"Keyless Entry" keypad bulb color change | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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"Keyless Entry" keypad bulb color change

ok, my first how to... Everyone said it couldn't be done, but I thought I would give it a shot.

Try this at your own risk.

Start off by removing the driver door pannel.
1. Remove 2 Phillips screws above door release handle
2. Pry out door release trim
3. Using a panel tool (or a flat screwdriver) pry around the bottom and sides of the door panel
4. Slide panel upward to remove.

Once the pannel is removed you will see this...
the back of keypad. It still attached to the driver door. There is a clip on the right side. Remove the clip


the speaker needs to be removed to gain access to the other end of the keypad. You need to disconnect the green plug.


the keypad, and the attached wires. The first piece of wire loom (closest to the keypad) must be removed.


back of the switch. The white stuff is silicone, and needs to be removed. Notice the 3 pins underneath the silicone. Those also have to be removed


in this picture the silicone is removed as well as the pins. Once the pins are removed the outer case can be slid off.


once the outer case is removed you are left with more silicone. I CAREFULLY peeled the silicone in one piece as the numbers are attached to all the silicone


once the silicone is lossened the numbers will slide off the casing. In this picture you see the number cover, and the green film over the fiber optic pannel DO NOT BEND OR CUT THE FIBER OPTICS it will damage it.


a view behind the green fiber optic pannel. The wires are fed through the case, to gain access to the circuit board you need to push the wires throught the case. This will push the board out


CAREFULLY peel the green film from the fiber optic pannel. This will allow the fiber optics to be what ever colour bulb you decide to use. Do not bend or cut the fiber optics. It will damage it, and not allow light to go through the pannel.


this is the back of the circuit board. The light bulb is soldered in the middle. The rest of the bulb is inside a housing which houses the fiber optics ends. Desolder the light bulb, and remove it and the housing from the circuit board.


once the light bulb is removed from the board it can be seperated from the housing. If you look close there are two clips on either side of the housing, sperate the two parts


solder on the LED bulb to the board. I used a blue 5mm wide angle bulb. The negative lead of the LED bulb gose to the yellow/black wire


I added a resitor for the LED on the yellow and black wire. The resistor must be put on the back side of the casing to allow the circuit board to be slide back into the casing


the fiber optics and light bulb housing are slid over the LED bulb and held into place with some hot glue (not pretty, but it does the trick)


reassembly begins. Don't forget to put the white frame behind the fiber optic pannel, I also added silicone to all the places silicone was removed and even to the top, bottoms and sides of the number covers (not on the actual number part it will block the light)



Drum roll please.... The Finished Product!! FYI... the lights only worked when it is plugged into the car. I tried testing it by putting 12 volts to the blue and yellow/black wire but it doesn't work.

Now thats sexy!!
 



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Nice job! :cool: :thumbsup:
 






thank you so much
 












that is slick... how much would you charge me to do that to mine?
 






that is slick... how much would you charge me to do that to mine?

are you serious? It would be hard with all the shipping involved. It was really easy to do. You just need a solder iron, some solder, a new light bulb LED or not, and some silicone. And your basic hand tools
 






are you serious? It would be hard with all the shipping involved. It was really easy to do. You just need a solder iron, some solder, a new light bulb LED or not, and some silicone. And your basic hand tools

i dont know why everyone thinks shipping is killer? shipping it isnt bad... i work for fedex express and deal wiht movement of packages from the us to canada on a semi daily basis
 






jimbo i may be able to do yours i live in norther illinois, it may be cheaper for you. i just want to see how mine comes out when i do it. all you have to do is pay for shipping and give me a dollar so i have a nice colde arizona tea when im doing it. im getting teeth pulled so it would give me somthing to do. pm me if you want.
 






jimbo i may be able to do yours i live in norther illinois, it may be cheaper for you. i just want to see how mine comes out when i do it. all you have to do is pay for shipping and give me a dollar so i have a nice colde arizona tea when im doing it. im getting teeth pulled so it would give me somthing to do. pm me if you want.

Hey Anti take Jimbo up on his offer LOL... you can you his keypad for a practice run before you do yours. Oh and by the way I did this whole thing in less then 2 hours... thats removing the door pannel, taking apart the keypad, and putting it back together... I waited for the silicone to dry before I put the keypad back into the car. Have you changed the window switch lights yet? I was going to do awrite for the window switch lights but didn't have any time this weekend.
 






i dont know why everyone thinks shipping is killer? shipping it isnt bad... i work for fedex express and deal wiht movement of packages from the us to canada on a semi daily basis

Hey Jimbo, I know it isn't that much to ship things specialy if they are small, do you get a discount at Fedex? However everytime I get something shipped from the US I always get dinged with border fees. Let Anti Commander give it a shot. If you really want to I'll do it for you, but depending on how fast shipping is you can expect to have the big hole in your door a few weeks. Let me know if you wana go through with it.
 






im going to hold off for right now, but it is on my list of things to do.....

i need to get $ together to get it running right and pass smog first and foremst, then i can move onto my mod list.....

my window switches dont light up either, and the right side crusie control buttons dont light anymore
 






i have changed all the lights in my truck, the window/lock the dash, *not the gauges, those are for when later* the puddle lights and the 3 over head lights that come on when the doors are unlocked and the glove box. Id be glad to change your keybad lights jimbo and the window/lock lights for 20 bucks and shipping. take me a day or two. and i only have blue LED's but if you want another collor just pay for those LED's also or give me money to buy you some.
 






i just got done doing the mod, except mine didnt have any silicone or fiberoptics, it was 1 LED underneath each button so i just ground down my 5 millimeter LED's to like 3 or 2, it was ground so much that there was hardly any plastic around the diodes.
 






anti, did you take any pics? On the 99 Ex the buttons are seperate if I'm not mistaken.
 






shoot, i forgot to take pics of my project, its still the same first few steps, take panel off, remove speaker, unplug green connector, remove retension spring slide out, but when you look at the back there is no silicon, there is a plastic peice held on by 8 clips, 3 on the ongest edges and 1 on the shorter, just pop it out and the front faceplate and buttons come off, remove the pc board and desolder the green LED's and replace them with blue. i can take pics if any one absolutely needs them because its already installed but if no one needs to see pics then i won't.
 






Anti, a finished product pic would be nice. What year is your Ex? I will add a note on my write up that there are different keypads.
 






my explorer is a 99 xlt, heres a finish pic.

this is after the mod

100_0561.jpg


this is the old LED

100_0563.jpg


this is the new LED before sanding

100_0565.jpg


this is the LED after sanding

100_0564.jpg
 






LED Version Install

Mine was LED as well.


Here is what the back of the LED version looks like

471641_7_full.jpg


Here is PCB with the factory LED's (sorry it's blurry) The factory LED's are small surface mount LED's and only 2mm X 2mm x 2mm.

471641_8_full.jpg


I just sanded down the top of a 3mm blue LED till its was about .5mm from the diode itself. The holes on the PCB are sized just right for the 3mm LED body. The main concern is getting the top of the LED flush with the button side of the PCB otherwise its in the way of the buttons. On the wire side of the PCB the case gives you more than enough room for mounting the LED's (mine stick out the wire side prob. 4mm or 5mm)

Finished PCB

471641_9_full.jpg


Finished Product

471641_10_full.jpg
 






Anti/whitemage, your keypad looks alot less complicated then mine. The lights also look nicer too. Thanks for posting the pics
 



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nice write-up studd469, thanks, do you know what the brightness rating (mcd) of the leds are?
 






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