Thread: blue interior led (pics)

Here's mine:

(yes, I've taken care of the cruise buttons, just haven't taken a new pic)

that is awesome looking, so you got a new gauge overlay and then changed the bulbs? what kind of overlay color or specs or whatever should I be looking for so that I can have it look like that?.

Originally Posted by GOINDEF

that is awesome looking, so you got a new gauge overlay and then changed the bulbs? what kind of overlay color or specs or whatever should I be looking for so that I can have it look like that?.

The overlay was swapped and white LEDs put in behind. I'm not sure the details on the overlay since (like I said previously) my HVAC and gauge cluster were done by BBE due to their delicate nature. I did the rest.

Where did you order your led's from, you said yours took a while, what are some other sites I could order from too?

And does BBE have a site. I have been looking for a new guage cluster face too.

BBEngineering Impala / Monte Carlo Products

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

I'm working on the same thing right now, with BB's help.

BB did my cluster and HVAC, and I'm doing the rest.

Somewhat a how-to. This is the first switch I did since the bulb was burned out. This is for the Chevy Impala/Monte buttons, so for the Pontiac buttons YMMV.


I've gotten a lot more switches done and I'm waiting on more LEDs and resistors to arrive.

Hope this helps. The resistor value depends on the Vf of the LED.

If you guys need more details in the writeup, just ask and I will go back and edit.

What year/make did the blue covers (diffusers) come out of? I know on the grand prix's, ours are red/orange. I might contact that guy to get some of my other stuff done in blue. Do you have a part number for the led bulbs?

Pics look great, btw!!

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

You use Ohm's law:

I=V/R

(I is current, V is voltage, R is resistance)

For our situation, we would reorder it to be R=V/I. So, the equation would look like this.

(14.4V-[Vf of LED])
------------------
[current of LED at Vf]

That will give you the resistor value in Ohms. I'd bump it up just a tad as well. For my 3.2V Vf LEDs, with 20mA of current, I use 620Ohm resistors.

As far as someone doing it, I've considered doing it for about $10 a switch (plus shipping, you provide the switches) but I've never opened Pontiac switches. I'd assume they're similar to the ones in the Impala/Monte, but I'm still learning those.

I was messing around on the internet trying to figure out the polarity of leds. I have a little project that I decided to mess with that includes leds and I ran across this calc for determining which resistor is needed. I am going to do the math myself personally to check this online calc after I wake up and after I get over the hangover that I will have.

Current limiting Resistor calculator for leds

The LED will have 2 legs, one longer than the other. The longer leg/lead is pos. If the polarity is reversed the LED will not light.

Anyone try this on the 04+ Grand Prix yet?
I'm very interested in giving this a shot. I then want to get additional "Cobalt Blue" meters from www.autometer.com to line my pillar with. If I try this and fail, can I seriously dmg anything important in the veh or will I just be reversing what I've done and trying again? (this may be a dumb question but electronics.... not my forte. haha)

(04 Comp-G)

I did the TC button using this method with the same LEDs as sabrewings used. Took more time getting the switch out than it did for the mod it self. Works great. Its nice and bright.

I plan on doing the same for all my switches but working 65 hours a week has me with limited time to sit down and do this.

Im sure its the same with these radios but they do use plastic covers over the blubs to change the color. I have only run accross blue covers which give a white look to me. Simply changing the covers may yield some odd results as the bulb it self does not emmit white light.

You would be better off getting LEDs the color you want. In certain cases though such as the red color vs blue color on your temp dial you may want to experiment with colors to get them as bright red or blue as possible.

I changed the faces on my old yukon and had to use super bright white leds to bring out the blue. When I used blue it made the gauge numbers washed out dark like. Almost as if I painted the numbers on.

Experiment on a single switch before diving into the radio or climate controls.

whats the update on bbe and guage clusters? lol i highly doubt they'll do 04+ anyways.

have we come to the conclusion that 5mm are too big? Im checking LED Shoppe out and they dont have the 3mm 13000mcd that are mentioned previously. i think a 5 will do, but i wanna check see if anyone has done it with 5's

only 3mm that are there are 5000's
i was going to get the 5mm 6000's but if size is the issue ill go 3mm

anyone? haha. I want to know too...

Well I decided to go back to red and here are the reasons.

First of all, alot of what GM did to get that red tint was to use buttons or covers that are white on one side and red on the other. Now unless I sand away the red on the other side (which most likley wouldnt work) there is no way to get blue outa some of the interior lights.

Same goes for the instrument cluster. They use orange bulbs to get that red from the other side. Replacing the bulb with a blue LED will make a horrible color without coming up with a way to get rid of the red back on the cluster.

All in all the work would not be worth it.

In stead I ordered a bunch of red wide band leds to make the lights switches even brighter red. Red isnt my Fav color but its better than washed out weird colors.

This applies to the 04+ GP.