Fonzie
Just lost the game.
I'm intenting to change most of the illumination in my car to blue, rather than the ugly holden green, and given that one of my power window switch lights was out, i decided it was a good place to start. Cheers to Hozy for suggesting using 3mm LED's, they worked a treat. Also, before we begin, my apologies for the crappy picture quality.. Apparently my phone doesn't particularly like macro shots.
Supplies:
Soldering Iron
Fine Solder
Pliers
4 x 3mm LED's (Depending on their rating, you may need resistors too). 6 if you're doing rear switches too.
Steady hand
3 beers
First step is pull the switch out of the car, small flathead screwdriver does the trick.
There are a bunch of tabs across the bottom of the switch assembly, don't waste your time with these. You only actually need to pull the rocker part out. To do this, look side on at the switch. At the top (Under the lip part) there are two circular holes with tabs in them. To remove the rocker, push that tab in with a small screwdriver... Repeat on the other side. The rockers are a little difficult to get out.. Once you have one out, you'll understand and develop a method.
Be careful when you have the rocker out, there are two little brown squares that the switch pushes on, which push onto the mechanism. If you lose these, you'll need to make more or find more, and that's painful. Here's a relatively blurry pic of them... It's about 7mm square? They go in the parts highlighted in red in the below pic.
Now, soldering! This is what the original light and resistor look like.
Grab your pliers and rip it out. Side cutters could also be a good idea, just cut the wire at the two end points.
The next step I took was solder my LED and resistor together, then plug the switch assembly back into the car and figure out what the circuits polarity is. An LED, Light Emitting Diode, is believe it or not a diode. Meaning that current can only travel one way through it. Ergo, to save yourself soldering, find out which way it goes in first.
Now it's simply a matter of holding the diode soldered to the resistor in place, and reattaching it. It can be a bit fiddly... Have some patience. Try not to melt the switch assembly too much.
When you're done, It usually proves wise to plug the switch assembly back into the car once more to ensure that it does infact work.
Putting the rocker switch back on, make sure you put those brown things back in... And getting the rocker around the right way usually helps too.
Tips:
Make sure the LED doesn't sit up too far.. It'll cause problems for the switch.
I repeat, Don't lose those damn brown squares.
Measure and cut off most of the wire on the LED and resistor... Too much will get in the way.
When putting the rocker back on, make sure the LED is upright. This is why the rear passenger light is slightly dimmer in mine...
Don't solder too close to the diode or resistor, some of them react 'badly' to excessive heat.
Good luck.
Fonzie :thumbsup:
Supplies:
Soldering Iron
Fine Solder
Pliers
4 x 3mm LED's (Depending on their rating, you may need resistors too). 6 if you're doing rear switches too.
Steady hand
3 beers
First step is pull the switch out of the car, small flathead screwdriver does the trick.
There are a bunch of tabs across the bottom of the switch assembly, don't waste your time with these. You only actually need to pull the rocker part out. To do this, look side on at the switch. At the top (Under the lip part) there are two circular holes with tabs in them. To remove the rocker, push that tab in with a small screwdriver... Repeat on the other side. The rockers are a little difficult to get out.. Once you have one out, you'll understand and develop a method.
Be careful when you have the rocker out, there are two little brown squares that the switch pushes on, which push onto the mechanism. If you lose these, you'll need to make more or find more, and that's painful. Here's a relatively blurry pic of them... It's about 7mm square? They go in the parts highlighted in red in the below pic.
Now, soldering! This is what the original light and resistor look like.
Grab your pliers and rip it out. Side cutters could also be a good idea, just cut the wire at the two end points.
The next step I took was solder my LED and resistor together, then plug the switch assembly back into the car and figure out what the circuits polarity is. An LED, Light Emitting Diode, is believe it or not a diode. Meaning that current can only travel one way through it. Ergo, to save yourself soldering, find out which way it goes in first.
Now it's simply a matter of holding the diode soldered to the resistor in place, and reattaching it. It can be a bit fiddly... Have some patience. Try not to melt the switch assembly too much.
When you're done, It usually proves wise to plug the switch assembly back into the car once more to ensure that it does infact work.
Putting the rocker switch back on, make sure you put those brown things back in... And getting the rocker around the right way usually helps too.
Tips:
Make sure the LED doesn't sit up too far.. It'll cause problems for the switch.
I repeat, Don't lose those damn brown squares.
Measure and cut off most of the wire on the LED and resistor... Too much will get in the way.
When putting the rocker back on, make sure the LED is upright. This is why the rear passenger light is slightly dimmer in mine...
Don't solder too close to the diode or resistor, some of them react 'badly' to excessive heat.
Good luck.
Fonzie :thumbsup: