suggestions?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah looks good, just the squares around the shift strip are crazy bright

OCDjG

Thanks...Yeah I know. I just went to Radio Shack and got some higher rated resistors. I'm hoping these work better to dim them down.

rincon1986

how can i swap the 99 radio/heat console and put it in my 98 civic lx???

Running Riot

I did red the whole way through since it's easier to see with red interior lights Ill post a pic up soon.