HVAC controls

[galantracer53]

So I have a 99 Eclipse GS and the HVAC control switch (temp control, fan speed, position) doesn't always light up. It will sometimes but then if I turn any of the knobs or go over a bump it'll go off. I believe it's a ground issue but can anyone tell me where it's grounded to?

Any help would be awesome!

 

[zach4gt]

It could be grounded to body engine or in the system its self

 

[galantracer53]

I haven't looked yet ### I'm not generally looking foreword to tearing my dash apart but I just wanted to see if anyone knew

 

[spyderdrifter]

For the HVAC lights, there are only 2 wires, and both are the same solid share of red. The words are identical and they go into the wire harness so I'm notsure where they ground out at. It could be that your build is going out as well. I'll go check out my wire schematics and if I find it, I'll post up the image.

 

[galantracer53]

I haven't looked yet ### I'm not generally looking foreword to tearing my dash apart but I just wanted to see if anyone knew

That would be really helpful ### it's like them to always be on and do u know which wire is positive and which in ground??

 

[spyderdrifter]

Well I hope this helps, but I'm not sure that it will. The light is there listed as the Blower Control Lamp, but the wire colors listed are wrong, so this may be the wrong one. However, that's the only light listed in the HVAC circuit of this diagram.

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[galantracer53]

Thanks anything helps really! I'm glad to have some kindve help I was worried no one would answer back to this. Just to make sure it's clear this is what I'm talking about the knob part

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[spyderdrifter]

Yep, figured that was it. I've pulled many of them out of my DSMs and others to modify them, so I'm quite familiar with them, just not sure where it's grounded since I've never needed to know. I could find out though. My car's out in the garage and I can easily pop out the vents above and stick my test light in there to figure out which is power and ground. And snap a few pics so you can see what's there.

 

[galantracer53]

That would be really helpful if you wouldn't mind actually!!

 

[spyderdrifter]

I'm out here and got it all apart, and the diagram appears to be right. The power side is green with white stripe, and ground is black with yellow stripe. Never noticed that before since the HVAC unit side has the 2 red wires. I'm finishing up, and will have pics posted for you shortly.

 

[galantracer53]

Okay thank you so how many wires exactly come off the back of the hvac controls???

 

[spyderdrifter]

There are only two wires on the back for the lights. On the stock setup, there's only one bulb in the unit that lights the entire thing through clear acrylic. My setup has more lights because it's now all LEDs, but I have them wired into the same connector as you can see in the pics. Pic 5 has the connector for the lights looped over the screw driver.

The only other wires are the plugs for the A/C switch (the round push button) and the air speed controller.

 

[galantracer53]

So those 2 red wires you have are for the lights?

And yeah I want mine fixed ### I wanna do blue less throughout the whole car inside

 

[spyderdrifter]

Yep, and then at the harness connector, they swap over to the normal colored wires. Blue is a tougher color to do without an overlay.

 

[galantracer53]

Gotcha thank you so much. Did u just put a red led bulb into it? Or did you put a strip in yours??

 

[spyderdrifter]

No problem, glad I could help.

Mine is a strip all the way til the blue section. Then since I wanted the blue and red to be lit up properly, I had to glue in a plastic strip to keep the blue and red separate. For that dial alone, I used single LED bulbs. But I found some better strips that I'll buy some day and build one of my spare units. The new one will also have individual bulbs for each of the dials so they stay lit in all positions.

 

[galantracer53]

They don't stay lit in some positions?? And I'm gonna order a blue led from superbringleds.com along with LEDs for the gauge cluster too. As you can tell I like blue . I also have a blue strips under the dash and the radios blue too

 

[spyderdrifter]

They don't stay lit all the way because I didn't add the extra lights to do it at that time. My last two DSMs had all blue lighting too. I like the blue, but I find that the red is so much better for my eyes at night. Had laser eye surgery 10 years ago, so it helps. The blue was just too bright for me after awhile. This was in my first Spyder.

 

[galantracer53]

That is beautiful in my opinion!! The only difference I'm gonna have is that I'm keeping the stock gauge faces and just replacing the bulbs in them ### I like the stock gauges alot. Have u ever used superbrightleds???

 

[spyderdrifter]

I say good luck with doing just the bulbs on the cluster. I went with over lays because with blue bulbs, they don't shine through the gauge faces very well. This is because the back sides are coated with a film that enhances the stock orange glow. I replaced all the orange bulbs with red LED bulbs since it enhances the red as well. I have a spare gauge cluster that I've pulled the gauge faces off and sanded that film layer off so I can build a cluster with white lighting for one of my DSM friends. Even with it sanded, blue still has a hard time shining through because of the section of color spectrum that blue is in.

I get nearly all my LEDs from them.

I like the stock gauges too, which is why I stopped getting over lays. But since you have a '99, you should have the white (or silver) gauge faces, which I think would look great with the blue lights if you get it done up well enough.

Here's my setup in full.

 

[galantracer53]

That looks really nice!! I'm not sure what kinda of tinting is on mine ### it's kindve orangish but I have a buddy who has a similar thing but the tint of his was green and he used red LEDs and his looks good but I could be wrong with the way the color goes through it I guess I'll just havta see. You said you tried it before though???

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and that's my gauge cluster I'm not sure what kindve tinting it has

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this is my interior right at this very minute. I also wanna put a blue LEDs for the after too have u done that??

 

[spyderdrifter]

I also wanna put a blue LEDs for the after too have u done that??

For what? Are your gauge faces black?

 

[galantracer53]

Yeah my gauge faces are black as sorry I forgot that part I meant I wanna put a blue LEDs for the shifter too like for the park reverse neutral part

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i wanna make these blue with a blue led

 

[spyderdrifter]

Gotcha. I haven't done that on a DSM since in 11 years of owning them, I sat in my first auto DSM last week at school (fixing it for its owner). I have done it on a Honda Civic though. It was a pain, but that was because the Civic didn't really have anywhere to mount the lights. It's easy for a normal bulb, but for an LED, I had to use more than 1, which caused the issue. I'm not sure what it looks like on the DSM's auto shifter, but I imagine it's very similar.

With your gauge faces being black, then they should have the same film mine had. The blue has a better chance of being brighter if the film is sanded off, but if you don't the blue will be so dark that you'll barely be able to see it at night. It sucks, but that's just how it is. But don't take this as me discouraging you from doing it. It can be done, just takes more time and effort.

 

[galantracer53]

Yeah I was planning in sanding it off ### I heard about that before on here and yeah sadly it's an auto :/ I would prefer a manual but I took what I could get at the time and I'm happy with it. I plan on getting a gsx sometime soonish so that'll be manual. You have a gst right?? Or do u have a gsx??