Ignition LED Mod Diagram Done!

[CyFi]

Ok well after i showed everyone what i did with my ignition ring light, they asked me to make a diagram so you could do this yourself.

Step one: Remove your center dashboard piece. There are 2 scres under the ashtray you mus unscrew to remove this. The rest is all clips. You may have to remove the plastic from near the shifter in order to get the center dash piece out.(there are wires attatched for the emergency flashers and cigarette lighter, you may unplug them for more room but i was able to just move it to the side.)

Step 2: Remove light ring from around ignition. It should slide right off, and it may be stuck on the dash peice you just moved out of the way, just slide it out.

Step 3: Unplug the light ring from the car. Self explanitory, i believe it is a grey plug.

Step 4: Take out the stock bulb from the ring. Turn the bulb 90 degrees and it will pull out.

Step 5: Cut the 2 wires, both green and white, close to the old bulb. Strip the wires. You can cut down the sleeve over the wires, or you can just remove it entirely like i did.

Step 6: Solder your resistor to the WHITE, or positive wire.

Step 7: Solder your positive leg of your led to the resistor as shown in the picture.

Step 8: Solder the negative lead of the LED to the GREEN, or negative wire.

Step 9: Use electrical tape to wrap each wire individually to avoid shorting.

Step 10: Put LED in hole that original bulb was in, and use something to hold it in place, i find hot glue to work best. There is also a non-used hole on the side of the ring, i find this hole to distribute the light much better that the hole the old bulb was in. You can use either.

And your done! Just re-assemble.(dont forget to plug the wire back in to the car for the power )

For 2 LEDS

Step 11: Insert one led in the hole the original bulb was and hot glue it there. Next insert the other LED to the second unused hole and hot glue into place.

DONE!

Im sorry i dont have any pictures of this whole thing, but if you look at it you will see how simple it really is.

Now for the diagram. Here they are for one LED, and for 2 LED's.




These resistors are for a 5mm LED with the current specs:
3.3volt 20mA

And the finished product.

[PHOENIX]

great write-up

im gonna go do this.

[CyFi]

Also please note, if you put the led in the second unused hole like i did, i had a little trouble having it fit around the ignition, you may have to grind down the led just a little bit so it doesnt inturrupt anything.

[canadam]

Thank you very much ! This is awesome.

[Ncturnal]

Nice! I definitely like this one.

[TD06TRD]

Very nice thread homie. I like it. Where do you buy your led's? Sorry if I have missed that....also the resistor I assume comes from radio shack?

[CyFi]

if you are going to buy one led, radioshack is fine, if you want to buy more than 2 or 3 buy online. radioshack is worse than the stealership.

[TD06TRD]

Hehe. I hear ya. I only plan on buying one but my list is as follows. Redo the gauge cluster lights, and Key ring, Im sending the climate control, and drivers door switch to Halfspec. I will also be purchasing a lens cover for the stock clock, and cig lighter light as well. I will be doing all the lights red to match my Defi bf amber gauge. It says amber but it lights up more of a red than orange. Where do you buy your led lights out of curiosity? I must say it is very cool seeking advice from a 15 yr old, lol.

[CyFi]

haha your the mechanics that help me, im the electronic wizard that helps you. I personally buy my leds at this website called http://www.sickmods.net/index.php?site=catalog because i kind of know the guy and he has decent prices, he is also very fair and trustworthy, not to mention he has great products. if you are going to buy in very large quantities, email him and he might be able to give you a discount, or buy from ebay.

Im also going to be doing the guage lights and the climate controll lights all white, possibly blue, im not real sure, but im also going to be doing some interior lighting

[V6'er]

Let me critique your circuit.

When using two, you have the LED's in parallel. This is not the best method. Putting them in series and dropping the resistor value slightly (to accomdate the voltage drop of the second LED) is better to maintain the correct current in each LED. (When in series, both LED's have exactly the same current flowing through them.)

Other than that, COOL mod.

[CyFi]

ya i guess, but im not a fan of wireing in series nor am i good at it. I always prefer wireing in parallel.

[V6'er]

It's actually easier to wire in series. Just wire (+) to (-).

[Mister2.2]

Hey nice nice write up, I may have to do this one!! Thank you!

[TD06TRD]

On your friends websight I cant seem to find the 470ohm 1/4watt or 180ohm 1/2watt resistors.

[V6'er]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

You can't beat the price, no shipping.

[jakobe]

very easy mod:

however radio shack will frickin rape you.

If you go to radio shack and opt for the 2 led install it will cost you about 12-13 bucks

if you wait and order the leds and resistors online it will cost you about 3-4 bucks.

I opted for the 2 led install. and after diassembling my ingintion housing ...i found that i dont have this "second unused hole"

the 2nd hole that i have is used by the screw that attaches this plastic ring to the car.

i still added 2 leds hot glued in the same hole right next to each other

heres a pic

[jakobe]

question:

i applied the same wiring and resitors to my cig lighter light and oy my ash tray light ..now the resistor gets super frickin hot..?

is this normal or do i need a different resistor?

-5mm led
-407 ohm 1/4 watt resistor

[CyFi]

yes you need a different resistor for the cig lighter, i just tested it and it has 12 volts instead of 10 like the ignition. sorry about the second hole, someone must have removed it from mine somewhere in the life of the car, but the truth is you dont even need that screw, mine just slides over and when you put the dash piece on it holds it in place

[V6'er]

ANOTHER good reason to have the LED's in series - less power dissipated in the resistor.

[reflexx]

good write-up, I did something similar.

1) you forgot to mention to unscrew the little screw at the bottom of the ring before pulling it off.... otherwise it won't slide off

2) you can just get a drop-in replacement from superbrightleds.com. it fits into the same socket as the stock bulb: #74 type wedge bulb