A/C Control Color Change
 

This post is for anyone who has wanted to get rid of that damn amber lighting once and for all! I did this to my xB in about 15 minutes, and got rid of the amber lighting in the A/C control for good! Enjoy.

First thing to do is run to your local Autozone and pick up some little rubber bulb cover things in the color of your choice.. (I chose green)

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/01.jpg

Of course, this is not the same size as the ones covering the LED's that light the A/C controls... They didn't have the correct size, nor did the 100 yr old man that I asked know that they had EVER had any that small... But hey, a pair of these things were $1.25.. If they weren't going to fit, oh well...

So anyway, get yourself a pair of these little rubber caps.. Now to install them.. First, remove the center dash piece by removing the A/C dials, and then the 2 screws on either side.. I marked where the screw on the right side is... The left one should not be hard to find, as it is in the exact same place, only on the left ;P

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/02.jpg

Now to remove the center dash piece.. pry the bottom corner of the silver-colored piece up enough to get your fingers under it.. I used a flathead screwdriver for this procedure.. You may want to cover it in a piece of cloth, or just be very careful so that you don't scratch the plastic.. Also do not pry too hard.. If you are prying hard, then you are prying in the wrong places ;P... Once you can get your fingers under the corner, just pull:

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/03.jpg

Just pull around the whole thing until it all comes lose... Then disconnect the 3 wiring harnesses connected to this piece, then pull the whole piece out...

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/04.jpg

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/05.jpg

Now, flip the piece you just removed over... You'll see this:

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/06.jpg

Those 2 little grey circles are the LED's =) ... Ok... Take off that whole damn cream colored piece there... It snaps out, really easily... Be careful not to disturb the circular..err.. thing below it with the spring.. I do not know what this piece is, and I didn't mess with it..

These are the LED's you'll see poking through the underneath of the cream-colored piece that you just removed... Take off the yellow rubber cap..

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/07.jpg

Now if you are like me, right now you are thinking,"Hey, I could just leave this rubber piece off and have white lighted controls".. WRONG... These LED's shine in the color of old-assed headlights... kinda that dull white/yellow color... uhg.. You don't want that... Ok... you got those off, now looking back at the dash piece, you'll see 2 holes where the LED's shine into...

(I've already stuck a green cap into the left side in this pic)

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/08.jpg

Just put your new caps in the holes...

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/09.jpg

Now then, put everything back together... Should be cake...

Next: wait until night-time, hop in your xB (or xA I suppose, this guide was done on an xB)... Flip on ya headlights and enjoy your new, color of choice A/C controls... Here is my horrible, horrible picture of the finished product.. Believe me, it looks like it came from the factory with green lights in person.. My digi-cam just doesn't like the dark.. Enjoy!

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/10.jpg

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image...ange_xb/11.jpg

Nice write-up. This should be a Sticky for any console removal related questions.

I did mine with a sharpie and added a small LED bar behind to supplement. If I can find blue jimmie hats, I'm gonna have to give it another shot.

good job!

will be a sticky now!

until darren add it to the tech section

hehe, cool... Had a bunch of people asking me how I changed them... Sorry about the blurry pics... My digi-cam was just not co-operating at all today =(

nice info man, especially for the removal, I know myself and others will make good use of that info... any possible SKU on the little light condoms??

I threw away the package before I knew people would be asking me how I changed the color =(... I'll try to drop in autozone and find out the exact size... They stand about 3/4 as tall as a quarter.. or there abouts

Just updated a different pic of the controls, this one is kinda grainy, but still better than the other pic ;P

awesome! doing it today. thanks man.

jon

nice!

I ended up just putting in some new ultra-bright blue led's in place of the ones that were in there. It took some playing around and the right resister so I wouldn't blow the led's, but it looks pretty good. I'll try to get some pics.

finally did mine today
you can check out the install pics on my site
gonna take pics at night

i used blue
here is the item
http://www.dje2.com/scionmaintech06climatecolor0004.jpg

Great walkthrough. Glad someone finally did it. Doing mine tomorrow.

Is it really impossible to get the A/C/defrost switches done also?

Just did the mod this morning, took all of ten minutes. The hardest part is getting the harnesses out, and even that's no biggie. One thing I would mention is that when you pull the console off, it is better to just pull down on the top two vent openings and the console will pop out as it was designed to. No need to go prying down below with a screwdriver or anything. Then to replace the console, use the same method, work from the top down, there is a hinge there. The bottom will just snap in. No scratches, no boo boos. :D

This car just snaps together! Gotta love it!

Although, I am probably going to take them out, the BLUE COVERS actually project GREEn LIGHT and they are a lot less bright. :roll:

I accidently bursted one of the bulbs while doing this :oops: anyone happen to know what replacement size they are and where I can find them, I tried everywhere, even the freakin toyota dealership and they told me I had to replace the whole control panel and I just laughed at him.

The bulb just fell out of my hand from the grease and burst :oops:

194 or 168 should fit...

I don't think a 194 will fit it, at least in the same way. They have a screw-in plastic thing they're mounted to. They're a very very small thin light.

BTW - You don't need to remove the bulb to do this procedure. You shouldn't even have to touch it. The bulb cover technique (which I do not recommend) goes in the opeings underneath the off-white piece. The only think you really need to do is pull the yellow condom off of the existing LED.

That's my 2 cents.

I wish someone new how we could just replace these existing bulbs with new bulbs entirely. There's gott abe a way.

If we could find out what size they are, we could replace them with brighter different colored LEDs. They are really small, I couldn't find them anywhere, even OEM Replacements.

Any Scion/Toyot dealer rep, please ask your parts dept. to find out the size for us, thanks

Dave

YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEAS.....otherwise I will have to fabricate AMBER cold cathodes... :wink:

Dude anyone have a part ## for the light condoms? or even a size? Company that makes them.. anuything?

Pb

It still changes the airconditioning control color even though you left the blue and white piece in the dash? The blue and white piece I am talking about is in picture #6 on the right side where the air control is. Wouldn't this still light up blue since the blue piece is on it?

added to tech area.