Has anyone changed to LED dash lights?
01-24-2006, 11:02 PM
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Has anyone changed to LED dash lights?
My brother changed his factory dash bulbs to Blue LEDS for all his gauges in his srt4 and it looks sick!!! It so much more vivid! Has anyone tried this in their Cobalts yet? Pics?
01-25-2006, 11:53 AM
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Originally Posted by Mercury
I did this in my cougar. Took me FOREVER to do. Approx 1 week.
I looked under "how to's" but didn't see anything for LED's...
Is this difficult to do? Or just time consuming?
I'd like to know how you did it if you have the time!
01-25-2006, 05:15 PM
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It pretty much was easy. The window switches and lock switches were already LEDs so I only had to replace it with a red led. Other parts with actual bulbs I used a 12v resistor with the LED.
Well the Speedometer, Tach, and HVAC controls were another story.
There were white bulbs behind them which ment the actual face on them were tinted green. I had to dismantle each part and I mixed water with nail polish remover and cotton swabbed some of the green away. Note: this was harder then it sounds. For the LCD screens for my trip meter etc... there was yet again a white bulb and the lcd had a green film. I had to dismantle each lcd and pull the green gel cover off. then I put in an LED w/ a resistor and backed the LCD with a white cut out of paper.
I have no idea how this is going to work on the cobalt but I eventually will attempt this.
Also when I tried to adjust the brightness using my stock adjuster, it would BARELY dim the lights.
Well the Speedometer, Tach, and HVAC controls were another story.
There were white bulbs behind them which ment the actual face on them were tinted green. I had to dismantle each part and I mixed water with nail polish remover and cotton swabbed some of the green away. Note: this was harder then it sounds. For the LCD screens for my trip meter etc... there was yet again a white bulb and the lcd had a green film. I had to dismantle each lcd and pull the green gel cover off. then I put in an LED w/ a resistor and backed the LCD with a white cut out of paper.
I have no idea how this is going to work on the cobalt but I eventually will attempt this.
Also when I tried to adjust the brightness using my stock adjuster, it would BARELY dim the lights.
01-25-2006, 05:20 PM
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this may sound really dumb..but what type of leds u use for that? r they car specific or just general? and yeah that sounds like it would be a bitch to do all that..however it looks good and now that ive seen it im considering putting green in my black cobalt
01-25-2006, 09:03 PM
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Srt4's are the same way! Doesn't make a difference! He had clear bulbs back there as well. The lines are green tinted too like ours. When he changed them out to the high intensity blue LEDS, it was blue, no greenish tint at all! I will post pics as soon as i see him. They are a reversed LED light direct replacement 194 bulb. They also have smaller LEDS if thats what we have. Why waste your time with resistors! theyre around $8 a piece where my brother got em. totally worth it!
01-25-2006, 10:32 PM
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01-25-2006, 11:11 PM
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Originally Posted by dirtySSout
Srt4's are the same way! The lines are green tinted too like ours. When he changed them out to the high intensity blue LEDS, it was blue, no greenish tint at all! Why waste your time with resistors! theyre around $8 a piece where my brother got em. totally worth it!
As for the $8 each bulb, it only cost me 5 dollars to do the entire interior on my old cougar.
01-26-2006, 06:21 AM
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here they are....
here are the pics in my gallery. It' hard to see the true intenstity in the photo. https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/bro...=3&userid=2652
01-26-2006, 08:54 AM
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Originally Posted by Mercury
It pretty much was easy. The window switches and lock switches were already LEDs so I only had to replace it with a red led. Other parts with actual bulbs I used a 12v resistor with the LED.
Well the Speedometer, Tach, and HVAC controls were another story.
There were white bulbs behind them which ment the actual face on them were tinted green. I had to dismantle each part and I mixed water with nail polish remover and cotton swabbed some of the green away. Note: this was harder then it sounds. For the LCD screens for my trip meter etc... there was yet again a white bulb and the lcd had a green film. I had to dismantle each lcd and pull the green gel cover off. then I put in an LED w/ a resistor and backed the LCD with a white cut out of paper.
I have no idea how this is going to work on the cobalt but I eventually will attempt this.
Also when I tried to adjust the brightness using my stock adjuster, it would BARELY dim the lights.
Well the Speedometer, Tach, and HVAC controls were another story.
There were white bulbs behind them which ment the actual face on them were tinted green. I had to dismantle each part and I mixed water with nail polish remover and cotton swabbed some of the green away. Note: this was harder then it sounds. For the LCD screens for my trip meter etc... there was yet again a white bulb and the lcd had a green film. I had to dismantle each lcd and pull the green gel cover off. then I put in an LED w/ a resistor and backed the LCD with a white cut out of paper.
I have no idea how this is going to work on the cobalt but I eventually will attempt this.
Also when I tried to adjust the brightness using my stock adjuster, it would BARELY dim the lights.
Thanks for the info!
01-26-2006, 08:58 AM
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Originally Posted by dirtySSout
here are the pics in my gallery. It' hard to see the true intenstity in the photo. https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/bro...=3&userid=2652
01-26-2006, 10:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Shamrock
02-01-2006, 03:08 PM
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I did the same thing on my accord. Looked really cool...took about a day to do it. I had to solder tiny surface mount resistors the size of a pen tip onto the leds. There is no dimming an led light do to the flow of the current. Once I have the time and aquire the necessary tools again I will be changing all my lights in the cobalt. Unless you have the electrical knowledge of restisance you should not attempt to do this or you leds will fail...big headache. Lower ohm resistors will be brighter but not last as long.
07-03-2006, 05:43 PM
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i'm new here i joined to find info on this topic my girlfriend has a cobalt and she wants yellow lights in her cluster all i need to know is how many and what size i changed the ones in my full size chevy it wasnt hard at all i just took the 5 bulbs out and put the led replacment ones in i got them from here, they have resistors built in. http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b....29175&next=50
07-03-2006, 09:15 PM
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Originally Posted by snobird
get biohazard in here he has some stuff done to his
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