With the darker evenings, suddenly I realised just how many bulbs were out on Jiggly's dash board, and even those that were working were working were a washy blue. Time to change to LED's!
So I spent a night on here, reading all the old posts of people who had updated their lights, but was surprised at how many never actually posted anything up about the results...
Before removing the dash, I wanted to order the LED bulbs from Ebay, This proved entertaining, as the posts just said I needed a T5 bulb, but when you look on Ebay, there are several different "T5" styles. I ended up ordering 2 types...
These are called "T5" and do not fit...
These are called T4.7/T5 and fit perfectly.
I replaced all the Dash bulbs except the Battery and main beam bulbs with the new Blue LED's... I am very pleased, and more importantly, Suz is over the moon with the results...
It actually looks slightly more purple in real life.
Then it came to the time to try and sort out the heater controls. I looked high and low on here, but there is basically no information that is helpful, so I set to work...
Firstly you have to remove the centre part of the dash... Next, no mater what I tried, there seems no way to actually get the heater control out of the dash, as it is installed from behind the dash, and there is not enough room to be able to get it out. In the end, I gave up, and set to work trying to find where the bulbs were... I discovered that they are twist in bulbs, like used in the dash, and fitted from the back...
Sorry for the picture quality, not easy to fit the phone in the dash and then also see to get a picture. These are taken from where the radio would be, looking back into the car.
Nearest Steering wheel...
Nearest glove box...
Trying to find a screw driver that fitted into the slot on the base of the bulb holder was entertaining.
I then hit the first major problem... the bulb is not like any I have seen...
So, back to the drawing board...
I decided that the best way forward was to try and rebuild the bulb holder... To do this, I butchered the "T5" bulbs, so I could re-use the LEDs.
Firstly, you need to remove the original blown glass bulb from the holder. This needs to be done with great care, don't be tempted to try and remove the blue cover first, as this actually helps to provide the ability to gently grip the bulb with a pair of pliers, so you can gently work it out of the holder... More importantly, if you do crush the bulb, it stops the glass flying in all directions.
So carefully unwrap and straighten the wire from the base.
Then as explained above, using a pair of pliers, work the bulb until it slides up. The top of the holder will be very brittle because of the heat from the bulb, so do your best to try not to break it too badly.
Once the bulb is out, you need to get your donor LED. I straightened out the lead that goes round the bottom of the contact, then pushed the tab that retains the metal contacts, and slid them out, giving me the LED and resistor.
Now, because I am using donor LED's, the leads were not long enough... but even if they were new LED's the standard leads on a LED, are too stiff and thick for a later process, so you would still need to add a length of more flexible wire.
I have some single strand cable, so I strip a length of the insulation off, and extend the wires.
Next you need to modify the bulb holder, to allow for the resistor to slide in, this requires opening up one of the holes to 2.5mm, for about 5mm of depth.
Depending on how good your soldering is, you may need to open the holes up all the way through with a 1.5mm drill to allow the join to pass down.
Now insert the LED into the holder, making sure the resistor is on the side where the hole has been opened up. Bend the wires round, so they follow the way the old wires were....
You will need to use a pair of pliers to flatten the wire against the holder here..
Finished article looks almost like the original
One thing I discovered once I made the first, was that the LED was a bit too focused, so I used a diamond file to roughen up the curved end of the LED to defuse the light.... this is a lot easier to do while it was still in the "T5" donor holder when I was making the second lamp.
Getting the bulbs back into the dash was quite tricky, obviously being LED's they now need to be put in the correct way round, and secondly, there is nothing to get hold off to rotate them, and the new wires make then a lot stiffer to fit, but I won in the end when I realised I needed to flatten the contact wire with pliers as mentioned earlier.
This is the finished heater controls.
I am very pleased with the results...
Only thing I could not work out was if the Heater, AC and Recirculate switches should illuminate with the side lights, as I could not find any bulbs for them, and currently none of them light up, other than when switched on.
