XLT
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- January 21, 2005
- Messages
- 813
- Reaction score
- 3
- City, State
- Wausau, WI
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 Sport SOHC 4X4
Hey all. Since i haven’t seen much info on this led swap i thought i would share how i did my led conversion for the rear controls of the center console. Even though i cant see them i still wanted the ugly green gone so my entire truck has a nice blue glow to it.
Parts Used
4x Blue Led rated at 13,000mcd
4x Resistors 470ohm
First i flipped up the center console arm and removed the two screws at the base.
After that, you need to pull the plastic forward revealing a third screw under there and remove that as well. The arm rest/cover should now come off.
Next you will see two screws holding the top of rear control panel to the entire center console which are exposed after removing the center console cover.
Now open the up the cup holder and there are 2 screws sitting at the bottom near the vents, one at the very top of the opening and the last screw is sitting at the middle of the opening. I think I used a 7mm socket to get these out.
Once those are all out the panel should pull off leaving the rear controls held in by just 4 more screws and a lever. The lever is easy to undo. Just pull the plastic slider away from the guide and it will pop out. Two connectors are attached to the unit as well.
Once the rear controls are out there are 3 plastic tabs on top and two plastic tabs on the bottom of the unit that need to be unclipped. The black face and the white backing should pull apart revealing the circuit board in the center. Pull the circuit board out but make sure to undo the final connector which is attached to the circuit board. It works like a computers connector which you have to pull the plastic white rectangle up and just the wires will slide out.
Next I took all 4 lights off the circuit board. They are just held on by two solder points(positive and negative), and the two tabs attached to the light bulb tube housing.
I used the dremel with a grinding stone to shape the heads of my leds into the shape of a funnel. This helped a lot of getting the led to shine light out of its sides instead of just in front of it.
Once the housings were off the board I removed all the light bulbs from their housings. The housings at the top are countersunk so the bulbs sit down a little bit. My leds are to large to sit in there so I just cut the top ¼” off so my leds would sit flush against the plastic. Then I used my dremel again to cut open about half of the tube which can be seen in the picture. This was so I could fit a resistor on the led.
Once I had my leds and resistors all rigged up I used some shrink tubing over the housings to make them a little more appealing to the eye.
Then I simply soldered the leds back in place of the original bulbs to the circuit board.
I threw it all back together and this is my end product.
Also there was one bulb with a housing that only made it sit about ½” off the board at best which I decided to eliminate due to its small size. Check the picture and you will see I just soldered the bulb directly to the board without the housing and just let it hover a little bit above the board. You may notice that I soldered one lead to a resistor as well. This is simply because I tried drilling out the solder of one of the holes in circuit board and my bit was just a tad to large and drilled away the contact area for the negative lead. After that I heated up the solder and poke it out the holes using a tooth pick which work very well.
*I tested the volts at each bulb and got a reading of 5.5volts with the key on engine off. I used resistors meant for a 12 volts source but I used some brighter leds to help shine brighter. It turned out very nice. Its got good color and not to dull. I also didn’t get any hot spots either with the leds.
Parts Used
4x Blue Led rated at 13,000mcd
4x Resistors 470ohm
First i flipped up the center console arm and removed the two screws at the base.
After that, you need to pull the plastic forward revealing a third screw under there and remove that as well. The arm rest/cover should now come off.
Next you will see two screws holding the top of rear control panel to the entire center console which are exposed after removing the center console cover.
Now open the up the cup holder and there are 2 screws sitting at the bottom near the vents, one at the very top of the opening and the last screw is sitting at the middle of the opening. I think I used a 7mm socket to get these out.
Once those are all out the panel should pull off leaving the rear controls held in by just 4 more screws and a lever. The lever is easy to undo. Just pull the plastic slider away from the guide and it will pop out. Two connectors are attached to the unit as well.
Once the rear controls are out there are 3 plastic tabs on top and two plastic tabs on the bottom of the unit that need to be unclipped. The black face and the white backing should pull apart revealing the circuit board in the center. Pull the circuit board out but make sure to undo the final connector which is attached to the circuit board. It works like a computers connector which you have to pull the plastic white rectangle up and just the wires will slide out.
Next I took all 4 lights off the circuit board. They are just held on by two solder points(positive and negative), and the two tabs attached to the light bulb tube housing.
I used the dremel with a grinding stone to shape the heads of my leds into the shape of a funnel. This helped a lot of getting the led to shine light out of its sides instead of just in front of it.
Once the housings were off the board I removed all the light bulbs from their housings. The housings at the top are countersunk so the bulbs sit down a little bit. My leds are to large to sit in there so I just cut the top ¼” off so my leds would sit flush against the plastic. Then I used my dremel again to cut open about half of the tube which can be seen in the picture. This was so I could fit a resistor on the led.
Once I had my leds and resistors all rigged up I used some shrink tubing over the housings to make them a little more appealing to the eye.
Then I simply soldered the leds back in place of the original bulbs to the circuit board.
I threw it all back together and this is my end product.
Also there was one bulb with a housing that only made it sit about ½” off the board at best which I decided to eliminate due to its small size. Check the picture and you will see I just soldered the bulb directly to the board without the housing and just let it hover a little bit above the board. You may notice that I soldered one lead to a resistor as well. This is simply because I tried drilling out the solder of one of the holes in circuit board and my bit was just a tad to large and drilled away the contact area for the negative lead. After that I heated up the solder and poke it out the holes using a tooth pick which work very well.
*I tested the volts at each bulb and got a reading of 5.5volts with the key on engine off. I used resistors meant for a 12 volts source but I used some brighter leds to help shine brighter. It turned out very nice. Its got good color and not to dull. I also didn’t get any hot spots either with the leds.
