DIY Change LEDs in Speed/Tach Gauge

[Powhusku]

I WANT THIS SOOOO BAD!!!! Too bad I'm terrible at soldering and know nothing about LEDs. Someday I hope to do this. Great thread!

[Saint Alban]

Originally Posted by Powhusku

I WANT THIS SOOOO BAD!!!! Too bad I'm terrible at soldering and know nothing about LEDs. Someday I hope to do this. Great thread!

Just take it apart and send it to Creektrack.

[LIV4MUDDIN]

That's what I did. Creektrack does great work and the turn around was fast. The day he received all my parts he swapped the leds that night and shipped back out next day. And I had him do ALL my switches, dash cluster, 4 gauge pack,............ Anything that lights up I had him change out.

[ALLTRBO]

Hey, thanks for making this so easy to follow!
Fortunately for me, intricate soldering is part of my job so I'll just take the parts to work and do it there.

I'm now gathering the LED's to do this, and I was wondering if someone could help me out. Seeing as how my 2012 SS hasn't even been built yet (heh), I can't look at the gauges to see what all of the warning/indicator light colors are, and I can't remember what they were on my 2010 V6 (RIP). From the pics in this thread and others, I see (and remember) several, but there are a few that I can't. I want to change some of these.

IOW, could someone either take pics or simply tell me what the colors are for ALL of the warning/indicator lights? I imagine the '10-'11 and the '12 colors are the same despite the differences in appearance, so it shouldn't matter what year I'd think.

I'm going to change the headlight-on indicator to white, the green always threw me off for some reason. White makes much more sense for headlights.

The letters/numbers, rings, and DIC will be blue (no not that blue... real blue) and I'll paint the backside of the needles white and put white LED's behind those. Same for the 4-pack cluster (which just so happens to be right here since I pulled it from my 2010 before they totaled it). Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the red circles located just inside of the numbers... those are colored I believe, and I can't STAND the red.

[8vdown]

I've been steadily replacing LED's throughout the car. I haven't taken the main cluster out yet, but reading through the post, it looks like Oznium doesn't carry the right angle LED's for the DIC. I'm wondering if these NTE's will work:

http://www.nteinc.com/specs/30000to3...te30081_85.pdf

Since I haven't seen the original packaging yet, I'm curious if those who have changed them out can confirm the packaging?

Here's a quick tip for those who are doing it themselves. When working with the 0805's, I've found using a small piece of blue tape (painters tape) across the LED, leaving the cathode side exposed, then taping it down square to the solder pad works very well to keep the thing in place while you solder the first end to the board. Just remove the tape and solder the other side. The LED's I'm using have slightly more soldering surface (copper) exposed on the cathode side.

A second tip...if you forget which side of the LED goes where, use a meter set on continuity check (the tone based ones work best) to touch one of the pads on the board and touch the other end to the small resisters (there will be one for each LED, little black chips with numbers on them). If you get tone (or 0 ohms), you've got a direct connection between the pad and the resister. The resister is on the cathode (-) side of the LED. Now you know the polarity and set the LED accordingly.

Or you can guess...it's a 50/50 chance

Cheers!

[572HP]

Originally Posted by 8vdown

I've been steadily replacing LED's throughout the car. I haven't taken the main cluster out yet, but reading through the post, it looks like Oznium doesn't carry the right angle LED's for the DIC. I'm wondering if these NTE's will work:

http://www.nteinc.com/specs/30000to3...te30081_85.pdf

Since I haven't seen the original packaging yet, I'm curious if those who have changed them out can confirm the packaging?

Installing the PLCC-2 on the side is really not as difficult as it may sound. I had absolutely no problem with any of them. Plus all LEDs came from one supplier.

[8vdown]

I installed the PLCC2's on their sides, and agree they weren't that difficult. The wavelength difference was less than 2nm...it wouldn't have made much difference. Since I had the PLCC2's available, I went for it.

All that's left now is the radio console.

Cheers!

BassPlayer

[anglwngss]

Please post pictures of the gauges here and the radio on the radio thread when you're done. I'd love to see how both turned out.
Also, glad to see you got this accomplished! : )

[fritcherc]

What size LED is in the traction control switch? I'm looking to change mine to red along with the steering wheel controls, the window switches and doing the four pack in white with red needles (for now, more to follow). So I just wanted to make sure I order the right ones.

10 PLCC-2 (red) - steering wheel controls
3 0805 Surface mount (red) - window switches
8 PLCC-2 (white) - four pack cluster
? - traction control

This is what I think I need to order, I want the needles in the four pack red so I shouldn't have to have those changed.

[LIV4MUDDIN]

The traction control is a 5mm LED and is just a soldered hard wire. You will have to modify the bulb holder to get it out . Just cut the small tab on the bottom of the holder that splits the wires.

[572HP]

Originally Posted by fritcherc

What size LED is in the traction control switch? I'm looking to change mine to red along with the steering wheel controls, the window switches and doing the four pack in white with red needles (for now, more to follow). So I just wanted to make sure I order the right ones.

10 PLCC-2 (red) - steering wheel controls
3 0805 Surface mount (red) - window switches
8 PLCC-2 (white) - four pack cluster
? - traction control

This is what I think I need to order, I want the needles in the four pack red so I shouldn't have to have those changed.

Originally Posted by LIV4MUDDIN

The traction control is a 5mm LED and is just a soldered hard wire. You will have to modify the bulb holder to get it out . Just cut the small tab on the bottom of the holder that splits the wires.

I don't remember the Traction Control switch being 5mm. I think that the only 5mm is the automatic shifter. I'm pretty certain it is a single 0603 or 0805. Be sure to order a few extra of each kind in case you mess up a couple. You'll have an extra for the traction control either way.

[creektrack]

I wanna say the traction control was a plcc2 and the sunroof was a 5mm, or vise versa...can anyone pull the button and verify this?

Maybe someone can get a thread with a master list of the leds in the radio and gauges and all that and get it stickied...

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

[Caddyroger]

I had my dash gauges changed over to the red circles and white letters. I also got the gauge pack done in white lettering also. I had Creektrack to change out the leds for me. He is fast and very good at his soldering. He got the dash on Weds day and had it sent back out to me Thursday mourning. I would have thought that came from the factory.

[ALLTRBO]

I finished changing the LED's in my '12 SS. There are a couple minor differences in the board compared to the earlier models from what I can see of the earlier pics, but very little difference in the LED's and LED locations themselves (mainly one of the indicator lights IIRC, I'll check again in a bit).

They're all blue now (real blue)... the DIC, font, and surround. It looks even better than I expected! I also changed a few indicator LED's and swapped a few colors, and that turned out great as well.

However... I'm not finished with the overall package, though I've plugged it in and played with it to make sure all is well.
The needles will soon be fully white (with a twist... you'll have to wait and see. ). I already changed the LED's for those to white, but need to repaint the needles themselves.
I'm in the process of cutting out perfect rings from 3M blue automotive vinyl wrap, which is also accenting other bits on my car, to cover up the molded-in red rings on the faces just inside of the numbers. Some people would like that contrast of colors, but I don't. We'll see how it turns out.

I also just finished the aux gauge pack with the same colors. Those were easy-peasy compared to the main cluster. I'll do the rest of the interior switches in blue, but that'll be a one-by-one sort of thing.

I've taken a ton of pics along the way but I don't want to post any until I've completely finished the cluster.

More to come...