Gauge LED Swap - Completed :)

[006]

Super easy to do. Really surprised me. I suck at soldering and it was still a breeze. Tutorial and Video coming soon via TundraHQ.com. Will post a link as soon as I finish editing the video and put it up for viewing.

I absolutely love it. A huge improvement over the amber, the white is honestly not bright enough to disturb my nighttime vision when driving. In the first pic the kM/H gauge looks green, in person it's just grey. The odometer and gear LCD are not as bright in person either, the numbers that are displayed are just as defined and crisp as with the amber LEDs, it's just that the camera amplifies the white light a little. I also took the opportunity to remove the little door/seatbelt chime from the board as well. Can't wait to do the radio and other controls in the center. The gauges require exactly 14 LEDs which is cool because lc-led.com sells a 15-piece "sample" set of the LEDs needed for like $20+shipping. I had to buy a fine-tip soldering iron to do this, which cost like $7.99 at RadioShack. Had some extra solder laying around already. lc-led.com also has blue, yellow, green and red, in case you don't want white. Total time to perform mod approximately 45 minutes. Difficulty on a scale of 1-10 would be a 4. Even for novice solderers.

~006

[got wake?]

looks good. glad to see toyota didn't put color tint into the plastic like some manufacturers do.

[ThirdHorseman]

Cool, I want to do this too! I'm going to wait until YOU do the HVAC controls and buttons

[006]

Haha, fair enough. Yeah, hopefully tomorrow I can take apart that section and take a peek to see how many LEDs are required. Once I know that I will be ordering those and doing them as soon as they come in. This mod was extremely easy to do...

~006

[ThirdHorseman]

There was someone on the original LED swap thread that listed the number needed and the part number, if you want a cheat sheet. I think the buttons were the foggy area, IIRC.

[38Thumper]

I would love to do this! how hard is it to get the dash apart? The soldering I do every day so its the dash part that seems tough!

[TxToyoGirl]

Looks good. I'll do this mod when I replace the factory HU.

[mariusz150]

Looks cool, but I like the amber, it reminds me of my previous X5

[006]

The dash comes apart real easy. Just give it a good tug and it will pop out. Nothing will break. The clips they use are awesome. Just pull straight towards you. I used one finger in the coin holder and the other hand pulled on the circular part of the fuel/temp/bat/oil gauges. It came out very easily with one good tug on it, then I just followed the edge of the grey peice all along the top and to the other side. Make sure you are sitting in the driver's seat and have your foot on the brake so you can put the shifter into Shift mode (column shifter only). This makes it easier to take the piece out and manuever it around while you get at the plugs for all of the buttons on the grey piece and also to take it out completely.

The video should be up tomorrow hopefully so it should pretty much answer any questions. A lot of the things I can answer are best done with the video, it's better to see what I'm referring to.

~006

[Tundradrenalin]

no more dimmer, right?

Request: Full display photo please!!

[ramstrd]

it looks better then i thought i am going to have to do the mod now.

[fire_mike]

Originally Posted by TxToyoGirl

Looks good. I'll do this mod when I replace the factory HU.

Me too. For now I think it would look funny to have the white/blue dash with the amber stereo.

[006]

Actually, the dimmer still works.

Full shot, as requested:


Again, the camera is intensifying the brightness of the white. In person the intensity is almost identical to the clock/temp display in the dash.

~006

[figit]

Very nice! I hate the amber, this is a mod I will do. Thanks for the pix.

[006]

Thanks! No problem, I love sharing my mods and helping others do them to their trucks too. There will be a video up tomorrow (if all goes to plan).

~006