snyde

Hey everyone, im new to these forums and ive run into a bit of a problem with my
'11 scion tC.

Ive tried to swap out the LEDs in the cluster (just the speedo, tach, and fuel). I
Managed to successfully change the numbers on the gauges out to blue, and the
Fuel to white. The problem is that for some reason the needle LEDs and the ODO
Display LEDs refuse to work. Ive re-soldered them all atleast twice but stopped in fear of damaging the pcb.

I was wondering if anyone else has run into something like this or have any tips on how to progress with this. Thanks guys!

CelestialxOne

This happened to me on my 2nd tc. I just did it last weekend. I got all of them to work, but all the needles. I had to pull all needle leds and suck solder, then re solder. If your not using a high heat gun you should be ok doing it a few times. Just do each in a few min. intervals.

snyde

I appreciate the tip. I managed to get my needles working with the stock amber leds,
Could it be that i need to also change the resistors for the odo & needle lights in order to use white?

CelestialxOne

Just a post thought, you know the leds are polarity sensitive right? Also if you could post pics of the leds soldered in, not working, and a close up of the actual led, it might help. Remember when soldering less is more. Using less solder can be better than gobbing it up. If your sock amber ones work but the new ones don't, then it has something to do with the new ones. You might have burned them out, or possibly just bad solder jobs. How I did it, I just heated up one side of the led, pushed up on it with the iron, and then heated the other side. I then took the solder sucker and removed remaining solder. Now with a clean a clean slate I would add just a very tiny dot so that when I set the led on top it would leave a small gap under it. Heat it up and get one side on, and then do the other. Whatever you do don't smash it down while heating both sides. If you do you might squash the solder from one side into the other causing it to not work. If the leds are "raised" from the board, its ok they function the same as they would from the factory. Let me know if you need any more help.