Installed superbright red LED's in my cluster and switches

1sick_gst · Feb 2, 2014

Bud92gsx said:
Theres 2 in the hvac.Led conversion is much easier than finding those bulbs in my experience.

I plan to do the led conversion. 2g btw. Was just curious as to how to replace them. I took my whole center console apart searching for these bulbs, didn't finish, and ended up putting everything back together. Started off just installing a cd player LOL

.

Bud92gsx · Feb 2, 2014

The hvac bulbs arent normal bulbs.They fit into a rubber peice,and you have to put the wires correct in the rubber peice.

Rather than sticking the bulb into a socket and your done..Led conversion,you take your clear plastic peice thats in there out.Put in your led strip,and wire it(solder) your done.I take out the brass things that are connected to the back.But that might be just me..

2g and 1g hvacs are the same,minus the bezel that goes around it.

1sick_gst · Feb 2, 2014

Thank you for the clarification!! I'll be making this my next project.

Bud92gsx · Feb 2, 2014

Its not hard.
BUT if you want white or blue for the left side and red for the hot side,Have fun.

Heres mine btw..I couldnt go yellow because my wb is blue,So I said F it.

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Heres a red one I did..Its not in the car if you cant tell,and it was not dark enough for it to really stand out.

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1sick_gst · Feb 2, 2014

I can tell and it looks alot better and brighter than OEM. Working from the outside to inside on my GST and about to that point as to where i'll be starting on the inside. Glad I came across this thread. Again, thank you for the helpful pointers and tips!

Bud92gsx · Feb 2, 2014

This thread is better :tease:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appearance-interior-exterior/438303-full-led-replacement.html

1sick_gst · Feb 2, 2014

Bud92gsx said:
This thread is better http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appearance-interior-exterior/438303-full-led-replacement.html

Bahahahaha LOL

Of course it had to be yours. Actually it is better. Thank you sir :thumb:

Zero6391 · Apr 10, 2014

rodent said:
Last week, I finally went and purchased some LED's for my cluster. I'm not sure why Mitsubishi chose that nasty orange/yellow color to light our dashes but its horrible.

Before I purchased the LED's I wanted a couple things-
Simplicity (no soldering, hacking, running wires, etc)
No dead spots (normally caused by most LED lights)
ie- http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/att...1212091666-led-gauge-cluster-b10f56aced0d.jpg
Matching color LED's in switches (small mini suckers)

Started to look at superbrightleds.com and found some LED's that seam like they fit the ticket.

1st set of lights is for the cluster. Mini wedge bulbs (bulb # 74)
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These are very bright and have a 360 coverage where other LED's do not. This helps with any dead sports. Unfortunately, I think red is the only color that will show though the orange coated cluster. You can remove your gauge faces and sand the orange off but that was too much work for me and I wanted the upgrade to be simple. The bright red LED's will go right through the orange and still light up red. The other reason I liked these bulbs is they're shorter. This means no drilling or filing out the cluster just to make the LED's fit. Other LED's are usually taller and hit the plastic inside the cluster.

Basically you have 7 in the cluster, 1 in the HVAC, 1 for the cigarette lighter, 1 for the ashtray (10 total). These are all 74 bulbs. I did have one LED that was DOA so I'd suggest ordering an extra just in case. Cost on the LED's was $3.50 each.

Next you have the bulbs for the switches. I searched and searched and couldn't find any info on what bulbs these are so I just took a guess when I ordered. And with luck, the bulbs I ordered were correct. The bulbs that fit are the Neo3-x.
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These are pretty small and a pain to get to in some switches.
You basically need one for each switch (mirrors, cruise, fogs, defroster, rear wiper) for a total of 5. You can also get one for the hazards if yours is burnt out and another one for the defroster indicator on. The cruise on/off display has LED's that are soldered on but you can replace those with standard red LED's if you want all the lights to match. You will have to file down the tip of the fogs LED about 1/16" since its the only one that makes contact. All the other LED's fit in the switches fine. Price on the Neo3 bulbs is $1.29 each.

Total with shipping the 74 and Neo bulbs was $46.35

The end result is a deep red lighting for the cluster and switches that all match. I'm still working on my dash swap but here's a picture of my cluster. My camera takes horrible close ups and the lighting is actually a solid red and not a dark orange like the picture shows.

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The red lighting looks very similar to my old STi cluster:
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You can also see how the cluster compares to the stock light on the HVAC which I have not yet replaced since its PITA to get to.
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The defroster and wiper switch will light up red as soon as I swap my new dash in. For now I just have the cruise, fogs, mirror done.
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Again, sorry for the crappy pics.

You do have to have the correct polarity on the LED's so its important to note which side is neg or positive and have them in the correct position in order to work. If you do get one backwards, it won't hurt it, just flip 180 degrees and it will work. Also to note: You can still dim the LED lights if needed.

Anyway, I think this lighting upgrade is definitely worth it and its a job you can knock out in a couple hours.

Next upgrade, I may do the super bright white LED's for the mirror and the foot lighting.

i stumbled across this thread and i want to do this as a next project but the problem im running into is that i dont know which kind of bulbs to get, i saw you said type 74 bulbs from that superbrightleds.com site and just to verify its the the one that looks like a circuit board, and the neo wedge 3mm i see two types one is about 4mm high and its a high poer type and then there is a bulb type that is 5mm high. i remember reading something about having to sand down or file down the the bulb to fit in the fog light switch. would it be better to get that shorter one or the the bulb one and sand it down??

MikeyTsi · Apr 21, 2014

Bought my LEDs for my project, and they've arrived. Looking forward to getting them installed.

For those of you that don't want to try to sand faces, I picked up a set of new gauge faces from Black Cat Custom Automotive - Gauge Faces for all makes and models of cars and trucks - LED Lighting Upgrades. In this case, you can request they make the gauge faces with no tinting, as we're using our own lighting.

highpsigsx · Apr 21, 2014

Looks good man.

estoyaqui30 · May 23, 2014

I changed almost every knight to LED, with a couple exceptions. I had to leave 1 incandescent on each of the tails for now. It is hyper blinking and if I change out the last 2, it won't blink at all. I got a spare mitsubishi flasher unit and I'm working on make the mods in there to fix the hyper flash so that I can swap the last 2 tails. I changed almost all of the dash lamps using the ones from www.superbrightleds.com. However, I frond and odd thing....when I swap in the LEDs for "batt" and "SRS" they glow dimly!? When I put the old incandescent lamps back, they don't glow.

Any thoughts?

rolltidero · May 27, 2014

I know it was a very very very old post and maybe I missed the response, but did anyone ever try that neon wire stuff to make the cold side of the hvac light up blue?

Ckkime55 · Jun 29, 2014

So what do you do with the needles if you don't wanna do red let's say blue? How do u get the needles from that orange color

boost97gst · Jun 29, 2014

estoyaqui30 said:
I changed almost every knight to LED, with a couple exceptions. I had to leave 1 incandescent on each of the tails for now. It is hyper blinking and if I change out the last 2, it won't blink at all. I got a spare mitsubishi flasher unit and I'm working on make the mods in there to fix the hyper flash so that I can swap the last 2 tails. I changed almost all of the dash lamps using the ones from www.superbrightleds.com. However, I frond and odd thing....when I swap in the LEDs for "batt" and "SRS" they glow dimly!? When I put the old incandescent lamps back, they don't glow.

Any thoughts?

A couple resistors soldered in series with the turn lamps would fix the rapid blinking. I actually like it but like you said, when you do both the resistance drops too much. Its an RC network that actually provides the "blinking" for the turn signals. So, you compensate by adding in resistance that you took away. Bingo

estoyaqui30 · Jun 29, 2014

boost97gst said:
A couple resistors soldered in series with the turn lamps would fix the rapid blinking. I actually like it but like you said, when you do both the resistance drops too much. Its an RC network that actually provides the "blinking" for the turn signals. So, you compensate by adding in resistance that you took away. Bingo

I remember seeing a post about the mods needed to the OEM flasher unit, where you need to replace a a solid wire loop (jumper) on the circuit board with a a calculated length of wire. The original wire has a resistance of about 0.5 ohms, so I guess that that I could measure the resistance of the brighter filament of an 1157 lamp and since there are 6 of them total on the 2G use a resistor with the value of 6 times that resistance of the lamp. I know that lot of people are using 2 ohm 50 watt resistors in place of each lamp that they replace. I'd rather not do that, I'm looking to reduce the load on the alternator and also, I'd rather not have the heat that these resistors will create behind that plastic parts.

Another, odd thing...I unplugged the original flasher to try the modified one. When i plugged the original one back, it not longer hyper flashes!....but still won't flash if I replace either of the last 2 incandesant lamps.

MikeyTsi · Jul 1, 2014

Ckkime55 said:
So what do you do with the needles if you don't wanna do red let's say blue? How do u get the needles from that orange color

You take paint thinner to the needles.

estoyaqui30 · Jul 2, 2014

MikeyTsi said:
You take paint thinner to the needles.

I'm not sure but that might melt the plastic. I think that the plastic that the needles are actually orange, so I don't think that you can remove the color....but I could be wrong. I'm just thinking about when I had the needles out on my test gauge cluster.

DogWhistle · Jul 2, 2014

estoyaqui30 said:
However, I frond and odd thing....when I swap in the LEDs for "batt" and "SRS" they glow dimly!? When I put the old incandescent lamps back, they don't glow.

Any thoughts?

The "Batt" circuit uses the warning light as part of the charging circuit, so it has some current running through it whenever the car is running. It must be the same for the "SRS" air bag warning light.

spyderdrifter · Jul 4, 2014

estoyaqui30 said:
I'm not sure but that might melt the plastic. I think that the plastic that the needles are actually orange, so I don't think that you can remove the color....but I could be wrong. I'm just thinking about when I had the needles out on my test gauge cluster.

They are clear with orange paint.

MikeyTsi · Jul 9, 2014

estoyaqui30 said:
I'm not sure but that might melt the plastic. I think that the plastic that the needles are actually orange, so I don't think that you can remove the color....but I could be wrong. I'm just thinking about when I had the needles out on my test gauge cluster.

No, they aren't, they're just clear needles painted orange on the bottom. One of the lighting tutorials has someone that removed the paint then repainted with red.

Slo2gn · Jul 10, 2014

doing this mod !

MitsuRu · Jul 13, 2014

Looks great! My next mod soon..

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Installed superbright red LED's in my cluster and switches

1sick_gst

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1sick_gst

Bud92gsx

1sick_gst

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Zero6391

MikeyTsi

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estoyaqui30

rolltidero

Ckkime55

boost97gst

estoyaqui30

MikeyTsi

estoyaqui30

DogWhistle

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