A Little Job For The Weekend

[JustJJ]

Well, last weekend I got my LEDs in the post... but I was away all weekend and hence didnt fit em... Im a busy girl dont you know! :P

Skye's first modification was a different set of 501 bulbs whch were painted blue... so her Dash shone up blue... fun fun!... just a little something to put my mark on her from the start... however these bulb kinda werent built to last (hey what did I expect.. they didnt cost much... if anything lol) and so after a while... I got white spots where the paint was burning off... and brown/blue bits elsewhere... sooo...

Cue the LEDs! got em from Ultra LEDs... good site... good price :) and I took her Dash to bits and fitted them this weekend...

I reckon they look ok... :P still.. wanna get some dial rings... in brushed aluminium... but can only find the chrome ones.. grrrrr....

Oh... and yeah.. I wanna sort out the needles... any ideas? can you get the pants red off? :P would love em to be blue like the rest lol... I kinda like it... nice n dark n sultry... lovely to drive around at night with

[Tegan]

Does look good - looks much better illuminated than before :)

[GiJoe90]

Keep the needles red. Looks good me darlin'

Joe

[JustJJ]

Thanks honey! *hugs

[jaxx]

got the same thing lined up for mine :)

[stevetubbyturbo]

Ok i know i aint got my MR2 no more but im looking at doing something like that on the Hilux and i can get the kit for £20 is that a good price considering mine takes 15 led's

[JustJJ]

Sounds like a good price Steve.... these 4 LEDs were £10 inc postage... so that sounds about right :)... I am now looking into doing the rest of the lights in my surrounding area... BLUE!!! ALL BLUE!!! muahahahaaaa!! lol

[boundsw]

Looks cool, keep the red needles I say.

on a tangent, but looks like a passat dash...cool

[Jinxed]

looks sweet JJ very nice

[JustJJ]

Thanks Jinx hon hows your lil girl doing? up for any meets yet? lol

[Bibbs]

Have a look of Maplin for the price of LED's.

I got a dozen sent through the post my a nice member on here a few years back.

[Fidgits]

looks good

[sewelly]

looks good. How hard is it to take out the dash and fit them?

Might have to have a go myself!!

Cheers for the idea Jayden!

[Flamby]

that looks awesome!!! I want mine to be like that lol :D

could you please tell me which size you went for led wise and I would be sooooooo grateful! hehe

plus was it quite hard to do?

very very cool I gotta say.

[Flat Pack]

JJ doesn't seem to be about so I'll answer as much as I can:)

The dash illumination bulbs are standard 501 car bulbs (capless, wedge base, 5mm irrc but just knowing they're 501 should be enough). The LEDs are direct replacements, like these. Bibbs is right, blue LEDs start from about £0.85 from Maplins, but then you'll have to mess about with ballast resistors and probably end up soldering them straight onto the bulb holders or something... Didn't seem worth the effort for an extra couple of quid.

Dismantling the dash didn't look too hard, JJ had done it before though and knew which bits you need to take out. I just had random bits of dash thrown at me from time to time, so I'm not entirely sure what you have to do.

Once you've got the instrument cluster out, the four biggest black bulb holders are the illumination lights. Remove the bulb holders and replace bulbs with LED versions (I think there's a fifth bulb holder the same size that takes the fuel warning light, you want the four that are all in a line). TEST they all work before you put the dash back together as LEDs only work connected one way round... Wasn't any way of telling which way was right as far as we could see.

All in all pretty easy... JJ did it in less time than it took me to cook some sausages for lunch anyway lol :)

[Flamby]

thankyou so much for taking the time to write that all out flat pack very informative :D I'm gonna order them now as that looks awesome :D cheers mate

[acstreet]

very nice indeed looks very tasty.

ive been wanting to do my interior lights the ones in the roof by the sunroof does anybody know what size they are

cheers

andy

[JustJJ]

Ta for your comments guys n gals, soz I havent been about today... very busy at work... *sigh lol

Flamby,

As Dave (Flat Pack) gave away most of the informationlol.. it leaves me with just how to remove the dash area...

1) Take a phillips screwdriver into the car with you and go sit in the drivers seat (you can do everything from here lol)..

2) Pull off the gear gaiter (not all the way, just off its surround) and take out the plastic surround bit from underneath (being careful if your clifford / alarm LEDs are fixed there)... put the placcy bit out of the way somewhere.

3) Take out the ashtray, if you are like me and have those cute airfreshener balls in it, dont spill them all over the car... lol (I didnt... phew... but one or two have gone walkabout before lol)

4) There are two screws located behind the ashtray, undo these and put them somewhere safe!

5) under where the cig lighter is, there is another screw, undo this and put it somewhere safe.

6) To the right and under the ignition is another screw, undo this and put it somewhere safe.... safe... ok?... you dont wanna be losing these lol...

7) Pull the lower part of the dash (bit that goes around under the steering wheel down (this will free off the upper bit somewhat)

8) pull out the placcy surround which goes around the radio etc... careful of the vents... and also when you come to the wires connected to the hazards button and the back of the cig lighter... take these out carefully making sure you dont lose any bits in the process

9) Now that large bit of plastic is out of the way, you will find there is a screw just to the right of the steering wheel... undo that... and put it somewhere safe...

10) this enables you to take off the placcy bit that goes over the steering wheel and encompasses the vent on the right. be careful with the vents again.

11) Yay another bit of dash out of the way lol... ok now.. if you look at your dials... top left and top right either side there is a screw! Guess what? ;) undo them and put em somewhere safe lol..

12) this will free up the little plastic strip that goes over the top of the dials.... put it with the rest of the plastic you stripped.

13) Right.... now you should be able to pull out the dials, being careful to manuever them around the steering wheel... they are connected at the back with 3 large connectors(well it was in mine), careful when you unclip these, they can be a bit of a pain...and dig into your fingers!...

14) Dials are now free and hopefully sat in your lap lol... turn them over and you will see the backs of the black bulb holders, as dave said, the four biggest ones across the middle of the back of the dials are the ones to replace (I think the fuel light is off to one side a bit.. and possibly a little bit smaller... cant remember)....

15) pull out what is in there, and pop in your LEDs... as Dave said, LEDs have polarity, so once you have replaced all current bulbs with LEDs pop the dials back into their slot and attach the wires, before turning headlights on to check that they all work!!

16) Once they all work...do steps 13-1 lol...

And best of luck anyone who is gonna do it... its really quite quick, especially once you done it a couple of times... I am deffo not a pro and it didnt take me long... just remember the order everything went in, and make sure you dont lose any bits of dash (the plastic strip above the dials often gets forgotten .... lol oops)... and dont lose any screws!!! :D

Have fun!

[edit] If i ahve missed anything out.. sorry.. I dont think I have.... but that was all from memory :P

[jerry phipps]

Hey JJ that looks wicked Nice interior mod you have done there girl Keep up the good work :D

jerry!!

[Flamby]

thanks for the step by step JJ thats very cool of you to take the time to write that out :D cheers Have to see how I do this weekend :D

[JustJJ]

Good luck hon ;)

[acstreet]

mmmmmm very tempted myself now will have to have a go at the weekend i think

very good idea jj

cheers

andy

[Stu8]

Looks good JJ

just think all those peeps with neon glowing dials thingys and you've done it more or less at the fraction of the cost.

[JustJJ]

Thats what I thought Stu! ;) hehe you coming to the Rochdale meet this sunday?

Or Mascrat on Monday? hehe you'll see em then :P

[Stu8]

cant go to either i'm afraid; all work and no play for me this month :(