Dash lights!!! 2 down alot to go!

[ryana89]

Just a little thread I might throw up of my slow replacement of dash lights to give others an idea of what working dash lights look like on a MK2!

I (we) started off today by fixing the heater/climate control light. Its suprising how easy it is to get to the little light, that lights (if its not blown) up your heater/climate control panel. Within less than 30 minutes the culprit dead bulb was found (tiny little green bulb).
Now the fun part, was replacing the bulb (impossible), so we simply hooked up a LED/resistor as per the instructions by this link

VWoT Community.

Only went up to step 8 and put the resistor in the positive wire that goes to the male plug, that clips into the back of the heater/climate control panel (for the light). We also didn't destroy the bulb holder and soldered the LED in a much neater manner. The LED that we used was a 5mm Green LED (and 470 Ohm resistor) from Dic.k.smiths.
and this is the result.



And a picture across the entire dash


As you can see the switches (black area betwen climate cont. and cluster) either don't have functioning lights or they're very very dull.
SO the next area to get the lights redone will deffinantly be the switches (then the tacho/spedo cluster)

For those that don't know, putting LED's into a 12V circuit is relativly easy when you have a Resistor Calculator site like this Resistor calculator for leds from MetkuMods - Because you love your hardware!

Oh and we also got the parking light working again (simple but satisfying fix)


I HIGHLY reccomend that if you have any dead lights, not to ignore them but to fix them, the effort is worth it and its looks great!

[8v ggggti]

how do you open up the climate control panel to get to the l.e.d?

[ryana89]

how do you open up the climate control panel to get to the l.e.d?

Once the panel is removed from the dash you will have a grey piece of plastic inside another piece of black plastic.
To get the grey piece of plastic out and get to the bulb you have to gently (or somtimes manhandle) the two bits of plastic apart with some VERY small tip flat bladed screw drivers (we used a Jewellers set).
As its 'lightly' glued in some areas you really have to be patient, but dont be afraid to scratch and bend/break some of the clips that hold it in (it'll be glued back together in the end anyway).

Every now and then you'll hear a crack/snap sound from the plastics, this sound should just be the glue breaking between the 2 peices of plastic and is a good sign that your on your way to separating them. By all means don't bend and stress the two pieces of plastic to where they're about to break.

Just be patient, the glue is brittle and will eventually snap with all the flexing you creating between the plastics.

Hope this helps.

[8v ggggti]

ok ive done that now how do i get the l.e.d out?

[ryana89]

ok ive dont that now how do i get the l.e.d out?

If your talking about the socket in the grey plasic with the two terminals in it, just push on the terminals (female plug side) until the Bulb carrier comes out.
The bulb carrier will be a circular piece of black plasitc with the green bulb inside, and will have two terminals sticking out the other.

From there on you need to get either creative or destructive.
We simply smashed and picked the old bulb out of the bulb carrier then drilled 2 holes into the base of it, as close to the metal terminals as possible and slot each leg of a LED through these holes.

It gets tricky to explain, and I wish I'd taken photos. Just keep thinking things through and checking and you should end up with a good result.
You could just follow the thread that I linked up in my first post and youll end up with an fine result too.
Just don't forget the resistor.

[RedMk2Gti]

Great write up Ryana89, this'll be in my to-do list which is already very long LOL

[ryana89]

Today I tackled the foglight switch and its miserable light, heres the story.....

After I pulled the foglight switch out of the dash (very easy), I pulled the switch apart with a couple flat bladed screw drivers (Jewellers set) and found the dull bulb (Note: only 1 bulb in the fog light switch, not 2). Heres a pic of how dull it was.



And to help anybody who may be considering this and is to lazy to use a multimetre, the TOP 2 socket holes power the light.
Hole on right is POSITIVE, hole on left is NEGATIVE.


Now heres a basic view of the switch taken apart, the piece of plastic on the left (with the foglight icon), is the front of the switch, the bits/plastic in the middle is the centre of the switch and you guessed it, the plastic on the right with the bulb is the back of the switch (with terminals, not shown in this pic).


The next step from there I took was to remove the bulb, I did it the 'proper' way and unsoldered the terminal connections and pulled the bulb out that way, but you can just be rough and tear it out. I also removed the magority of the original solder with a file.


As you can see here, its an itsy bitsy bulb (4mm x 12mm roughly)


And the clean terminals and socket ready for a LED.


Now I was planning on using a Green 3mm LED from D.i.cksmiths, but the had none so I grabbed a couple blue 3mm Blue LED's instead.


Also even though the LED's are smaller than the 5mm LEDS they still draw the same current and roughly the same voltage, so (checked with the RESISTOR CALCULATOR linked in my first post) I got about 8 more 470 Ohm 0.25 watt resistors. I bought 8 cause they were 10c each and I was scared of breaking them. As said you only need 1 resistor PER LED for this purpose.


I wont lie, this is where the fun stops.
You'll have to fiddle around a bit and file, drill and cut the bulb holder to get the LED to fit best and be able to get the LED to make contact with the terminals.
Just have to keep fiddling and moddifying and checking with the switch housing (to check if it will fit!) to get it the way you want.

[ryana89]

Now because fitting the resistor in that small area without if fouling on the switch is near impossible, I did the same as in my first post and put the resistor into the wiring harness in the car.
You want to put the resistor on to the wire that goes to the TOP RIGHT of the plug (positive wire).


This also happens to be a PITA since the wiring to the plastic male connector is too dam short!
So you can't just chuck a resistor on it, unless you wanna tear aparts the dash to get access to enough wire.
So instead I again, went to D.i.cksmiths and got some wire, then 'intergrated' (soldered) some wire onto each end of the resistor.


Shrink wrap included of course : )




Now hopefully the car will outlast the LED, so you may want to make it easier for the next owner (or yourself) to replace the resistor/LED so I simply wrote this


Now finish up by soldering it to the wire that you just cut (POSITIVE)
Alfoil is there just to stop solder blobs from destoying my dash.




Allright now once everything is soldered and the switch back together TEST the circuit.
If A - OK then tidy everything up, put it all back and you should end up with somthing like this



And at night



Its too bright!!!
But thats my fault for not refitting the 2 bits of plastic (one is white, one is green) that dispurce and make the light green.... easy fix.

Next up is the Demister switch that has 2 lights!

[jayjay]

i wish i had fog lights so i could go on cool wiring missions.

nice write up!

[ryana89]

Today I was planning on tackling the demister switch but instead started work on the actual light switch and the A/C switch lights (it also has two bulbs, so twice the fun of course).
Ironic as my A/C don't actually work!
Took only a few pics as its the same basic steps as with the foglight for the light switch.

Will get some pics up as soon as its done.
If your gonna do this, plan on half a day per switch! It just so time consuming and fiddly.

[ryana89]

So I didn't take as many pics because the process is pretty much the same with the foglight, only differences is in how you get the LED to fit and which terminal.
So heres a little run down now that all the lights work.

First up was the actual light control switch


The light switch separated itno its 'sections'


One of the first things I noticed was the old grease/crap left all over the terminals, gave them a quick wipe off...




And because I could, went to Autobarn and got a tube of Dielectric grease and put a small dab on each terminal tab


Then soldered another 3mm LED and 470ohm resistor in

[ryana89]

Unfortunatly I got engrossed in working on it to much from here and compled the A/C switch and Demister switches without taking photos.

But heres the end result




As the A/C and demister have 2 lights (on to tell you when the swith is on and one to light it up when you turn the lights on).

The ones to tell you that the switch has been activated work (better) now.



And Im not sure how I managed to do this, but when I soldered the LED into the Light switch, I somehow attached it to the terminals that are always live when the ignition is on, but LED's can apparantly last for over 10 years (constant use) so Im not to worried.




Next will have to be the Cluster (tacho/speedo)...... if Im gain

[Spyda]

Nice work mate. Heep of these write ups around.
Ive done this a couple of times, and it doesnt get any easyer lol. I found the light switch is the hardest.
I found it easyer to use a LED strip or small neon for the dash.
If anyone out there wants to replace the original globes with original globes, Jaycar sells the little bulbs.

[ryana89]

I'd like to bring this thread back just to give some thought's on the LED's.

I found that the LED's were far to bright at night, I could have used a higher OHM resistors but that brings me to my second issue.

Blue LED's were just far too tacky (in a classic Euro car), a bad choice by me at the time

I changed back to the original bulb set up (with new bulbs from Jaycar)




Much nicer

[walshydub]

Gotta agree, the original lighting looks a lot better, less 'aftermarket' look. Tackled the clocks yet?