Changing the color of the Climate Control and switch back-lights

[particlewave]

Thank you both!

I went ahead and did the switches. It only took a few minutes and I didn't want to put it off, so here's one last picture. Sorry for the blur...my phone camera is not so great.
Crap! Still gotta do the cigarette lighter socket! Oh, well...one more to go.

Side note; my brain is fried!

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by particlewave

Side note; my brain is fried!

I just did my climate control and two of the switches. I now know what you mean about your brain being fried. I didn't think the replacements would be quite as frustratingly small as they are, but eventually you get a rhythm going and it's not that difficult. I tested each one with my DMM set to diode, putting the probes not on the LED itself or the new solder, but in the vias on the same tracer (to ensure new solder was in fact making contact with the LED and pad). I could also double check polarity this way. I'm proud to say I was 23 for 23. The switches also went without a hitch. Hopefully tonight I will get a chance to reinstall everything and see how it looks.

I had initially thought that if I were to do this project again I might order 5050 LED's, which are the what is originally on the board. In retrospect, they might be quite a bit more difficult to solder because of how much they overlap the pad.

I also found a "For Sale" sign in the discount bin at the grocery store and made the diffuser.

What did you end up doing for the cigarette lighter? I finally figured out how to get the bulb holder apart for it and I see a few that should work on superbrightleds.com. Is that the only oddball, and the others (besides the gauges) are the 0603's?

[Benjamin]

After hooking everything back up last night, I was disappointed. The entire display was very dim as well as the buttons. It was difficult to tell that the buttons were even on, but they were. If I turned on the heated mirrors or central lock, the display "dot" light up well, but the rest was not good. Perhaps you used these?

Unique Leds 0603 Surface Mount Led - Blue 380mcd Max

They are the same size, but 3-4 times brighter than the ones you linked to.