LED Mod Thread

[trailblazer075]

This is mine LED and STROBE light TB!
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Next the strob light flasher into the rear light......

 

[DenaliHD66]

Alright so I got my 194 AGT LED bulbs from Amazon. Turns out one of my license plate bulb assemblies is bad since none of the bulbs I used in there would work. But just running the one bulb in the other one, its crazy how bright it looks at night.

I put 2 other 194's in the turn signals up front, and they work perfectly, and they flash at the same rate as the main turn signals, which are OEM bulbs, and alternate blinking/off with the turn signal when the parking lights are on.

Now I just need to find the part number for the license plate bulb assembly.... might as well order 2 since the other one was rather finicky.

 

[marinegrunt]

I have a GMC Sierra that had a faulty cluster. The shift selector wouldn't light up. I found a guy on ebay that rebuilds them. I had him install the blue leds. That got me thinking about my wife's Envoy. I wanted to do pink since it's my wife's and knew she'd like it. I looked all over the web for pink replacement and couldn't find any. I even emailed a guy that does cluster rebuilds and he said you can't do pink in the Envoy and they don't even make them. He did say there were purple cluster leds for the Envoy. I researched on the old site (not knowing about this site at the time) and came across some good info on replacing all oem lights with leds. After tearing the cluster apart I noticed the blue tint and realized why they didn't make replacement leds in pink.

I decided to try and remove the blue tint. I decided to go with paint thinner and use q-tips. It took me about two hours but finally got the blue tint off. I used 5mm pink flat top leds with 560 ohm resitors. I actually used the round top but flattened the top with a grinder. Reason being is that the round top were brighter than the flat top. I even swapped out the blinker indicators with pink.

Over the next few days I replaced the rest of the interior bulbs with 3mm pink leds. I replaced the headlight swtich, headlighter washer, fog light, 4-wheel drive selector, rear wiper, rear hvac selector and control, front hvac control, window and door lock controls, heated seat controls, steering wheel controls, and rear window controls. I think I might try and change the bulbs out in the rear view mirror too.

What do you all think? Besides the fact that they're pink, I think it looks pretty good. But hey, as long as the wife likes it and she does.

 

[Blckshdw]

...Over the next few days I replaced the rest of the interior bulbs with 3mm pink leds. I replaced the headlight swtich, headlighter washer, fog light, 4-wheel drive selector, rear wiper, rear hvac selector and control, front hvac control, window and door lock controls, heated seat controls, steering wheel controls, and rear window controls. I think I might try and change the bulbs out in the rear view mirror too.

What do you all think? Besides the fact that they're pink, I think it looks pretty good. But hey, as long as the wife likes it and she does.

Nice work man, looks good!

The rear view mirror LEDs are SMDs. I used some 1206's for the tiny ones behind the passenger air bag wording, and some 3mm ones (I forget the actual number for them) for the rest.

 

[DFWWIZ]

This is now the newest addition to my arsenal of lights I sell. There are roughly 160 logos available and are lazer etched into the lens, but as far as I know, I'm the only one with the "SS" logo. I'll have this and also the Chevrolet version in the pic in about a week to 10 days. More logos as requests come in. Regular logos already in production are $30 for a pair and include the hole saw for making the hole. These have a backing nut with an O-ring to seal out moisture ans a cree SMD. The SS logo will be $40 (had to pay for the mold to be made).

This is a pic on my carpet in the living room. Its much clearer on a hard smooth surface.

This will be similar to the "SS" logo with the SS in white & silver borders. The ring will be around the perimeter.

my site:
Wix.com LEDS created by dfwizleds based on auto-repair-express | Wix.com

 

[Melaronius]

Well I've got all the LEDs and resistors that I'll ever need (1k of each for $40 on ebay). Now I just need to learn how to solder so I can get to work on my interior.

Edit: I've also got the projectors as DFWWIZ showed but between work, school, and fishing I haven't had any time to install them yet. I should have time this weekend to knock it out. I need to find a good place to tap into so they come on when the door opens. Any ideas?

 

[Blckshdw]

Well I've got all the LEDs and resistors that I'll ever need (1k of each for $40 on ebay). Now I just need to learn how to solder so I can get to work on my interior.

Edit: I've also got the projectors as DFWWIZ showed but between work, school, and fishing I haven't had any time to install them yet. I should have time this weekend to knock it out. I need to find a good place to tap into so they come on when the door opens. Any ideas?

If you're mounting them in the doors, I think you can tap into the PDM/DDM for the fronts, and the rears have a door-ajar switch you can tap into. I remember seeing them in the wiring diagram from the service manuals.

If you plan to mount them under the rocker panels/running boards, you'll have to run your wiring up to the dome lights. For a mod I'm working on, I needed the same trigger. I thought I'd be smart and grab the signal at the BCM/rear fuse block, and spent a good few hours to find out all the signals were either hot all the time, or didn't put out much more than a reference signal. And since my lights are in the center of the headliner, had to go all the way up and over... Thank goodness I had a wire snake handy!

 

[Melaronius]

If you're mounting them in the doors, I think you can tap into the PDM/DDM for the fronts, and the rears have a door-ajar switch you can tap into. I remember seeing them in the wiring diagram from the service manuals.

Ok so after a bit of trial and error I believe that tapping into the PDM/DDM won't work. I'm savvy when it comes to electrical stuff but I'm guessing the light takes too much juice. When I tapped into it a few things happened. The first thing was that the light wasn't shining as bright as it should. Another thing is that the dome light wouldn't come on with the door open. And lastly the window motor wouldn't engage (from neither the passenger nor driver switch).

Here is the diagram of what I tapped into. I used the orange wire.

Was I simply doing something wrong?

Tomorrow I'll just run a wire through the door, up the panel, and tap into the dome light. I'm also going to buy a voltmeter and learn how to use one.

 

[Blckshdw]

Ok so after a bit of trial and error I believe that tapping into the PDM/DDM won't work. I'm savvy when it comes to electrical stuff but I'm guessing the light takes too much juice. When I tapped into it a few things happened. The first thing was that the light wasn't shining as bright as it should. Another thing is that the dome light wouldn't come on with the door open. And lastly the window motor wouldn't engage (from neither the passenger nor driver switch).

Here is the diagram of what I tapped into. I used the orange wire.

Was I simply doing something wrong?

Tomorrow I'll just run a wire through the door, up the panel, and tap into the dome light. I'm also going to buy a voltmeter and learn how to use one.

The serial data line isn't a 'power' signal, it's a data signal. That's why that didn't work, and interrupting the communication flow confused the BCM, which is why your functions stopped working. I would have gone with the b&w wire, since it will only have power flowing when the door is open. To save yourself a headache, buy your trusty meter first, and see what kind of voltage is coming from the low reference, and determine if that's gonna be enough to power your light. If not, THEN start fishing wires...

 

[Melaronius]

The serial data line isn't a 'power' signal, it's a data signal. That's why that didn't work, and interrupting the communication flow confused the BCM, which is why your functions stopped working. I would have gone with the b&w wire, since it will only have power flowing when the door is open. To save yourself a headache, buy your trusty meter first, and see what kind of voltage is coming from the low reference, and determine if that's gonna be enough to power your light. If not, THEN start fishing wires...

I tested the black wire with no luck. I went ahead and ran a wire up through the headliner which turned out to be pretty easy. It took about 15 minutes to get the wire ran from door to dome lights and spliced on both ends. The sunroof made fishing the wire extremely easy.

The passenger side works perfectly. hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to do the driver side, but we're supposed to be getting hit by a hurricane so it might have to wait until Monday.

 

[Ghost]

Will these work on my rear stoplights:?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3BSpec-3057-3157-4157-SACK-SRCK-12-SMD-LED-Bulbs-RED-pr-/180874782055

 

[Short Bus]

Will these work on my rear stoplights:?
3BSPEC 3057 3157 4157 Sack SRCK 12 SMD LED Bulbs Red PR | eBay

Yes

 

[Melaronius]

I'm about ready to start swapping out my LEDs exactly like you did. The only thing I don't like is the cyan color from the DIC doesn't match. I have the digital A/C controls so it would be there too. I'm not sure if anyone has done this yet but I figured that since Cyan + Magenta = Blue it would work the same with light and tint. I ordered a piece of Magenta colored window tint and put it over the glass to test. Here is the result:

For $2 I got 2 sheets of tint measuring 8"x10" (way more than needed).

 

[Blckshdw]

I'm about ready to start swapping out my LEDs exactly like you did. The only thing I don't like is the cyan color from the DIC doesn't match. I have the digital A/C controls so it would be there too. I'm not sure if anyone has done this yet but I figured that since Cyan + Magenta = Blue it would work the same with light and tint. I ordered a piece of Magenta colored window tint and put it over the glass to test. Here is the result:

For $2 I got 2 sheets of tint measuring 8"x10" (way more than needed).

Hmm, very interesting. I tried using a bunch of blue vinyl on my rear view mirror to do that. Ended up using a ton layered up, and it never quite changed the color enough, so I didn't bother trying it on the cluster. Looks like I'm gonna have to borrow your mod

 

[Melaronius]

Hmm, very interesting. I tried using a bunch of blue vinyl on my rear view mirror to do that. Ended up using a ton layered up, and it never quite changed the color enough, so I didn't bother trying it on the cluster. Looks like I'm gonna have to borrow your mod

Well I'm happy to help. Here is he link to the magenta film. Magenta Colored Window Film Sample

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

btw...my whole reason for posting was to ask you about the dome/map light mod you did, got a little excited about the choco/walnut brownies that finally dinged, and got side tracked

when you did yours, how did you arrange the led array?

 

[Blckshdw]

btw...my whole reason for posting was to ask you about the dome/map light mod you did, got a little excited about the choco/walnut brownies that finally dinged, and got side tracked

when you did yours, how did you arrange the led array?

Didn't really take any pics during the build (just wanted to get the bastards done, since I had to do 7 boards ) I went with sets of 3 in series, grouped parallel to each other.

You can kinda see it in this pic of the cargo light, where the 12V hits the resistors (green star) and then follows the path of the red arrow to the beginning of each set of 3 (path of yellow arrow) and then hits the common ground (black arrows) which goes back to the bulb socket.

This was the only pic I took of the backside of the board...

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Didn't really take any pics during the build (just wanted to get the bastards done, since I had to do 7 boards ) I went with sets of 3 in series, grouped parallel to each other.

You can kinda see it in this pic of the cargo light, where the 12V hits the resistors (green star) and then follows the path of the red arrow to the beginning of each set of 3 (path of yellow arrow) and then hits the common ground (black arrows) which goes back to the bulb socket.

ahhhhh I had to run back to ebay and triple my led order
they'll be a while to get here probably...so until then, looks like I'm gonna be drawing up schematics for it and finishing my headlights!

 

[Blckshdw]

Parts Used
5mm blue Flat top LEDs
470 ohm resistors
18 gauge wire (smaller would be fine too)
13/64" Drill bit
RTV Silicone

I initially decided to use the clips as my reference point for drilling the holes. The clips towards the front ends of the front door scuff plates are offline from the ones further back, so I used my calipers to mark points at a consistent distance from the inside edge.

I used a small drill bit to make pilot holes, then held the boards up in front of a window to make sure the alignment was what I wanted, in case any of the holes were slightly off due to some curvature of the pads, I wanted to be able to use the larger drill bit to make the adjustment, but that wasn't necessary.

After using the 13/64" bit, the LEDs fit perfectly, with the lip at the base of the LEDs catching the pad. Looking from the top side, the LEDs aren't quite flush mounted, slightly recessed, but this was fine for me. If I wanted them flush mounted, I probably would use a small Dremel grinding bit to bevel the edge of the hole from the bottom to give a little more clearance.

Since I had baggies of resistors laying around, I went with a 1 to 1 setup, instead of wiring up my LEDs in series/parallel. Plus since the underside of the pad won't be seen, I wasn't too concerned about making an 'as clean as possible' install. Here's one pad soldered up, with a power test viewed from the underside and top side.

Once satisfied with that, time to adhere everything in place and seal them from weather exposure. On the OS I saw people use electrical tape and/or some clear coat. Since I had a mostly full tube of RTV laying around, I decided to use that. I ran a small bead over the top of one wire's solder joint, across to the other, then used an old pick tool to spread the RTV out and get it around the wires, resistor and LED for a good seal on the back side

Repeat the same steps for the rear door scuff plates, then install.

To take it a step further, I pulled the upper trim piece inside the lift gate. Since the tabs are offset, I used a piece of thread to get a straight reference line. Here are the pilot holes.

Backside wired up, soldered and sealed.

Front Side

Installed

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Must have got bitten overnight by the mod bug...I woke up with my mind set

grabbed a couple packs of the led's I've had laying around, and a few boards/resistors and went to work.

I wanted interior accent lighting in the floor boards, but I'm not a fan of the led bars that you find at every autozone in the world...not to mention, why buy it, when you can build it

so0o0o0o I got to work

can ya tell which one I started with and which one I finished with? lol learning on the fly...

they are blue, but the cam makes them look purple...this pics are only 2 of the boards, pretty bright for the application I think

now I'm just gonna figure out how to seal up the back and mount them...I'm thinking a layer of silicone to protect everything, and maybe just another board on the back? it's not gonna be seen, so I'm not all that concerned about it winning a beauty contest
any ideas?

 

[Blckshdw]

...
they are blue, but the cam makes them look purple...this pics are only 2 of the boards, pretty bright for the application I think ...

Nice idea Chris! I think they look purple because they are mad about all that unused space next to them!! More LEDs please!!

now I'm just gonna figure out how to seal up the back and mount them...I'm thinking a layer of silicone to protect everything, and maybe just another board on the back? it's not gonna be seen, so I'm not all that concerned about it winning a beauty contest
any ideas?

If you have a tube of silicone laying around, I'd say a line down each row where your solder joints are would do the trick. Then spread it out with an old pick tool or something depending on how large/small your bead is. If I did the whole board, then I'd definitely go with the spray. Lot less work. Although if you are mounting the back sides to plastic (or something else non conductive), and they are up above the foot wells, then there's not much I can think of that they need protection from on the back side... You could get some double sided mounting tape to keep them in place.

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Nice idea Chris! I think they look purple because they are mad about all that unused space next to them!! More LEDs please!!

My original plan was to fill the whole board up, but I made one of the three lines and tested it, and it was pretty bright, so I figured that 3 would do the trick for now. Not too bad for my first actual led board project :wootwoot:
I figured out a few things along the way that would have made doing the entire board a bit easier, but most of that came to me on the last board (as you can see, it's much neater and simpler lol)

If you have a tube of silicone laying around, I'd say a line down each row where your solder joints are would do the trick. Then spread it out with an old pick tool or something depending on how large/small your bead is. If I did the whole board, then I'd definitely go with the spray. Lot less work. Although if you are mounting the back sides to plastic (or something else non conductive), and they are up above the foot wells, then there's not much I can think of that they need protection from on the back side... You could get some double sided mounting tape to keep them in place.

I was thinking of coating the back of it with silicone and using either double sided tape, or velcro to secure it...gonna play around with it a bit over the next few days depending on the weather.

 

[02Olds]

I did the eyebrow thing on my rainier and got pulled over... I like the interior mods, like the dials and dash, but I think the dome lights being all blue would give me a headache. Looks cool though!

 

[Blckshdw]

I did the eyebrow thing on my rainier and got pulled over... I like the interior mods, like the dials and dash, but I think the dome lights being all blue would give me a headache. Looks cool though!

So I gotta ask you, is your headlight switch assembly damaged so your dome lights are on all the time? They are pretty bright, but since they aren't white, they needed to be. With the plug and play bulbs I initially bought back in the day, it was hard to see anything on the seats at night, and impossible to see things on the floor if things got dropped.

I want to go back to the eyebrows at some point, but I want something that's more reliable (and better looking) than the strips. I see a lot of cars around town where people slapped on an LED strip and it looks like crap, so I wanna have something that stands out and sets mine apart. I have some ideas, will take me a while (and some spare cash) to make them happen though.

 

[02Olds]

So I gotta ask you, is your headlight switch assembly damaged so your dome lights are on all the time? They are pretty bright, but since they aren't white, they needed to be. With the plug and play bulbs I initially bought back in the day, it was hard to see anything on the seats at night, and impossible to see things on the floor if things got dropped.

I want to go back to the eyebrows at some point, but I want something that's more reliable (and better looking) than the strips. I see a lot of cars around town where people slapped on an LED strip and it looks like crap, so I wanna have something that stands out and sets mine apart. I have some ideas, will take me a while (and some spare cash) to make them happen though.

Haha Something about blue lights, whether HID's or interior, just gives me headaches. Probably because I'm so used to HID's being shined in my eyes!

Like I said, I tried the LED strip and I liked the look of it at night, but during the day it just didn't have enough light! If you plan on removing the four yellow lights, if you haven't already, maybe you can find a way to tap into the eyebrow so you can insert a larger neon bar to them, instead of just an LED strip. I thought about this too, but then found out that without the yellow lights I was bound to get a ticket...

 

[Blckshdw]

Yeah, all the amber is gone from my truck as far as parking lights go. The 6 switchbacks flash amber when the turn signals are active, but I have some plans to mod that stuff too eventually.

 

[02Olds]

Yeah, all the amber is gone from my truck as far as parking lights go. The 6 switchbacks flash amber when the turn signals are active, but I have some plans to mod that stuff too eventually.

Looking out for you here! I'd wire in some sort of amber light in there, because as I've said, I got pulled over the second day with them missing! Better safe than sorry and throw a little guy in there to protect yourself from that issue. TB Looks great though!

 

[BO TIE SS]

I'd wire in some sort of amber light in there, because as I've said, I got pulled over the second day with them missing!

Laws vary from state to state. In Ohio, front parking and marker lights can be amber or white. I think the law makers did that because of the classic cars which came with white.

 

[02Olds]

Laws vary from state to state. In Ohio, front parking and marker lights can be amber or white. I think the law makers did that because of the classic cars which came with white.

Haha good point. Didn't take that into account. Unfortunately, I get to reside in a No-Fun state, where we can't even tint our front windows without getting hassled...

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Yeah, all the amber is gone from my truck as far as parking lights go. The 6 switchbacks flash amber when the turn signals are active, but I have some plans to mod that stuff too eventually.

hey bro do you have any pics of the switchbacks in the headlights when they're off? to show how much they stand out (if at all)

 

[Blckshdw]

hey bro do you have any pics of the switchbacks in the headlights when they're off? to show how much they stand out (if at all)

Umm, these are the best I've got, with the lights off. You really don't notice them at all.

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

gotcha, I was just concerned about how odd the white switchbacks would look considering everything in my light is murdered out :wootwoot:
I saw somewhere that a guy had actually painted his black, looked legit

 

[Blckshdw]

I think I've seen most people just Niteshade the shit out of the bottom part of the clear lens, and tape off the areas where the headlight shines through. Since you have your lights open already, you could spray some Niteshades on the switchback and on the chrome reflector bowl so it appears black, but you still get some light reflecting off it at night.

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

No I mean EVERYTHING in my headlight is black...FLAT black muahahahaha I'm gonna look around for the brightest one I can get so I don't worry abt it not reflecting enough bc of it being black. Then make some clear corners n I'm dizzone

 

[Blckshdw]

There's not many leds on the nose of the bulb, so the size you got wouldn't make much difference, since most are on the sides. I suppose having them would get you out of a ticket for not having front turn signals, but you wouldn't get much output from them if the reflector is matted out. You'd need to use some LED strips or something, going into an empty 3757 base. Then you might get good light coverage.

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Dfwwiz suggested side mount led's...i think mounted across the top of the hotel for the turning signal combined with a switchback would look nice, and still give me functional output

 

[Blckshdw]

Mounted on the side of what?

They sell switchback LED strips, you could get 2 of them per side, run one along the top of the turn signal reflector, and the other along the bottom. Hook up the wires to an empty base, and have it look slightly different than stock. Is that the idea you're going for?

 

[DFWWIZ]

Mounted on the side of what?

They sell switchback LED strips, you could get 2 of them per side, run one along the top of the turn signal reflector, and the other along the bottom. Hook up the wires to an empty base, and have it look slightly different than stock. Is that the idea you're going for?

Side firing SMDs is what he is referring to and I have those in white and also white/amber-3 wires. These can be mounted to any flat horizontal surface and yet the light shines forward. In the case of white and amber you power the white to parking lights and the amber to turn signals. I have a strip of white mounted to the underside of my headlight lens; when people see them turned on, it looks as if they were mounted inside the lens. And they can be cut at every 3 SMDs to fit.

 

[NinjuhhNutz]

Side firing SMDs is what he is referring to and I have those in white and also white/amber-3 wires. These can be mounted to any flat horizontal surface and yet the light shines forward. In the case of white and amber you power the white to parking lights and the amber to turn signals. I have a strip of white mounted to the underside of my headlight lens; when people see them turned on, it looks as if they were mounted inside the lens. And they can be cut at every 3 SMDs to fit.

^side fire...whoops lol my mistake

 

[jeffro312]

Can someone tell me if its possible to replace my rainiers 6-CD non Bose stock radio lights....

The security led works.. radio works display works.

None of the buttons are lit up.. tried to search found nothing any help would be nice thanks yes I would want to change to led