LED Mod Thread

Blckshdw

Original poster
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Nov 20, 2011
10,747
Tampa Bay Area, FL
The aero has a different flasher module setup than our trucks do. I remember this, because an aero owner over on TBSSO PMed me forever ago asking about the LED flasher replacement. When he took his out, it was different than ours.

It's hard to remember, I'm getting old ya know, but I wanna say there was an LED flasher module for the Saab, so I'm not sure if it will start hyperflashing later or not. Time will tell.
 
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littleblazer

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Jul 6, 2014
9,267
Finished my dome lights finally. [emoji13] Truck was disgusting inside last night so I'll take pictures tonight.
 
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24v 4.2

Member
Jan 16, 2013
430
I tried the turn signals and emergency flashers for about 15 mins last night. They seem fine so far today.

I hope the hf doesn't start.
 

Porkins

Member
Dec 5, 2011
6,960
Thanks to the ever so awesome Garth for helping me out. Finally got it installed in the sisters suv, so the 5-0 will get off her back. Will have to see how well the glue holds, it doesn't seem to like this extreme GA humidity.
 

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Daniel644

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Feb 27, 2015
590
Found where I will run the wiring for the under body lighting. Plan is to try and find some rubber grommets of the appropriate sizes to replace these metal units that are literally inches from where the light strip will start and I can then run the wiring under the carpet to where I will tap them in, speaking of which is there dome light wiring in the b-pillar between the doors? I seam to remember reading that somewhere.
 

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Blckshdw

Original poster
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Nov 20, 2011
10,747
Tampa Bay Area, FL
lol, damn, I never even knew those access holes were there! Learned me somethin new today, thanks for that. You should find some wires running up the driver's side B pillar. You can tap them there.
 
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Daniel644

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Feb 27, 2015
590
Blckshdw said:
lol, damn, I never even knew those access holes were there! Learned me somethin new today, thanks for that. You should find some wires running up the driver's side B pillar. You can tap them there.
they have like a rubber coating on top and then paint over that so you have to hit them from under neath to break it apart so they come out. they are easy to get to, there are 2 at each side and the outer most is outside of the frame rail, just look at where it is in the pic and it's easy to spot when you get underneath

I couldn't find a rubber grommet that would serve the purpose so I'm going to plan B, I bought some of that rubber flashing stuff many of us use as an alternative to dynamat and I'm going to put a layer or 2 on top of the hole under the carpet and another layer or 2 under the truck to create my own plug then just push the wires thru that for a nice tight seal.
 
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Capote

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Atlanta, GA
Daniel644 said:
they have like a rubber coating on top and then paint over that so you have to hit them from under neath to break it apart so they come out. they are easy to get to, there are 2 at each side and the outer most is outside of the frame rail, just look at where it is in the pic and it's easy to spot when you get underneath

I couldn't find a rubber grommet that would serve the purpose so I'm going to plan B, I bought some of that rubber flashing stuff many of us use as an alternative to dynamat and I'm going to put a layer or 2 on top of the hole under the carpet and another layer or 2 under the truck to create my own plug then just push the wires thru that for a nice tight seal.
Sounds good, make sure you take pics of that. I too had nooo idea those little ports were there
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
24v 4.2 said:
The 3157 (turn signal bulbs). I'm hoping they don't start hyperflashing. You would think they would do it from the get go...

I'm thinking maybe they don't hyperflash because of the Saab wiring. The Drls are the turn signals too. The socket has 3 wires.

Hoping thet don't HF, but I already have the resistors if they start. Boy are they blinding though.

http://www.amazon.com/Aaron-Amber-xFF09-Signal-Blinker/dp/B00ML7IELC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1439255581&sr=8-5&keywords=aaron+3157
Here's a pic of those bulbs in two other applications. Only one applies here lol.

20150815_190612_HDR_zps2jbxd25t.jpg



That's just running mode, flashing is multiple times brighter.
 

Capote

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Atlanta, GA
Am I the only guy left here running switchback's?
 

Mounce

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Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Nah there are some here lol. Personally on my car I just got tired of switchbacks tbh and now that I'm itching for them again I know they won't match my headlights so I can't decide whether to get them or not.
 

Capote

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Mounce said:
Nah there are some here lol. Personally on my car I just got tired of switchbacks tbh and now that I'm itching for them again I know they won't match my headlights so I can't decide whether to get them or not.
Turned out mine are custom because the guy who made them had to have the yellow SMD's made by Samsung because it didn't exist lol. He's got some still left, switchbacks, normal turns, 194's, etc.
 

Capote

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Member
Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Sib said:
When Ryan did my headlights he added led switchback strips. Awesome, I say. Awesome.
Where has he been? Any new retros while I was in hiatus?
 

Sib

Member
Sep 6, 2014
3,446
I know he got a new job so he might be busy with that. All I can think of is he did mine then put together the Pink Floyd projectors and threw them in his moms TB. Haven't heard anything since.
 

Capote

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Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Sib said:
I know he got a new job so he might be busy with that. All I can think of is he did mine then put together the Pink Floyd projectors and threw them in his moms TB. Haven't heard anything since.
Wow that was ages ago
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Capote said:
Turned out mine are custom because the guy who made them had to have the yellow SMD's made by Samsung because it didn't exist lol. He's got some still left, switchbacks, normal turns, 194's, etc.
Link? I just wanna see them lol
 

Capote

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Mounce said:
Link? I just wanna see them lol
Oh that's right, I never showed them off lol






My switchbacks!
 

Capote

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Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Mounce said:
And you still haven't. Link, pics, something lol. C'mon
uploadfromtaptalk1439694392804.jpeg
 

Daniel644

Member
Feb 27, 2015
590
Alrighty, now time for some Pics and VIDEO

lets start with a video I shot showing all the floor "punch outs" in the area I ran my LED strips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r05HmSiDTMs

I used window flashing on both top and bottom of the hole create a weather tight seal since I couldn't find a grommet to easily fit there locally, plus the one on the passenger side is a bit oddly shaped and likely would never find a grommet to work, and just to try to give a better surface for the LED's to stick to I ran strips of the flashing along the under body in the area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHWIJQnNk4

after I shot that video I added another layer of flashing to the top and bottom of where the wires went through to get as tight a seal as possible

the wires then run under the carpet to the B-pillar and tap into the courtesy light circuit which FYI is the small group of wires toward the front side of the B-pillar, in that bundle you will find 3 wires (Orange, Grey w/ black stripe and Black) the black is your ground (there is also a ground bolt on the B-pillar) the Orange is the reading lights and the Grey/Black is the courtesy lighting positive, tap into the Black (or use the ground bolt) for your negative lead and then tap your positive to the Grey/Black and now the LED strip will fully function with the interior lights and you are free to repeat the process on the other side.

I have installed the LED strip to the body but I still need to route the wiring over to the B-pillar and tap it in, I think I will also alter My earlier plans to use the extra festoons for footwell lighting and add a few shorter strips of the remaining strip to the circuit.

in the 4 attached pics you have one taken around 7:15PM when it was still light outside and then 2 pics showing the spread and brightness at night (trying to avoid the headlights) and the last pic has the driver door open so you get some additional lighting from the interior LEDs shining on the ground as well.

and last but not least the video of the lights dimming, something about the camera makes it look like they are flickering but they aren't, they dim just as smooth as the interior lights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d042jeZ9lQg
 

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Capote

Supporting Donor
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Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Daniel644 said:
Alrighty, now time for some Pics and VIDEO

lets start with a video I shot showing all the floor "punch outs" in the area I ran my LED strips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r05HmSiDTMs

I used window flashing on both top and bottom of the hole create a weather tight seal since I couldn't find a grommet to easily fit there locally, plus the one on the passenger side is a bit oddly shaped and likely would never find a grommet to work, and just to try to give a better surface for the LED's to stick to I ran strips of the flashing along the under body in the area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHWIJQnNk4

after I shot that video I added another layer of flashing to the top and bottom of where the wires went through to get as tight a seal as possible

the wires then run under the carpet to the B-pillar and tap into the courtesy light circuit which FYI is the small group of wires toward the front side of the B-pillar, in that bundle you will find 3 wires (Orange, Grey w/ black stripe and Black) the black is your ground (there is also a ground bolt on the B-pillar) the Orange is the reading lights and the Grey/Black is the courtesy lighting positive, tap into the Black (or use the ground bolt) for your negative lead and then tap your positive to the Grey/Black and now the LED strip will fully function with the interior lights and you are free to repeat the process on the other side.

I have installed the LED strip to the body but I still need to route the wiring over to the B-pillar and tap it in, I think I will also alter My earlier plans to use the extra festoons for footwell lighting and add a few shorter strips of the remaining strip to the circuit.

in the 4 attached pics you have one taken around 7:15PM when it was still light outside and then 2 pics showing the spread and brightness at night (trying to avoid the headlights) and the last pic has the driver door open so you get some additional lighting from the interior LEDs shining on the ground as well.

and last but not least the video of the lights dimming, something about the camera makes it look like they are flickering but they aren't, they dim just as smooth as the interior lights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d042jeZ9lQg
Glad to see that turned out well man. Real nice write-up with great pics & vids [emoji41]
I'm sure more if us will do this mod now that you've found those holes in the floor, makes it a lot easier to run wire from outside. I may do some courtesy lights too now lol
 

Daniel644

Member
Feb 27, 2015
590
Capote said:
Glad to see that turned out well man. Real nice write-up with great pics & vids [emoji41]
I'm sure more if us will do this mod now that you've found those holes in the floor, makes it a lot easier to run wire from outside. I may do some courtesy lights too now lol
and it's fairly cheap to do too the strip light is about 10-12 dollars, I bought 2 (30') rolls of 16 gauge wire from walmart at 6 bucks each, but 1 roll of 18 gauge would work, provided you can keep track of which wire is which lead, the window flashing roll was 10 bucks from Lowes (and I still have like half or more of it left, I would suggest finding another use for the rest ASAP) so the whole thing could be done for under 30 bucks, assuming you have solder, soldering iron, hot glue gun (used to insulate the connections at the LED strip after soldering) and some method of tapping the wires together, whether it be butt connectors or t-taps where the new wires connect to the existing circuit.
 
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littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,267
Dome lights, I used impressive camera angles to hide the filth. :rotfl:

20150812_213400.jpg
Front is dimmer then the rear, but looks the same because of the tint. The rear is too bright imo.
20150812_213436.jpg
The first one I did, cargo light
20150812_213457.jpg
Don't mind the pole.
20150812_213526.jpg
Mess of chargers.
20150812_213612.jpg
Still don't mind the pole.
20150812_213625.jpg
Overall I'm happy, the dim map light when you hit the button is annoying as is the flickering but oh well.
 

Capote

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Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Am I the only guy to like colored dome lights? Lol
 

littleblazer

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Jul 6, 2014
9,267
Capote said:
Am I the only guy to like colored dome lights? Lol
If I were to do it, I would go with red since it doesn't mess with night vision at all. But with it being a green truck I don't think that would work. I like them, but it makes it difficult coordinating colors. :raspberry:
 

Capote

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24,227
Atlanta, GA
littleblazer said:
If I were to do it, I would go with red since it doesn't mess with night vision at all. But with it being a green truck I don't think that would work. I like them, but it makes it difficult coordinating colors. :raspberry:
Yeah, gotta have the right colored rig lol
 

littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,267
Capote said:
Yeah, gotta have the right colored rig lol
I mean... I could call it a Christmas tree being green and red right? Festive if you will.
 
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Capote

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littleblazer said:
I mean... I could call it a Christmas tree being green and red right? Festive if you will.
Do it for the holidays lol
 
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24v 4.2

Member
Jan 16, 2013
430
Blckshdw said:
The aero has a different flasher module setup than our trucks do. I remember this, because an aero owner over on TBSSO PMed me forever ago asking about the LED flasher replacement. When he took his out, it was different than ours.

It's hard to remember, I'm getting old ya know, but I wanna say there was an LED flasher module for the Saab, so I'm not sure if it will start hyperflashing later or not. Time will tell.
Update, no HF yet. Hopefully I'm good. How long till HF on the late onset one's?
 

Capote

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Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Does anyone have the polarity layout for swb rear HVAC controls? Did it ages ago, but the picture I had as a reference was off an ext, apparently they're not the same in terms of polarity and didn't work, I've been to lazy and forget about it months on end. I'm bored as hell and feel like redoing it
 

Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
littleblazer said:
If I were to do it, I would go with red since it doesn't mess with night vision at all. But with it being a green truck I don't think that would work. I like them, but it makes it difficult coordinating colors. :raspberry:
Don't like looking like Christmas? :biggrin:
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Capote said:
Does anyone have the polarity layout for swb rear HVAC controls? Did it ages ago, but the picture I had as a reference was off an ext, apparently they're not the same in terms of polarity and didn't work, I've been to lazy and forget about it months on end. I'm bored as hell and feel like redoing it
If they didn't light up, flip them 180°.
 

mcsteven

Member
Apr 18, 2012
6,584
Capote said:
Am I the only guy to like colored dome lights? Lol
Nope. I've got blue. And some blue for my footwells when I get the chance to install. As far as you mentioned earlier about switchbacks - I'm still using incandescents.

littleblazer said:
If I were to do it, I would go with red since it doesn't mess with night vision at all. But with it being a green truck I don't think that would work. I like them, but it makes it difficult coordinating colors. :raspberry:
Why not look at the green ones? I know the night vision is interrupted a bit with light other than red, but our trucks won't light up too bright with just the individual map lights anyway. I'm running blue and it looks great, is vry bright, and I don't have a problem readjusting to night viewing. The red was no where near the brightness level. Same size and quantity of LEDs in the same layout, so I'm guessing the wavelength of the color.

I've bought from this ebay seller a few times. Never disappointed. If you want stuff faster (coming from China) contact them and pay the $1.99 shipping difference. I usually get stuff in about 8-10 days that way.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10X-Green-Car-24-SMD-5630-LED-panel-Light-Dome-Bulb-T10-Festoon-Spring-12V-/390760660368?hash=item5afb267d90
 

littleblazer

Member
Jul 6, 2014
9,267
mcsteven said:
Nope. I've got blue. And some blue for my footwells when I get the chance to install. As far as you mentioned earlier about switchbacks - I'm still using incandescents.

Why not look at the green ones? I know the night vision is interrupted a bit with light other than red, but our trucks won't light up too bright with just the individual map lights anyway. I'm running blue and it looks great, is vry bright, and I don't have a problem readjusting to night viewing. The red was no where near the brightness level. Same size and quantity of LEDs in the same layout, so I'm guessing the wavelength of the color.

I've bought from this ebay seller a few times. Never disappointed. If you want stuff faster (coming from China) contact them and pay the $1.99 shipping difference. I usually get stuff in about 8-10 days that way.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10X-Green-Car-24-SMD-5630-LED-panel-Light-Dome-Bulb-T10-Festoon-Spring-12V-/390760660368?hash=item5afb267d90
Red has less density (power... perceived light output?) Then an equivalent in any other color. It also has low reflectivity and doesn't attract bugs. Coast Guard and such use red at night so when scanning the water they can have it on and still see. There was a push to switch to blue, which also doesn't effect night vision but it's so bright and reflects off everything that it does simply by glare. Idk about the green. But I built my panels and it would be interesting to get them out of the housings to put in those. those may work for something else I wanna try though. Thanks for the link. [emoji106]

I don't really think the blue would look to bad on mine either, I mean they have a pretty decent blue tint to them to begin with. Next is most defiently turn signals though.
 
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Capote

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Jul 14, 2014
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Atlanta, GA
Blue ruins night vision, trust me lol
 

Blckshdw

Original poster
Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,747
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Capote said:
Blue ruins night vision, trust me lol
:no: I can see just fine at night, and have had blue LEDs literally everywhere in my TB for years.
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
I have had orange, blue, red, white, green dome lights over the years.
 

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