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hey vinnie, how did you do the sunroof, cruise, mirror lights? espeically lhow did you do the mirror? i know the mirror has like an integrated bulb into a chip.

 
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Use one led for mirror, one for cruise, and three for moonroof. You just break off the bulb already there and run LEDs in with thin wires. That's how I did it. ELaudio actually soldered his with resistor directly to the circuit board. Don't ask how.

 
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What I did was pretty easy. While everything was plugged into the car and illuminated, I used my trusty volt-meter to check the polarity of the terminals where the stock bulbs go. From there, I simply soldered the LED and resistor directly onto (brass?) terminals where the stock bulb gets is power. The only crappy thing is that because the terminals are brass, it was a bitch to get solder to stick to it. So, what I did was heat up the terminal with a soldering iron and melted some on. Then, I simply got the solder molten again and made the connections with the LED and resistor.

I have a whole whack of pics on my computer - I just haven't had time to compile/post them... Soon!

 
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Hey guys,
I am looking to start this project myself but I have a few questions. First off, what is the difference between the 3mm and 5mm LED's? Which ones work the best for our cars? Second, which resistors should I get? I see that there are alot of choices so I am just looking for the right one(I don't have a backround in electronics so I'm not sure what i'm looking at).
Thanks

 
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5mm leds are brighter and bigger. You can always trim the plastic case, since the actual LED cup is in the center. I think I got 560ohm resistors, but that was actually too much and made them a bit dimmer than necessary.

 
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Hey I found some led's that would work WAY better for this DIY, require some advanced soddering skills but in the long run I'm sure that it would make things less complicated. heres the link: surface mount LED's (same styles that they use in cell phones)

 
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cosmo, I have worked with surface mount LEDs, they are not fun. Soldering is a bitch, and it would work best if you have a circuit board to work with..

 
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opps.. double post.

 
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Did anyone try painting just the last inch or so of their needles?
Would that be the only part of it to light up?

about the surface mount LEDs, you must not realize how small they actually are.
check this out

http://www.dprg.org/tutorials/1999-07a/

 
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I tried not painting the needles at all, and they didn't light up. I believe the light travels through the entire needle, and painting it with white paint on the back will reflect the light and make it bright enough to see. I believe that painting just the tips would cause only the tip to be lit up bright enough.

 
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mine arn't painted and they look fine... they are a little brighter at the start ( middle ) but the blue is visible though out the whole thing.

surface mount leds are smaller then the surface mount resistors. You need soldering paste to get them on properly. I lost more sufrace mount leds then I installed on my cell phone once

 
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Yeah but you sanded the needles to make them scatter light better. I actually cleared the needles and tried them with the stock amber light bulbs. They lit up pretty good, but then I went and redid everything with EL wire.

 
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For the mirror button, I actually drilled a small hole on the side so that i could run wires out. And for the cruise i cut holes on the bak to again allow wires to come out. Just a little planning and it all works out.

 
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that is true I did sand my needles down.. hehe
so maybe they wern't 100% clear

I"m just waiting for a nice day to take apart the door panels, install the LEDs in there, the mirrors + cruise and gears... I'm also gonna kill two birds with 1 stone by installing speakers and some sound dampending material..

 
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Hmmm - that's odd. I have a 2001 1.7EL and my needles were painted white (on the back) already! As such I didn't paint them. I did, however, paint the underside of the portion that lies in the center hub, since it was clear.

Update: My gauges are now 100% working. Well, sort of. I'm going to get some 3mm LEDs to re-do the needles. I used 5mm ones and even after grinding them down, they interfered with the center post that connects to the stepper motor. They're looking pretty sweet. I'm also going to re-do the way I isolated the blue and white LEDs. Not sure how yet, though... I promise to post pics, but I want to wait until I'm 100% done and satisfied. Since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and "tweaker" when it comes to these things, that may be a while!

 
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Yeah, well, I changed this post so many times trying to perfect everything. Finally ended up hacking out chunks of the light shield to make it work. It just takes time, especially since your car is a bit different. Post pics soon...

 
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Wow, that is awesome, but way to complicated for me too try, I can only look in awe!!!

 
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I dont mean to offend any of you guys. but your installs for thermostat and cruise, mirror, sunroof lights are a bit messy. I've done a DIY which is posted on www.99accord.com for the thermostat, and am currently working on the cruise, mirror, sunroof. Mine is a lot tougher to do, but it's so much cleaner, and no extra wires to worry about. Check it out, also, here is how i did the mirror. Resistor on the right. just bent the wire in a funny shape.

 
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Wow, nice. Mine is rediculously messy. There are wires all over and even between the switches. The moonroof was really bad, since that's the only way to do it with 3 LEDs. The light won't be even if you just replace the stock bulbs with LEDs, unless they're super bright (but they still won't spread out like regular light). One of the hardest things I've done.

 
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I did my mirror like that No drilling or anything, just tested the out voltage of the previous bulb, broke it off and installed an led with a resistor

 
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but i guess it's just like "skeletons in your closest" no one else really see's them. ha. thats how my headunit and tv are. but i still think gearbox has the badassest night lights around! i'm not sure if i'm gonna be able to follow you though... i'll sure has try!

 
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stupidd, what do you mean about your HU, and TV. IN car ? Well if so SHOW !

and as a matter of fact


everyone can see them

 
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hmmm.... IT'S A TIE!

my tv and headunit. so many wires. they're all scruntched back there. sometimes i cant even get that center panel to go in all the way. sucks...

 
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ah !!! we are talking about wires gehehe, I was a little lost on that one.

 
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i just blacked out my stock needles

 
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Hey that looks good! Better than the red/orange with the indiglos. Much cleaner. Did you just use electrical tape?

 
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no just 4-5 coats of white and 1 good coat of black. paint pen

 
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Cooooool - but looks a little complicated...

Nice job man!

 
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I'm going to do this tomorrow. Can someone please claify the splicing part.

Do I connect the two wire ends or do i stripe some plastic off and attach it to the middle of the wire. I'm also assuming that I can use electrical tape and no soldering right Thanks

 
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You just attach it to the middle so it feeds off the existing wire. Don't cut the original wire. Oh and e-tape works great. I didn't solder anything except the LEDs in the needles (but I had to because there were so many connections).