Replace You Cars Instrument Panel Lights With LEDs.

by trayo

282K11165

Intro: Replace You Cars Instrument Panel Lights With LEDs.

The bulbs behind my Tachometer burned out a while ago and I decided I would replace them with LEDs. I also replaced the ones behind the speedometer as well. Overall I probably spent more on this project than normal, but I bought a few miscellaneous items. My car is a 1992 Nissan Pick-up.

NOTE: This may or may not work for you. But it doesn't hurt to look and see if you really want to do it.

Tools:
-Standard Phillips Screwdriver
-Precision Screwdriver Set
-Leatherman*
-Vise Grip Pliers*
-Multimeter
-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Alligator Clips
*Optional

Parts:
-4 Ultra High Brightness White (Or color of your choice) LEDs. These can be swapped for almost anything really. The brighter the better though.
-Resistors. Varies based on LEDs.

EDIT: Sorry for not having any before pictures. I took it apart before I knew I could replace them and then I just wanted to get it done.

STEP 1: Disassemble!

My favorite part! I love taking things apart. I apologize for not having any pictures, but every car is different. I also disconnected a few things to make the back of the instrument panel easier to access.

STEP 2: Locate the Lights.

I located the bulbs that burned out as well as the ones that were still good. I could have replaced more than what I did, but these are used most often. I analyzed how they worked and where power was coming from. They have two metal pieces that touch the copper of the circuit board on either sides of the holes that send power to the bulbs.

STEP 3: Test for Voltage.

This step requires a multimeter. When I first did it I tested with my car off and got 11.78 volts. I tested with my car on and got 13.69 volts. I decided to round up and use 14 volts as my base. I only tested with it off, because I didn't think about testing with it on until ten minutes later. Would have been bad if I didn't test with it on.

STEP 4: Take an Environmentally Friendly Trip to Your Local Electronics Store.

Or you could: borrow a car, put your car back together, order online, etc. Whatever you want to do to get where you need to go. Once there I started looking around for what I needed and found some 10mm high brightness LEDs. They are 3.5-3.8v, 20ma, and 28,500mcd. Perfect.

When I was there I used Opera on my phone to go to Ledcalc.com and calculate what kind of resistors I would be needing. After putting in my inputs the resistor I would be needing is a 560ohm 1/4watt resistor.

Radioshack didn't have that specific resistor, so I just got a package of 470 and a package of 100 to hook together.

STEP 5: More Testing!

Woo! I hooked an LED with the resistors with alligator clips and tested it with my car and...IT WORKS!!

I was so totally excited about it working I thought I would stick it in the hole to see how the LED would look from the other side. My lights shut off. I blew a fuse! I didn't know what it was at the time, checked all my fuses and they all looked OK. I was wrong though, but I didn't take anything apart so I was OK in the end. Had to buy fuses though.

So please make a note not to touch the two sides. Really slows things down.

STEP 6: Solder!

Time to solder. I soldered the resistors to the LEDs and put some heat shrink over it. I removed the bulbs from their plastic casings and had to use a little force to get the LED in, but it was all good. Didn't break on anything.

Next I soldered LED to the plastic thing. It was a bit challenging. I had to use sandpaper on the points I was soldering to and I melted the plastic a little bit, but it all worked out.

I tested it one last time to make sure my solder points worked. I had to re-do a couple to make them work right. I installed them and I was all done. Looks great too!

STEP 7: Bonus!

This is somewhat of a bonus to myself. Might aid others as well. My panel had these blue cap like things over the LEDs that I was just going to keep there, but they kept falling cause the plastic around them broke a little bit. So as an alternative I found plastic caps from water bottles/sports worked perfectly. They fit nice and snug.

Also the LEDs were a bit too focused to just leave them uncovered. I wanted it to smooth, so I painted the top of the caps white.

STEP 8: Finished!

I am extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish. What with my basic knowledge of soldering and electricity. It looks great. You can't see them on during the day, but that's not what matters. I was also surprised to find my dimmer still works and dims the LEDs.

All in all I probably spent about $30-40, but that's because I bought a multimeter, shrink wrap, and alligator clips. If I had already had those items it would have been about $7-8.

If I left anything out or you have questions please let me know in the comments. Thank you for viewing my Instructable!

60 Comments

prboy1969 4 years ago

Great article.
Really helped me with a retrofit of LED bulbs. The dash on my 93 is much easier to see now.

ShawnM31 7 years ago

if you sand the lenses on your led it takes the focus away and diffuses the light better.

joekurm 8 years ago

You stated super bright. Do you know how many watts the LEDs were?

cdickinson2 8 years ago

I see that this Instructible is pretty old, but had a thought:

For those that dont know, the dash light dimmer is just a variable resister. In this case, the dash light dimmer is acting as a third resister placed in series with the two he added to the LED.

52193 9 years ago

Would your car happen to be a mitsubishi. My car is and it has the same style incandescent bulb holders. It is a real pain to get a resistor and a Led in the holder to be small enough to fit and to point in the correct direction.

JakeThief 12 years ago

Hey man just wanted to say, this looks like a great instructable and I really like your outcome. If everything checks out right tomorrow and I can do this with my car I plan on trying this. You used white LEDs but got a blue color, is that right? Also could I sand my LEDs to diffuse them to get more of a glow effect than a beam lighting effect? Thanks.

trayo 12 years ago

Thanks for the comment. I did use white LEDs, but my camera made them look blue. The color mostly looked like the original. You could sand your LEDs or you could cut off the plastic on the top like chrisayad points out in the comments below.

It looks like this:

www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FQM/Z1S7/FHY0I5KF/FQMZ1S7FHY0I5KF.MEDIUM.jpg

dush1 13 years ago

i make same 2 u!

MagicMikk 13 years ago

I was interested in doing this also, but I notice the LEDs dont seem to balance the light, part of the guage displays are darker than others. I was hoping for more even light to light everything up the same

is there a trick to getting this? would the type of LEDs used determine the way they output light?


super_kool_dude29 14 years ago

could you answer the question for "zerocarpileup" on here because i would like to do this but i dont if the lights go out. thanks

trayo 14 years ago

In the instructable I soldered two resistors for each light. I could have used one resistor had Radio Shack had a 560ohm resistor. Since they didn't I settled with using a 470 and 100ohm together; so it would be like having a 570ohm resistor.

I never had any burn out or had any complications, but I also don't have the truck in the instructable anymore because it overheated one day and cracked the engine block. So it's resting in car heaven. :(

trayo 14 years ago

 It was a 92 Nissan Pickup. The freeze plug fell out and we were told that's not something you would notice losing. I think they also said it was possible that fell out afterwards.

abadfart 14 years ago

ya my sister had the same thing happen to her car i dropped the axle and almost got thrown because i wasn't wherein my belt but i can't get in to the car without putting it on

hivoltage 15 years ago

hey what year hardbody truck is that? i have one just like it but the transparent part of the face of the panel is yellow. i wanna put purple leds in there but i don't think the purple would shine well through the yellow gauge... it would be really cool to maybe put some rgb leds in it so the color could be changed whenever you felt like it. maybe use an arduino or something to handle the color selection and pwm. my speedometer needle broke off too it must be a common problem with those trucks. i just replaced it with a new needle i carved out of a piece of wood.

golddigger1559 14 years ago

 you need to make an ible for that wood needle i want one of those 

trayo 15 years ago

It's a 1992. I think purple would be pretty tight. How did you carve a new needle from a piece of wood? Mine is still broken.

hivoltage 15 years ago

yeah mines quite a bit older its a 1986. the gauges look the same though so maybe i can get ahold of some of those ones instead. i just took a small piece of wood and sanded it down with a belt sander until it was wedge shaped and then rounded off the end and sanded it pretty thin. i varnished it and painted the tip white and sanded down and glued the remaining stub of the old needle on the back to attach it to the actual gauge. dont make it too thick or heavy or itll read too slow before 55 and then too fast after haha

trayo 15 years ago

From the dealership the gauges were $200, but from a junk yard or something probably not so much. I'll definitely have to make a couple needles. I would want to replace the other one as well. Thanks.
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