Hi!
This guide is about replacing the regular lights with, in this case, blue LEDs.
YES you can use T10 lights in all shapes, sizes and colours in stead of using LEDs but here are some advantages:
- you can get virtually any colour
- cheaper than T10 lights
- lightspread is way better
- it's more fun because you're DIY'ing
You need the following:
- Soldering iron + soldering tin
- LEDs + resistors
- heatshrink
- (thin) copper wire
- Screwdrivers, pliers, etc
- a 1mm drill + powerdrill
- patience and craftsmanship
LEDs can be bought at various places including ebay.
I used 5mm 120degrees blue LEDs.
The more degrees, the better the light spreads over the gauges.
unfortunately, i was using an el cheapo camera so some of the pictures are not as clear as i wanted. read the text carefully and you'll understand.
Begin by removing the sidepanel on the drivers' side of the car. ofcourse I have a european BA so UK members should do everything in reversed image.
After that remove the 2 screws that now show up and the panel below the steering wheel should come loose. remove this one, remove the 2 screws to the left and the right of the steering wheel.
Next remove the center console by removing 2 screws on the side (see arrows), and gently pulling the center console up. be carefull not to break the clips (circles)
Next you're gonna remove the large gauge console. it sits in place with holding clips so gently pull the console towards you and it should come loose. next remove the 4 screws holding the gauges in place. be carefull not to pull hard because you still need to undo the 3 connectors on the rear of the gauges.
If you did everything right you should be holding this:
before touching anything make sure to take a picture of the gas gauge. if you move it, it won't go back to its original position, so take a picture and save yourself a lot of headache.
on the rear side of the panel you can find these light fittings:
3 green ones for the gauge lights, 2 black ones for the indicators, and 1 black one for your gas warning light.
twist these and they will come out. you can now choose the easy way and fit T10 bulbs. otherwise, continue reading.
First we need to prepare the LEDs. I used 2 LEDs per fitting as this gives you more than enough light on the gauges. take 2 LEDs, put them next to eachother and bend the negative leg of 1 LED and the positive leg of the other LED towards eachother:
Now solder these legs together and cut off the remaining part:
Now take a resistor and cut it in a way that it resembles the length of the other leg:
Solder the resistor to the leg of the LED and cut 2 pieces of heatshrink, both long enough to cover the length of the resistor:
now repeat 2 times if you only want the background lights to be blue, and 4 times if you want to change the indicator lights as well.
take the 1mm drill and drill 2 holes from the inside of the fitting towards the back:
now push both legs of the LEDs you just created through the holes, from the inside towards the back and bend the legs sideways:
now screw the fitting back into place and jam 2 pieces of wire between the contactpoints of the fitting and the print assembly. make sure to first follow each print lane to determine if its a positive or a negative lane:
now you can solder wire between all the positive legs of the LEDs and the negative legs of the LEDs and connect them to the wires running to the print assembly.
eventually it should look like this:
Please only notice the green lined part.
if you don't want to change the colour of your indicators, you can mount the gauge back into place and put the connectors on the rear side back in. you can test your LEDs by putting a negative and a positive wire from a battery onto the following points:
if your LEDs aren't working, check your soldering and make sure you connected the positive side of the LEDs to the positive power source and the same for the negative legs.
if you want blue indicator lights, continue reading.
follow the same procedure to fit LEDs in the 2 black fittings for the indicators. this time you don't need to stuff a wire between the contact points and the print assembly because there's 2 points to get your power from.
these points can be used to power the LEDs for the indicators. make sure you pick the correct side otherwise the left LED will burn when turning right etc. follow the print lanes to be sure.
now solder the negative legs of the LEDs together and cover your soldering work with either tape or heatshrink:
Next up you have to take the gauge panel apart to remove the green lenses. not removing these will cause the light to become this which is quite ugly. remove the lens and cover it with non-transparant adhesive tape:
Make sure to use non-transparant. transparant tape will cause the LED to shine directly into your eye which is not desireable.
put everything back together and it should look like this:
you can see that i messed up the tape and got some air between 2 layers, got it right on the 2nd try.
again, before mounting the gauge pod make sure everything works by putting a negative and a positive wire from a battery on the contact points. be carefull not to pull any wires apart when fitting the gauge pod in the dashboard.
Final result:
using green LEDs:
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but ofcourse you can use any colour LED you want.
), I can get time as well, but how did you do that???? Which LED's did you used? Actually the problem is that since I've moved to Finland, I'm having real difficulties in finding things and the only way to get them is ebay 
