Just got my new 2007 Nautical Blue Metallic Tc and I had a few questions before I go out and waste a load of money. I was looking at the cheap mods thread which was helpful, but I couldn't find most of the discussed things using google, if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great. I also wanted to know if there was any way to change the ugly orange lighting color on the interior, any help is much appreciated. Also on a seperate note my friend who was "good with cars" decided it would be a good idea to replace my inside bulbs with blue LCD's, a nice gesture but on the main front bulb that can be turned on when opening the door got shot up inside the top of the car along with the attached socket, now I have to figure out how the hell I am going to get it out of there. Any tips/suggestions would be most excellent. Thanks for the view!

 

you've been looking at the wrong place. it is all right here my friend.

about the orange or any other interior lighting, that's going to be a custom/DIY job. you'll basically gonna have to take apart the gauges and replace the SMD LEDs with blue ones or whatever color you want.

about what happened to what your friend did, can you clarify what happen? i didn't quite understand what he did to your bulbs?

 

He knocked the main bulb and socket (the middle one) inside the top part of my car, around where the sunroof controls are.

Also how much would I be looking to pay to change the interior lights from orange to whatever? Thanks!

 

the led lights if you look around online will cost you about 15 cents per a unit. you'll need a very skilled iron soldier master to do this kind of work. i mean, these lights are no bigger than the width of a maybe a few hairstrands. really small. 2.5mm in fact. not a job for the light hearted. while the material and the taking out the dash/gauges is fairly easy (well, that part is hard but bear along with me), the soldering will be a b^$<h. here's a picture of what i mean



oh, the map light. that's easy to replace. while i don't actually own i tC (surprise! hint my avatar), my friends and i have taken off our map light covers on our cars before with a little thugging with our own bare hands. just don't be too rough or fast, or you'll break the latches that keeps the thing together. better yet, ask another fellow scionlife member for clarification on this part. you could also try the dealership, and they should repair/replace the lightbulb for free or at little charge.

 

The light and socket went up into the roof of the car, it rattled around and is now anywhere between the top left of the roof and top right of the roof. Could I buy a new socket and bulb and would it work just the same? Or is there like a critical wire I need on the original socket? Any help is great!

 

As far as that light socket going up into the headliner, I believe you can pull down on the housing and it will pop out. But do look around here on the site, I know there is a picture that has been posted many times on how to fix this. Your not the first one whos accidentally pushed it up there

MilanoRed those LEDs are tiny, I mean insanely tiny. The SM LEDs that are needed for every part except the 05-07 headunit (dont know what the 08 headunit would need) are much bigger. I would hate to solder those ones in your pic.

daywalker966 there are several people on this site that sell full replacement kits for the led's in the car if you feel like doing the solder work they give all the pieces. Or if you dont think you can do the solder work, there are some who do full core replacements, where they ship it to you with all the work done.

Like MilanoRed said your internet searching is done, but your scionlife searching has just begun. Look around and lurk around on the forums and you can learn a whole lot. Might want to look through the tech database too and see if anyone has written about any of your questions.

Welcome to Scionlife

*edit- Found the picture

 

^^ my old pic.. yeah...

yank it.

and yeah.. the gauges and the hvac along with other leds that are small surface mounts.. are mostly plcc sized..

not those 402's that seem to be pictured there..

plccs are a bit bigger.. but yeah... still relatively small

 

I had one of my friends try to take out the whole light unit but he said there was a bolt or something making it so he couldn't take it off, how did you get yours off? Also mine has the sunroof/moonroof controls right next to it, would that hamper my efforts to take off the light unit? Thanks for replying!

 

Like the pic says, just yank, the whole thing comes out, sunroof controls and all.

The whole plastic piece that contains the light and sunroof controls that is in the headliner is what pops down