So i've done searches in NASIOC and i-club (less organized, IMHO - even tho i'm a noob to scoobies), and i've found pretty much nothing on 05+ mods on this subject. Me (and my friend) want to change our 05+ radio/hvac/keyrings to red on our STI's. But on these two forums, everyone makes everything very hard to understand, and there are lots and lots of opinions on what is better. I've read through trunk_monkey's and mixup52's color change tutorials, but those dont cover 05+ models. Today i'm willing to take apart my center dash and take a bunch of very detailed pictures with a request for some very helpful person to write something up for me. It'd be most helpful if anyone could, say, put a bunch of colored circles (on my pictures) and very detailed instructions (above/below my pictures)...sorta like what trunk_monkey did in his tutorial.

As of now, my biggest confusions are the following:
1. a) My car is a bone stock 06. When i open up the HVAC, am i going to find LED's or just regular light blubs (halogen?? i dont even know what these are called).
1. b) If i'm going to find LED's, what size and other specification will i find with the bulb?
2. Will there be any special materials i need to buy (glass paint, red film of a particular type, etc) to get to work on the push buttons on the HVAC/Radio Screen.

Thanks in advance, for any help anybody gives.
:banana:


-Alex

4th result for "HVAC Color"

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1124644
Search button is your friend :disco:

or

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57809

4th result for "HVAC Color"

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1124644
Search button is your friend :disco:

That thread covers the conversion for a WRX gauge cluster not the HVAC...I know..I wrote it :)

There was a thread were someone tackled the 05-06 model and I believe (but don't quote me) that there are surface mount LED's that people simply painted over with red or blue acrylic paint.

For the HVAC knobs, the most succesful mods have been to drill into the side of the black plastic mounted to the circuit board and insert two leds from the side.

Ok one at a time here:

The keyring: there is a write-up for this already, just search. I have a blue key ring on my 05 and it looks amazing and was very easy to do. I took out the bulb that was in there and put in a LED replacement from http://autolumination.com/74.htm Some people use replacement bulb condoms for their keyring but the LED looks a lot better. I can take pictures if you want.

The HVAC:
Mechie was correct, 05/06 HVAC are surface mounted LED's (not the LED's you are used to and certainly not something that would be easily replaced). The most common mod is to paint over these and add additional LED's. Read ardinos' post here or on i-sti - http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4706
Unless you really know what your doing, I do not recommend drilling through the plastic, as you can really mess things up, it is far easier just to snake small wires underneath the knobs. Red is really the only color that will work because the controls are green themselves and blue LED's will appear teal. I speak from experience. Also be sure to remove the clear plastic if you add additional LED's that's one thing ardinos left out of his write-up. If you don't want to do this yourself I know there are people on these forums that will do it for you for a cost. Be careful with your HVAC circuit board, it is both finicky and expensive to replace.

Radio:
No idea.

Someone posted on here about the radio. They heated up the plexiglass cover, removed it, and replaced it with red tinted plexi. Not sure where the thread was though.

Someone posted on here about the radio. They heated up the plexiglass cover, removed it, and replaced it with red tinted plexi. Not sure where the thread was though.

RADIO
I'm guessing that the red plexi needs to be custom made?

I'm not too concerned with the other lighting on the radio..but the screen seems to be the complicating issue. Are the letters on the screen green ONLY because the plexiglass is tinted green? If so, then getting that plexiglass to be the right shape becomes a whole new problem to tackle.

Here's my shot of the 05/06 radio circuitboard front (the part we'd see w/o the cover).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/xl7xl7/DSC_0190-1.jpg
Seems pretty simple to get the 7 green .12 condoms off and putting on red .12 condoms. Does anybody know if i should double-layer the red condoms to get the lighting to match the STI guage cluster?

HVAC
Paintballjunkey mentioned some clear plastic. I'm guessing its the clear thing inside the white plastic piece on the left. I hope i'm right...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/xl7xl7/DSC_0206.jpg


Thanks a bunch.

exactly, that is the clear plastic I was talking about on the left. it serves to distribute the light from the tiny surface mount LED's; when full size LED's are added it serves no purpose so you can remove it and give the LED's room so the buttons can move freely.

also responded to your pm.. let me know if you have any more questions.

i added 2 - 5mm blue leds to each of the 3 controls and it turned out great.. here are some photos, i'm sorry about the quality of the photos but you get the idea.
now i have to figure out a way to get the clock to match.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB190776.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB190776.jpg)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_DSC02226.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/DSC02226.jpg)
Click Image To Enlarge.

I want to find a used clock and tear it apart. I have some samples at work of lumitex fiber optic backlighting. That might be worth a shot if I can get a clock and not mess up my own.

holy lumitex fiber optic backlighting batman. Just curious what that is? I suppose I could google it.....
Makes me want my very own OLED clock...

got the radio done. i think it was the easiest thing to do after the cigarette lighter ring..now for the key ring.

will post pictures later

i added 2 - 5mm blue leds to each of the 3 controls and it turned out great.. here are some photos, i'm sorry about the quality of the photos but you get the idea.
now i have to figure out a way to get the clock to match.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB190776.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB190776.jpg)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_DSC02226.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/DSC02226.jpg)
Click Image To Enlarge.

Good luck w/ the clock. I read that if you paint over it, its difficult to see during the day (hence the non-stock look).

Would you mind telling me what mcd, reistance, LED size, etc. that you used for your HVAC mod? thanks.

yeah that teal color is what made me switch to red. It just didn't match my blue/red color scheme.

i'm not sure if you can tell but it's not really teal, it's more blue than teal. my radio and tt even look sorta teal in the pictures too and they are completely blue. here's another picture of it (sorry about the picture quality but it will give you an idea of the actual colour)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB030737.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB030737.jpg)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB030738.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB030738.jpg)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB030742.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB030742.jpg)

I also kept the clear plastic piece that is inside of each knob in place but I trimmed them down and glued them in place.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/th_PB030731.jpg (http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c371/D04TJ/PB030731.jpg)

What light output rating did you use (mcd), and what color LED's (nm)? Those actually look pretty good.

I am not sure on the light output rating, I bought them off my buddy who bought them off ebay from this guy.
here is a link to them:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BLUE-LED-NEON-BODY-KIT-12V-Motorcycle-Bike-Chopper_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ35598QQihZ008QQ itemZ180056365055

I have done this mod with red LEDs that others have used from radio shack. I had no problems with everything working correctly using a 9v battery to light things before I put it back into the car. The LEDs were very bright and everything appeared to be fine. However while testing I decided to remove the resistor b/c the LEDs were brighter without it in line. The problem is that when installed back into the car the LEDs are very dim and can almost not be seen at all. Any thoughts on this? Would the lack of a resistor cause the LEDs to dim too much due to voltage? I'm using a 5mm red LED 1.7v from radio shack. Thanks for any thoughts.

How did you wire the LED's? What kind of circuit did you make? What's your input voltage? If you wire 7 LED's in series to 12 volts you won't need a resistor. If you use 6 led's in series you will need a 100 ohm resistor. If you use 3 led's in series you will need a 390 ohm resistor.

Yes, they will be brighter without an resistor. But if you go over the max voltage, they will burn out faster. If you go way over, they burn out within a few seconds. If your resistance is too high, the LED's aren't getting enough voltage.

Thanks for the reply. Iirc the input voltage was between 12 and 12.4...I will recheck this. The 3 LEDs were wired in series with no resistor. From your post I'm putting together that they must have burned out very quickly b/c there doesn't appear to be any additional light from the aux LEDs that were added.

Three LED's in series with no resistor means that each LED is getting about 4 volts. Try adding a single resistor in series. Also, go to digikey.com to buy electrical components. They don't charge $3 for a cheap led.

Thanks for the help. It looks like one of the LEDs burned out and killed the circut. I'm not sure if it was from voltage or contact on the board close to the LED base. Either way I replaced it and added a 390 ohm resistor in line and everything is working now. Thanks again.

Awesome. Post some pics!

No digital camera atm...but it looks good. I might add another LED in each knob to help with dim spots. Once again, thanks for the input.

hey guys, i did my radio, key ring and cigarette lighter ring in red, and am going to do my HVAC next, i bought red LED's offline, 5000mcd max 5mm to be exact. Do you think these will be bright enough? not sure if i should put one or 2 inside each nob. If you think one is bright enough, what size resistor should i be using per LED? well for that matter if i need 2 per nob what size resistor will i need there too lol! thanks.

mm...one of these links has a resistance calculator...another of these links is to a page that involves drilling (which i highly recommend)..i used REALLY THIN wires and i dont think enough power got through or something. i'll resume this project once i gather enough time and money. go for it. it was fun for me..just be careful w/ the soldering iron!

Has anyone done this on a 04 sti? i wanted to change the lighting to red also in the hvac section. please if anyone has any info, let me know

look up trunkmonkey's interior color change tutorials. VERY thorough write up for 04. Nothing near that quality for an 05+ yet though :(

I made my 06 HVAC knobs red. Blue is out of the question (my gauges are the same blue as my car, impossible to achieve with the HVAC knobs). If you guys really want a big writeup I can give one, but it's not hard at all...and fully reversible.

--Craig

Hey Mechie, i was just wondering: If i used really thin wire (like, 1 millimeter kind of thin) would that be not thick enough to get the power through to the LED's? i've tried doing this mod (took me all day) and all i got was a little blink when i first turned on the lights. Never got a blink from the 3rd set of lights either (i followed the iwsti thread - link of first page).

By the way, any drilling?

This is my new plan for this mod. If you have any better suggestions, it would be appreciated. All the help i need as of now is a list of materials that would work to make a nice, even red set of HVAC knobs so i dont have to waste more money on gas/shipping/parts. This setup uses the following calculator: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/xl7xl7/HVAC.jpg

hope this one works...and i hope the resistors arent too hard to find..

I drilled through the plastic on the black pieces. I also trimmed the interal white pieces next to where I had drilled holes on the black parts so they wouldn't pinch the wires when I push the buttons. I used 24 gauge wire and a 330 ohm (orange orange brown) resistor, quarter watt. If you do it, use a 270 (1/4 watt, Red-purple-brown) and they will be brighter.

The LED's used were the ones from radio shack that are $1.99, clear lens, 3000 mcd. I'm actually underdriving them as I got a resistor from work and estimated the LED's to be 2 volts (I didn't yet have them in hand). I put one into each knob and glued them to the inside of the white plastic piece (see diagram). I removed the clear light pipe on the inside as well. The leds had the tops ground down and the sides scuffed up. Make sure your leads are really short or when you glue them in, they will interfere with the buttons operation.

The single Led works pretty well, although my vent selector is a little bit brighter in the center.

Use this resistor calculator:
http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng

it's much nicer.

Here is a quick diagram. I don't recall which pin is negative, but I think it's the top one. The wires are routed through where I made holes (easiest spot to make them without the drill head hitting the circut board). Holes are small. The number of pins shown is only for reference, the important pins are on the far right. Get a 9 volt battery, attach leads to it, and touch the pins to determine which one is negative and which one is positive.


http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/LEDHVAC.jpg

I just realized I haven't posted a picture of my HVAC in here.

Here we go crappy cell phone pics!

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/021507_0002.jpg

I like your set up. And Thanks for all the help.

^^ Thanks, and not a problem. I actually used the little writeup you did here as well as the one at IWSTI to do mine so...I'm just building on what others have done.

Please, if you have questions, don't feel afraid to ask. I'll gladly answer them to the best I can.

EDIT: I should mention. My HVAC is pinkish during the day, at night it is a deep red that matches the red on the needles. The lighting is even except for the far left button, but it's not as prominent as in that cell phone pic. either way, I think it's better than green ;)

I'm considering purchasing the equipment to cast a new radio display lens in red instead of green.

Would anyone else be interested in buying one from me if I get it to come out good? I could probably do other colors as well. The equipment will probably come out to 150 bucks or so, so I figure that if I could get 5 people to buy them from me, it would be worth it. I've got an '06 WRX

we have all the services you guys would ever want for this upgrade, feel free to check out the site when you get a chance.

Caesar
http://lightwerkz.net

Caesar -

You guys don't offer the lens I mentioned in the previous post.

http://lightwerkz.net/gfx/prods/prod_red_thumb.jpg

If anyone is interested in the radio display lens, email me. npietran_a_t_resistive_d_o_t_net

gonna finaly attempt this this weekend. thanks mechie for answering all my questions :)

I may try the whole HVAC conversion myself. I just wish the actual dials weren't made of that green plastic as I'd love to go with a nice blue color to match my alpine HU.

My next goal would be to change the STi guage cluster from red to blue or some combination of red and blue (blue numbers and red needles or vice versa). Yes, I used to drive a VW:).

IM gonna tackle the HVAC this week...After reading everything im determined to break the blue HVAC barrier....My plan is to use the stage gel Mechie suggested for the instrument cluster change in combination with bright white LEDs in the HVAC. Oh but wait....I accept the challenge of the green plastic, and my plan (action upon closer inspection of course) will be to grind down the thickness of the green plastic where it counts, finding that sweet spot of not too far (yikes) and far enough to eliminate a high percentage of the green plastic...it will be another day or so before my blue stage gel arrives so if anyone has any objects please speak your mind :)

Props to all you guys for letting the knowledge/experience flow. ive spent way too many hours this weekend starting from the begining gaining all the knowledge necessary for these changes....feel like ive learned more from this than 2 semesters of electrical engineering classes for non believers (ie mechanical engineers)...enough rambling...have a good one!

just did mine today!!!! looks sick with my defi guages....all i need to do now is change over the radio and speedo cluster

^ can i see some pix? any tips? I didnt get back to doing mine yet...which LED's did you use?

im looking at making my needles red instaed of the orange/yellow color they are....any tip? where can i get the bulbs to do it..etc etc
thanks!

The needles are yellow plastic. To make them red you need to buy an 04+ cluster. A vendor is selling them for $75/pc.

I drilled through the plastic on the black pieces. I also trimmed the interal white pieces next to where I had drilled holes on the black parts so they wouldn't pinch the wires when I push the buttons. I used 24 gauge wire and a 330 ohm (orange orange brown) resistor, quarter watt. If you do it, use a 270 (1/4 watt, Red-purple-brown) and they will be brighter.

The LED's used were the ones from radio shack that are $1.99, clear lens, 3000 mcd. I'm actually underdriving them as I got a resistor from work and estimated the LED's to be 2 volts (I didn't yet have them in hand). I put one into each knob and glued them to the inside of the white plastic piece (see diagram). I removed the clear light pipe on the inside as well. The leds had the tops ground down and the sides scuffed up. Make sure your leads are really short or when you glue them in, they will interfere with the buttons operation.

The single Led works pretty well, although my vent selector is a little bit brighter in the center.

Use this resistor calculator:
http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng

it's much nicer.

Here is a quick diagram. I don't recall which pin is negative, but I think it's the top one. The wires are routed through where I made holes (easiest spot to make them without the drill head hitting the circut board). Holes are small. The number of pins shown is only for reference, the important pins are on the far right. Get a 9 volt battery, attach leads to it, and touch the pins to determine which one is negative and which one is positive.


http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/LEDHVAC.jpg

I'm about ready to do this again with my HVAC... first time around I lifted up the buttons and slid the wires under them,..,, that caused them to point downwards a little... do you have pics of where you drilled the holes?

Thanks,
-Nigel

how do i do the key ring how do i open it up to add led or condom?

mm...one of these links has a resistance calculator...another of these links is to a page that involves drilling (which i highly recommend)..i used REALLY THIN wires and i dont think enough power got through or something. i'll resume this project once i gather enough time and money. go for it. it was fun for me..just be careful w/ the soldering iron!

Found it! w00t w00t
Thanks,
-Nigel

how do i take the green off the hvac button???? what do i use to remove the green color?

bump?????????

how do i take the green off the hvac button???? what do i use to remove the green color?

You can't... at least when I tried to dremel mine and sand it they were green all the way through..

Send it to Cory at light works.. I just sent him my spare and pretty much 40 bucks later I will have it tomorrow...

He replaces the leds with FLUSH mount bright leds... so in my opinion it's worth it and looks OEM... now my buttons won't droop down a little..lol

-Nigel

naw im good i well just put the led my self like i was doing already.

i just sent mine to cory via lightwerks a few months back as well
its not that bad of a deal, as you're guaranteed quality work.