Quick Defrost LED Swap How-To
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,634
Likes: 2
From: Macomb Twp, MI
Quick Defrost LED Swap How-To Well, I gutted some of my interior pieces today (gauge cluster bezel, knee bolster, glove box, carPC, A-pillars, dash pad..) to start with the painting of the interior [and replacing the knee bolster with the piece I already painted...] but anyway I want to do this to make it look good, so I entirely took apart pieces like the air vents (took each fin apart, etc, so when i paint it it will come out looking real good) and I started to take apart the defrost case because I wanted to paint the bezel around the button red to match the knee bolster instead of having it be black... anyway, when I popped it open the circuit board came out and I was staring at a blue bulb, of course my noggin started churning so within 5 minutes I had the soldering iron out warming up while I had the multimeter measuring exactly how much was going to the bulb, turns out it was an even 12v bulb so I grabbed an LED and the right resistor and soldered it all up and then installed it in the circuit board.
For mine, there was a white shrink tube on the positive lead. I just took the soldering iron, heated up the solder and yanked the bulb out. Then just soldered the LED and a resistor to the positive side, heated the solder up on the circuit board again and tada it was VERY easy to swap and do. Here's a few pics... the middle one my interior LEDs were on, hence why it was so red in the interior.
For mine, there was a white shrink tube on the positive lead. I just took the soldering iron, heated up the solder and yanked the bulb out. Then just soldered the LED and a resistor to the positive side, heated the solder up on the circuit board again and tada it was VERY easy to swap and do. Here's a few pics... the middle one my interior LEDs were on, hence why it was so red in the interior.
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,634
Likes: 2
From: Macomb Twp, MI
lol my camera blows, it's not nearly that bright at all. It's only slightly brighter than the yellow light that comes from the side of the switch when you turn the defrost on. 
