Interior lights, which bulbs? Options

[6strngs]

ok, I changed my clock to blue today following the how-to and using a folder divider-tab thing! woot! but now I want to change the rest of my interior lights to blue now as well! for the gauge cluster, I'll be getting some reverse-glow gauges (probably these) and I'd like my mph to be blue, the kph to be red, the needles to be red, the milage and trip odometer blue, turn signal lights blue. as far as I know, all other cluster lights (brake, oil, airbag, battery, seatbelt, etc.) are red so they can stay the same, except the fuel light, so I'd like to make that red as well. (blue highbeam light can remain blue)

I want to make the light in the driver's side window switch blue.

I want to make the light around the ignition blue.

for my climate control, I'd like all the regular lights blue, and the lights that are in the little squares that light up when the button is pressed to be red.

I'd also like the light above the rear view mirror that comes on when the doors open to be blue.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!! My question is, what bulbs do I need? I know most are 194 and 74. But the thing I really would like to know, is how many of each to complete all this? also, I'd like to know the recommended brightness (for the bulbs that are available in different brightnesses) For the dome light, I'd like it to be just as bright as the stock light, so I dunno if I can do that with LED lights, or if I could find a regular light bulb in blue. For the ring around the ignition, I'd like to be as close to the stock brightness as possible, maybe a little brighter. For the window switch, I want it brighter than stock. In the celicatech how-to the guy used a 5000MCD so I think that's what I'll be going with. For climate control and gauges cluster, I dunno, I want them to be nice and bright but not annoying when driving at night, so probably pretty close to stock brightness.

now before you yell at me, yes, I did look in the sticky, but some of the links are dead, and some aren't really how-to's so much as "hey, look what I did." so I came up with as much info as I could. I mostly want to know how many of each bulb I'll need so I can order the correct amount.

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Oct 24, 2006 - 11:58 PM

[Stu37363]

from my experience you dont want the window switch to be brighter than stock. i made mine blue and had to rough it up and angle it just so it didnt blind me.

the needles and trip are lit off the same bulbs, so unless you want to do some serious custom led work they will have to be the same color.

as far as guage cluster lights, if you have cruise control it is green, so you may want to think about that one.
i didnt mess with those lights because the color is kind of painted onto the back of the gauge material.

i tried the blue dome light and it just got on my nerves, i couldnt use it to actually find anything in my car.

you can get the 194 and 74 bulbs that are 12v and ready to go for the guages, the keyring can be done with a 74 i think, but i had to use 2 leds in mine to be happy with the look.

for the red lights you want in the climate control i would try to find 3-milimeter rectangular leds.

for the cc backlighting i cant give you any advice, im still trying to perfect that look. i ended up backlighting each button with an led instead of using the plastic to disperse the light, but im working on lighting the dials still.

as far as the turn signals, i think there is a walkthrough on them. i did the bottle cap thing and it worked great (youll know what i mean when you find it)

best advice i can give is try not to mix and match your bulbs too much, try to stay with the same type as much as possible. i think i have some super human ability to see the slightest differences in blue so i had to do some extra work to make myself happy.

as far as how many to order, just count how many you think you will need and get extra, i know i cant stop finding things to change to blue... stock radio, keychain alarm light, etc

good luck

[Zimluura]

drivers side window switch
flathead screwdriver w/ taped off head (so you don't scuff things) pry out the whole unit, unplug wiring harness, take it inside, disassemble it, and solder in a 3mm led (lsdiodes.com). it will probably have to be bent around so it's not facing directly out 'cause it'll likely be much brighter than the stock one. you could get a lower mcd led too. i know bright is what you want, but it was right there in my peripheral vision and crazy bright, so i bent it. best bet, install it, then tune it.

ignition ring
get a num74 led bulb fabrication (superlumination.com), you'll have to file down the sides a little bit, but then you're good. take off the plastic panel around your steering wheel (just pull but watch to unplug the dimmer wire which will tether it to the rest of the car). this is where i start to lose memory a little...then i think there's a screw or two around the ignition clear plastic, you take them off and get access to the bulb. you don't have to play with taking the actual ignition out.

climate control
this site has a good howto on getting into it. if that doesn't work for you, i have a really big one (1MB) that i can email you. after that you'll need a 3mm led for each button indicator (excepting the rear defrost which is an animal i haven't tackled yet). and you can do the backlight any number of ways. these might be neo-wedge bulbs which are on the same page of superlumination as the num74 ones. but no-one has ordered them to confirm. iirc the stock toyota bulb was listed as a 9.5mm and the neo wedge is listed as 10mm, and looks very similar. might be worth a try, if not you can certainly wire a num74 led fab into the twist base that the stock bulbs use. there are 3 bulb sockets on the cc-unit that are used for back-lighting, you can do that with 3 led fabrications. or you might try to use several separate led circuits, in which case you've got lots and lots of options for doing it.

dome light
this is a ba9s bulb, quite possibly more than one. i have a liftback w/ moonroof, i only have one. i've never found a good led fabrication that will cast light where i want it. leds are more directed that incandescent bulbs so it does no good to have 3/4 of the leds on the bulb facing into the housing.

here's a funny little story
i took a ba9s base (from a led fab i bought), stuck a circuit board in there and wired up 3x thc3 leds from lsdiodes and a resistor. all 3 leds were facing down. i did it in white, and when i showed it off it was crazy bright. the resistor however, was a .25 watt one, and couldn't handle the heat, so the light would go out, then come back on, then go out, then back on. ended up using lower powered leds (from the same place) and a .25watt, 68ohm resistor. this has worked pretty well. though doing this kinda thing is sorta iffy 'cause this socket's voltage is 12 on battery and up around 14 on alternator.

[Stu37363]

yeah i have to agree on the rear defrost, i havent got the backlighting to match right on it yet, but you can pull the insides out through the back i beleive... the on/off light can just be replaced but it will be brighter if you dont add a small amount of resistance to it.

[6strngs]

which "version" of the 194 and 74 lights do I need? there is a lot of different styles on superlumination.com which style works best for the application I want them for?

also, could you e-mail me that how-to on the domelight please? thanks

thanks for the help guys!

EDIT: I meant that how-to on the climate control

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Oct 25, 2006 - 11:00 AM

[Stu37363]

those triple 74 size bulbs look promising, and those array ones look like they might make good door courtesy lights if they arent too big... i wish i had known about that before

This post has been edited by Stu37363: Oct 25, 2006 - 3:04 AM

[Zimluura]

i hadn't noticed those triple 74 leds (they must be new). but door courtessy lights are 194 (at least on mine), you'll need some clear tundra lenses (available for like 14 bucks at a toyota parts center, Toyota Part Number: 81231-0C010) they fall off every now and again when i close the door really hard, but i'm sure i can secure them better if i put just a little time into it (make a shim or something). when they come off they just fall into the back cause the door is closed.

for the 194, i recomend the 5-led matrix, those spread light out all over the place. i'm interested in playing with the superstars, but from what i've seen from others they suck for the gauge cluster, they'd probably be pretty good for the door courtesy lights (which for me pointed straight out).

i'd very much recomend *trying* the neo-wedge leds if you have the 10 bucks to spare. they *could* make the cc_unit lots easier (they could fail to work, or they might not hit the clear plastic just right). then again, with those new triple 74 leds it might be a good time for me to try re-do-ing my cc-unit a few ways. ok, well there are still lots of different ways to tackle the cc-unit. i wired num74 leds into stock bulb bases.

my howto for the cc-unit has been sent.

[6strngs]

Thank you for the how-to.

anyway, spent some more time looking. at stuff, and decided that this is how I want my gauges to look:


I dunno what gauges those are, but I love them. so, question, do those gauges come painted a certain way so that the KPH illuminates in red no matter what color bulb is behind them? if so, is it same for the mph? I want my gauges like that, blue and red. maybe take it a step further like this: except with blue instead of red for the needles/milage.


as for the climate control, I think that doing it the way I said originally, that is blue backlight w/ red indicator lights, will be fairly difficult. if I do just the three backlight LED's with blue, will it look like this: or will the little indicator lights still light up green? if they'll still be green, would it be just as much work to make them red as would be to make them blue?

that's all the questions I have for now. more later I'm sure, lol. oh wait, one more, anybody know where I can get the reverse-glow gauges at the top? the ones I posted originally are the only black-faced gauges I could find for our celica, but then I saw those and I think they look better.

[Zimluura]

if you just do the 3x backlight then the indicators will remain green. each indicator is just an led. it's pretty easy to desolder the old ones and solder in new ones. it's nice to have a friend with pliers around for de-soldering things. red will be just as easy as blue, purple is the only hard color.

and remember, when doing *anything* with leds, if at first it doesn't light, turn it around and try again.

however, that rule is impractical for solder operations. so take a look at the +/- position of each led (inside the lens, the part that hangs over is the cathode or minus side). draw a quick diagram of the +/- orientation of the original leds, and then solder in the new ones the same way around.

[Stu37363]

those gauges are lit by their own light, so to answer your question sort-of.... no color light behind those gauges will change anything but the needle and trip numbers

[6strngs]

if you just do the 3x backlight then the indicators will remain green. each indicator is just an led. it's pretty easy to desolder the old ones and solder in new ones. it's nice to have a friend with pliers around for de-soldering things. red will be just as easy as blue, purple is the only hard color.

and remember, when doing *anything* with leds, if at first it doesn't light, turn it around and try again.

however, that rule is impractical for solder operations. so take a look at the +/- position of each led (inside the lens, the part that hangs over is the cathode or minus side). draw a quick diagram of the +/- orientation of the original leds, and then solder in the new ones the same way around.

I'm sorry, I was backwards, I thought that those 10mm neo-wedge bulbs you were talking about were for the indicators and the 74's for the backlight... after looking over your how-to a little more, I realize that the indicators are just 3mm LED's and that backlights are the 74's, but the neo-wedge bulbs *may* fit.

so let's see if I've got this straight:

For the climate control I need: 8 3mm LED's, 3 #74's OR 3 10mm neo-wedge bulbs (for the #74's, do you think the triple LED one would look better or the same as the single?)

For the gauges: nothing, those reverse glow gauges are painted to light up the same color no matter what color light is behind them. But, could do three 194's for the needles. (I've changed my mind about changing the color of the fuel light and cruise control light and all that... sounds like too much work for lights that are barely ever on...)

For the ring around the key hole: 1 #74

For the little light inside the window roll-down switch: 1 3mm(?) LED (2500-3500MCD-ish (?) would that be dim enough to not be blinding/annoying like the 5000MCD?)

so my parts list is something like:
4 #74's
3 #194's
9 3mm LED's
3 10mm neo-wedge LED's

correct? (I'll get the neo wedge bulbs to see if they fit, or maybe I'll just get one, then if it fits get two more.)

[Zimluura]

you've got it correct.

i got some neo-wedge and some triple 74 on order. no idea when i'm going to take out my cc unit again though, it looks pretty good right now, and it just started to get really cold outside.

for the cc_unit: the single num74 will totally fit. the triple one should be able to fit as well, and will almost certainly look nicer, but after you wire it into the base you might not be able to get it through the hole in the board. or perhaps you can, but you'll need to fiddle with it to get it though. or maybe it will get through there fine, but won't have enough clearance for the front of the cc-unit. there are lots of possible pitfalls. so i'd recemend getting 3x num74 regulars for it just in case.

as for the window switch, i used a mega powered lsdiodes led and, after bending it to the side a whole ton so it's not facing directly out of the transparent part of the switch, it's fine. getting a lower mcd led sounds good, but you can still make the higher one work out, and sooo much is personal preference.

[6strngs]

as for the window switch, i used a mega powered lsdiodes led and, after bending it to the side a whole ton so it's not facing directly out of the transparent part of the switch, it's fine. getting a lower mcd led sounds good, but you can still make the higher one work out, and sooo much is personal preference.

yeah, I think the stock is like that too.

anyway, I dunno when I'll be able to get around to actually doing any of this either. especially the gauges, since I can't even find those gauges yet...

[Zimluura]

y'know, this site has a cool parts database
http://www.6gc.net/index.php?action=parts

is this them?
http://www.6gc.net/index.php?action=parts&itu=252

looks like they have 'em here
http://www.procarparts.com/store-detail.as...e=onlinestoreDB

but also check here and search for: celica gauges
(they got some interesting, err crazy, stuff in there)
http://www.procarparts.com/

also make sure your speedometer will match up (0-150 and all).

This post has been edited by Zimluura: Oct 27, 2006 - 1:36 AM

[6strngs]

y'know, this site has a cool parts database
http://www.6gc.net/index.php?action=parts

is this them?
http://www.6gc.net/index.php?action=parts&itu=252

looks like they have 'em here
http://www.procarparts.com/store-detail.as...e=onlinestoreDB

but also check here and search for: celica gauges
(they got some interesting, err crazy, stuff in there)
http://www.procarparts.com/

also make sure your speedometer will match up (0-150 and all).

hmm, I'm pretty sure those are the gauges! only problem is, they are white faced... I was looking for black faced, and I thought that they were black faced.

so anyway... now I guess I have to think something else up for the gauges.. either that, or see some more pics of white gauge faces on cars with black interiors and see if it doesn't look out of place (seeing as nothing else on the car will be white...)

but thank you for searching for me!

[Zimluura]

np man. but wait a sec, i think they're *silver* faced. that still aint exactly what you're looking for, but it's a helluva lot better than white!

edit:
depending on their construction you could, but them, disassemble them, rough them (sandpaper), then spray-paint them. if only the numbers light up then i'd guess that the glow parts are a layer behind that's glued to the silver front. it'd be worthwhile to find someone who has them first, or contact procarparts about their construction.


This post has been edited by Zimluura: Oct 27, 2006 - 2:37 AM