I have the factory blue LED illumination kit installed in my tC.... I want to change the color from blue to red. I've been told that I will have to unsolder the 4 blue LEDs out of the housing and solder new 5mm red one in... Im trying to find an alternative to doing this though since... Well.. I have no idea what I'd be doing. (ehh.. sue me im a newbie)

Does anyone know if and where I can just buy the housing that the clear tube slides into with red LEDs in it? I thought there might be someone who makes these or has in the past.
Thanks!





(This is what'd id be looking for)

 

Changing the leds wont be hard. They may be glued in, but a little heat and they should come out. But the other alternative would be just to buy some cold cathode tubes and hide them in a good spot under the dash where they wont get kicked.

 

or find a red led kit from another scion and plug 'er in..

 

I was in your exact same boat. The factory did my illumination kit. I wanted a different color and wanted it brighter.

I just bought some cold cathodes. Cut the wires from the illumination kit and cut the wire ties to remove the LED tubes, and tapped the cold cathodes into those power wires. Works absolutely great. It was already hooked up to the switch under the dash. (factory did that) And as I've said before, cold cathodes give much more bang for the buck. IMO

I just wish I never had the factory do it in the first place, and I could have saved myself about $200 and done it myself!

 

Ok... So I bought my Leds... was ready to go when I realized soldering the leds on that part was beyond me... So i took it to my stereo shop... NOW... they cant even get the housing open to replace the leds.
I thought you could just slice the bottom plastic piece off with a hot knife.. but what do I know?... any tips of any kind?( Im not really lookin to swap every thing out for cathodes... im good with the illum kit.)

 

you don't need to slice anything up... the housing itself has a cover on it that's a little snug and will need a little leverage..

i used my nails along with small flathead screwdrivers to pry it open.

no cutting!

 

so where did you buy your LED's from?

 

www.Superbrightleds.com <~~~anything you need!

 

Thanks!

 

ok since i'm a girl and i'm good at DIY and you're a girl too, which ones did you buy?

lol

i'm trying to learn but don't even know which bulbs to buy!

 

easiest way is to buy a new kit, and just use what you need. They are like $19 on ebay.

 

Nevermind...I figured it out.

 

SW_PinkSylk


I sort of messed up in my ordering... I got the 5mm red leds with the diffuser... I should have got the 5mm red leds that are clear because they are brighter.

Go to Leds -- Led prices then Go up to the search bar and search for 5mm leds... scroll down and you should see what im talking about.

Ohh and much power to you for DIY!!

 

Ok so the stereo shop managed to get the housing open.. but now they said they cant replace it because... the leds are soldered on a circuit board (like I told them). Anyone have any ideas who CAN do this for me?

 

Local radio repair shops should be comfortable with surface mount soldering. If not, ask some of the people on here that do gauge cluster led swaps, they might be down if you're willing to ship to them.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33713

$27
Probably cheaper than anyone would charge to redo the one you have,

 

i suggest oznium! i JUST put in my blue cold cathodes and they look AMAZING! i used to have some cheap **** led strips or something from ebay and it was garbage(i'm not saying ebay is a bad source for lighting but i just didn't get the right ones). With that being said Oznium is the way to go...
http://www.oznium.com/cathode-kit

they are easy to hide, small and actually very cheap...