Friday, March 07, 2008 - 07:36 pm, by: Russell Rohde(Ax0n)
Shift Selector and ECT Switch LED Retrofit Tutorial
by Russell Rohde
When I first bought me car, I did all the Air Con LED retro fits, Retrofit the Tape deck (even though 2 weeks later I put in a big doof doof. Over the past month or so, more and more lights have been dying on me making things "half-lit" etc. With that I mind, I decided to photograph and document this little bit so as to help anyone else who wants to do this.
This tute is really two parts - changing the shift locator lights and changing the lightis inside the ECT selectior switch.
***As I have not been in another Soarer for a while, I would assume any other button fit into console would be the same or very bloody similar. If you want to attempt it yourself it is relatively easy. Just use this tute as a *rough* guide.
Also, please, if posting or refenencing to this Tute, please reference myself and Soarercentral.com
Hopefully, this will be the end product.
Tools/parts Required: soldering iron (not a cheap POS form auto barn. get one from jaycar and if possible, spend a minimum of $30.) Solder Heat shrink LEDs (for this tute i used 10 x 3mm bright white 1000cmd) Resistors to suit LED's selected. Flat Blade Screw Driver Philips Screw Driver 2 x butter knives Solder Sucker (if possible - makes soldering easy and tidy)
Section 1: Dismantling components:
first things first. Get the shroud out. If you dont know the drill, put the shifter into Neutral then slide down the sleeve directly under the leather of the knob to expose 2 x philips head screws - remove screws and know slides off. Open ash tray lid, get a good grip with your fingertips and lift out the whole thing so that you have this in your hands (dont forget to remove wiring clips)
Even though i'll run you through changing the Shift Locator Lights first, we'll still pull out the ECT Switch.
If you look at the switch from behind, it is easy to remove. It is only just held in place with 1-way clips. just get 2 thin-wide-flat screwdrivers (or 2 x butter knives makes it real easy) and jimmy them down either side of the swith from behind then once all the lock clips are free, pull out the switch mech. and your left with...
Put that swith aside, and we will get to it later.
Next, remove the 2 screws either end of the shift selector circuit board (white arrows) then when the selector is free, remove all the other smaller screws retaining the actual circuit board in (red circles)
Section 2: Shift Locator LED Retrofit.
First off, get a lightly damp cloth and CAREFULLY clean the white plastic thing left inside the console - will help the led's look better.
Do the same with the white plastic piece that the circuit poard was mounted to. There are 6 little plastic *tabs* that hold the diffuser in place. Bend 3 on the outer side (red circles)DIRECTLY UP - NO FURTER - TABS SNAP OFF EASILY. then remove and clean the diffuser. Once clean - Immediatly refit so as to not damage it while still doing other parts of the job.
With that done, it is time to change the LED's. This is very easy and straight forward. Get out your solering iron and solder sucker(if you have one). Heat up and remove ONE ONLY of the row LED's. Use the OVERALL length of this removed LED to trim the legs of the replacment LED's (trim legs to suit overall lenght from tip of LED to END of legs - Cos I used 3mm replacment LEDs, the actual resin tip was smaller - that is why i'm stressing the point of the tip to end thing). Becuase we are just replacing existing LED's there are no calculations to do, also, dont forget that LED's are polarity sensitive so make sure to fit the new led the same wat the old one was removed (just use the flat strip on the base of the LED to determine this - no genius required).
The next part is to retrofit the 12V light holders that illuminate the Gear Guide. Easily done, just fiddly. Dont worry about polarity at any point cos if the LED's dont fire up, just remove the holder, turn around and refit - Too Easy Maaate!!
Remove the holders. Unwind the wire legs of the 12v globe. grab your pliers and pull out the light - being careful not to break the light. Replace this with your desired colored and brilliance LED. Once in place, ben ONLY ONE of the legs back the same way the 12V globe was wired.
The other side required a resistor. For me, because the desired Forward Current was anywere between 30 and 100milli amps, I used a 270 ohm 0.5 watt wirewound resistor. The really easy way to figure out what you need is to go to Jaycar (not Dick smith or Tandy as they usually employ 'floor staff' not 'brained up super nerds' and just ask. Personally, I would not want to use and LED that has over 1000cmd brilliance (I know from experience - used 3500cmd while LED's in the AC unit and they were so bright inside the cab I could not see out through side windows at night making changing lanes difficult also, friends tend to whine and winge about it - I'm ranting, just look at the next image and it will all make sense)
As LED's light output is very directional, I'd also reccomend using a very fine file (use your girlfriends emery board) to make the top of the led almost flat. this will help disperse the light. If you dont, youll end up with big bright spots directly above the LED's and it looks poxy.
Now cover the resistor and exposed leg of LED in heat shrink and put it all back together but stop before you mount it back into the console. Instead, take it out to the car, plug it into the wiring loom and check if the LED's fire up. If one or both dont work, do as i said earlier, just remove them, turn them around and refit them - Easy!
You can now put all this section back together and get onto the ECT Switch.
Section 3: With the next step, do it over a bucket or something. There is a small part that just "sits there" if you loose this, kiss the switch buy buy's. This is the part I'm talking about
Dismantle the ECT switch by doing the 2 x butter knife trick again but this time inside the back of the switch itself.
This is the part that comes out. It has 2 tabs too!! God damn tabs!!! pop these and remove the baige plastic piece being carefull not to bend the pins inside where the wiring loom connects.
Next, do exactly the same as we did before retro fitting the 12V light holers. These holders are a lot smaller and a real bitch to work on (I have big fumbley hands). What you might have also noticed though is that if the Resistor sits stright up, it wont fit back together but guess what - lying flat wont help either.
this is where I made a judgment call. I reassembled the swith after fitting the LED lamp holders but left out the baige panel all the way at the back. It is up to you if you feel confident enough to drill/mod whatever the baige rear panel.
Here's mine wile I was connecting it to test it prior to refitting everything. remember, If the LED's dont work - turn them around.
Next job is to reassemble everything and enjoy.
Off...
On...
*******With the retrofit on the 12v globe holders (which is really all this tute is) You should be able to change the lights inside the AirCon On/Off/TempAdjust Knob and the Tape Deck On/Off/Volume Knob. almost any and all lights that have that style of holder!!! just make sure the resistor will fit!!!
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