Saturday night bump!

 

Yea I got the gas gauge working properly!! Now if I could only get gas to make sure it goes to full.... everyone still sold out like no tomorrow >=(

 

So I got my LEDs and I am about to dig into this project. However, I have some questions for anyone who is willing to answer:

A) What do I need to be aware of with regards to "if you do this, you will break everything"? Heating? Melting? Alignment? Anything?

B) Is there any cheap electronics equipment anyone recommends practicing on first? Old alarm clock, etc?

 

Take your time, use common sence.. it takes about a second to solder a connection or desolder when you make contact. the hardest part for me was making sure i didnt loose an led or resistor when i took it out of the package.
use some good tweesers makes sure they all sit flat when you solder.
For the LCD if you are removeing that go get the iron with the rubber bulb to de solder they are not expensive and will save you a ton of time and will be much cleaner

 

so you are suggesting getting both a soldering and a desoldering iron?

 

yup there not real expensive, 15-20 bucks. Might be able to swap the tip on the desoldering ones from rat shack

 

What LED's are needed to change out the color in a Pioneer tc stock head unit?
Picture here:

I took the face off and they were not PLCC-2 LED's. They were really tiny.
Would like to do Pink for a girl if possible.

Thanks

 

thanks for this DIY

 

You need 0603 leds & about 40 of them.

http://store.garage1217.com/0603-sized-0603.html

 

I just bought some stuff from him but do you know if pink ones are available?

I put PLCC-2 Pink leds on all the other parts of the car and she wants the radio done as well.

Thanks

 

Actual pink leds will fade in the next 3-6 months to a ugly color. The only proper way to do it is to use a white led and make pink lenses with the vinyl I sell. That way the color will last.

 

How much time would you guys estimate this to take? I am going to do the gauges, HVAC, and needles. 2 hrs? 5 hrs? a whole day? a whole week?

 

For someone that has never done one, 5-6 hours would be a good estimate.

 

^^ Well, thats not too bad, probably try to knock it out in a weekend.

New problem, what about the '07 HVAC LED failure problem? I don't want to start this and have that problem arise and have a warrenty issue. Any suggestions? Bought the '07 car in May 2007

 

It is not an LED problem but a board problem. Some fail and some do not. No way to tell if they will or not as it is totally random. Some fail with an led swap and some fail without an led swap. Just happens and stinks.

 

So making the swap will void the warranty and not allow me to get the HVAC replaced from Toyota, even though the cause is not from that? Are they douches or just techinical?

 

You modify anything electrical to the car and it will void warranty. They have no idea or no way to prove if you did somthing or if it flaked out.

 

if i were to do this myself how much would i be looking at for all parts for gauges and hvac in blue and white with reversed lcd screens?

 

Usually comes out to around $50-$60 in parts if you order everything possible to do.

 

Hey, Jeremy: after doing the HVAC LED swap, the three button lights on the top right (defrost front, defrost rear, and mode, I believe) were dim or did not light UNLESS I pushed on the circuit board. This led me to believe that I had a weak solder connection on one of the LEDS or the new resistor (the 43 ohm one at R304) installed on the rear portion of the circuit board. I went through and re-soldered them, but now none of those lights work at all. I'm not sure where the breakdown is in the circuit, since I believe they're run in series and I can't test the LEDs or resistor individually. My best guess is that I may have fried the resistor by overheating it during re-solder. Any ideas? If it's the resistor, where can I find just one of those? Thanks!

Have a great night,
-Radar