Cruise Control LED Conversion (Pics)

To start you need to pull the negative terminal on the battery and wait at least 35 minutes, since you will be removing the air bag to do this.

Pull the plastic caps on the side of the steering wheel and remove both 6 mm bolts that hold the airbag in.

Remove the airbag slowly and disconnect the wire

Then unscrew the 4 screws that hold on both sets of cruise controls

Take the units apart gently and try not to break the plastic clips that hold the unit together. ( I broke all four of them, not a big deal just use hot glue when closing them back up.

Remove the bulb from the board, Then crush the glass to remove the green bulb jack that you will need to save. Drill out the remaining glass until you are down to the blue plastic.

Then take a smaller drill and drill through the bulb holder (5mm White LED on the left)

Use some hot glue to hold the LED in place, you will also need to either block off the light from the bottom of the LED or use green film, and put green cap on the LED

Solder on a resistor to the + side of the LED and a wire to the -
You will also need to file a notch into the circuit board to allow the wires to get through

Splice into the 2nd wire up from the bottom on the harness on the ON OFF switch this is the + lead
(FYI: The third down from the top is for the horn, I had to go inside and change my shorts after I touched that lead with the multimeter, almost had a stroke at the same time)

Run the grounds to the top screw of each switch
Also You can see the holes that you have to drill in the side of each switch to get the wires out

And the final result

-Good Luck

 

[shortstack]

nice write up!
i've been wanting to do this but with blue leds the match my other led mods

 

[MustangP51]

Thank you

A lot of the green color comes from the circuit board itself, I messed around with some blue LEDs as well and didn't like the color that came through the board. So I kept it green. Heres what I mean

 

[bp1506]

i wonder if i painted the inside with like chrome paint, would it reflect the color better then the white. just an idea. I am also converting to leds i did one with blue led but didnt light up as well as i wanted to... looks like green works pretty good... i may try to fit two leds in there

 

[MustangP51]

I only used 1 5mm LED in each, Ill get back to you on the MCD rating, but the switches are now a bit brighter then they were with the stock bulbs, I don't see a need to put two in each, but that is up to you. The chrome paint would definitely make it brighter.

EDIT: 55,000mcd LEDs

 

[Lankhimself]

Nice work!

 

[corkey]

actually , i checked the Holmatro fire rescue manual on airbags, ,

it tells me how long to wait until the capacitors in the airbag module have not enuff power to trigger off the airbag, and it said the safety margin was about 35 minutes,, previous to this time a ground out of the aibag framework could cause the airbag to deploy,, and that would not be good,

 

[MustangP51]

actually , i checked the Holmatro fire rescue manual on airbags, ,

it tells me how long to wait until the capacitors in the airbag module have not enuff power to trigger off the airbag, and it said the safety margin was about 35 minutes,, previous to this time a ground out of the aibag framework could cause the airbag to deploy,, and that would not be good,

Thanks that's good to know for the future.
Ill edit the first post

 

[bp1506]

I only used 1 5mm LED in each, Ill get back to you on the MCD rating, but the switches are now a bit brighter then they were with the stock bulbs, I don't see a need to put two in each, but that is up to you. The chrome paint would definitely make it brighter.

EDIT: 55,000mcd LEDs

Oh ok i bought only 5000 mcd... thats quite a difference in brightness.
i sanded the tip of mine to get the light to disperse better, seems to have helped.

 

[MustangP51]

Oh ok i bought only 5000 mcd... thats quite a difference in brightness.
i sanded the tip of mine to get the light to disperse better, seems to have helped.

After you sand the tips off put a coat of clear nail polish on, it will increase the output

 

[shortstack]

i use dikes to cut the tips off, then you dont have to use your wifes/girlfriends nail polish

 

[scubadogg86]

has anyone triess reversing th les to face out with a ground/cut tip
i am also interested in blue leds

 

[MustangP51]

If you were to reverse the LED then it would interfere with the buttons

 

[CobraSVT1184]

What about spraying the circuit board so it doesnt absorb any light. Long as you have some wide angle LEDs in there it should like those buttons up no prob.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Very nice work!

 

[bp1506]

Well the cruise buttons light up evenly. they just dont light up as bright with the blue color.

 

[scubadogg86]

let me experament a bit and get back to you

 

[calisoundmix]

i just did mine, however i choose to buy new pods as the text on mine had severely worn off. and once i opened them i learned that the new cruise control pods use a blue circuit board, also the new rubber seems much more flexible as an FYI.

also you can just tap straight into the circuit board if you have a small drill bit, saves you the wiring and makes it super easy to plug it back in.

 

[patman]

for safety after i have the battery disconnected i cycle the key and try to crank the engine a few times just for safety so the airbag has absolutely ZERO power and i know it won't go off

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice work