Required parts/equipment:
(3) LED's (3mm, Low Intensity, T-1 size - Available from Radio Shack)
Fine point soldering iron and solder.
Small jewelers screwdriver or equivalent for prying apart light assembly.
Needle nose pliers.
Wire cutters.
Patience and a steady hand. Prior circuit board soldering experience recommended.

Start by removing the frame at the top of the center console. It just pulls straight out. You can open the storage tray and pull the upper right corner to start it or carefully pry it from the sides. Then pull out the left-most blank button so it's easier to grab and pull the ESP switch out, which in turn makes it easier to grab and pull the Airbag light out. Again, just pull.

Now that you have the light assembly loose, press in the tab on the side of the blue plug and remove the light assembly. I didn't really have to do this on mine. The plug just came loose by itself but required the tab being pressed after I reassembled it properly. Note: The blue plug will tend to fall back into the dash but you can just pull the ESP button towards you and the other plug will come towards you as well since it is on the same wiring harness.

Once you have the button free, you will see that it has a black section and a blue section. You split the two apart by prying up the black plastic with the jewelers screwdriver at the tabs while pulling it apart. Here's a picture with one side loose:

Now you should have something that looks like this:

The little circuit board with the LED's is not attached to the blue plug but it may be easier to keep them together for easier handling.

Now remove one of the side LED's, not the middle one. Heat both leads at once while pulling the LED with the needle nose pliers or you can heat one lead and pull on it with the needle nose pliers until it gives a little, then do the same to the other lead, and work back and forth until it is removed. Straighten out the leads and try to get it back to roughly the same shape it was before we started as this will be used as a pattern for the new LED.

LED's are polarized! They must be installed correctly to work! The new LED will have one leg longer than the other and this leg must be mounted so it is on the passenger side of the light assembly when it is installed. With this in mind, grab the leads with the needle nose pliers and bend the leads to match the old LED. If you point the LED towards you, the longer lead should be on the right. Now cut the leads to the same length as the old LED. Here's what we've got so far:

Now to install the first LED. If you have a solder sucker, clear the solder out of the existing holes. If not, you can do the same thing using wire or the leads you cut from the LED. Heat up the wire or LED lead by holding it against the soldering iron with the pliers and inserting it into the hole that is blocked with solder. The solder should attach to the wire/leads and clear the hole. You should now be able to insert the new LED into the existing holes. Position the LED at the same height as the existing LED on the other side and solder in place. (Soldering tip: Apply the tip of the soldering iron to the LED lead and solder pad around the hole at the same time, then melt the solder onto the lead and not the soldering iron.)

After installing the first LED you should plug it in to check that everything is okay. It should look like this:

Now remove the other LED's just like you did the first. The middle LED has shorter leads so you will have to heat both leads at the same time while pulling it. Bend the leads of the new LED's and cut to match the old ones. Solder the remaining LED's in place and it should look like this:

Just put it all back together and enjoy a more harmonious dashboard illumination display.

*sparx*

http://www.snaprhead7.zoomshar...ges/1

Hello, "My name is Inigo Montoya, You killed my father...Prepare to die!!"

very nice though- I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has OCD about this type of thing

It does look a little bright in the pictures. But take a picture at night of the orange light.

There must be something about the light wavelength that gets picked up better by a digital camera. It actually matches the brightness of the hazard button and climate control lights. You can see from the fourth picture how much less brightness you get from the red LED. Of course you could add some resistors in-line to reduce the brightness. Talk about OCD!

The real difference is that now it blends in. Before I would occasionally catch the orange light out of the corner of my eye and think that some serious warning light was on. Now I don't see it at all unless I'm looking for it.

Well, for starters, the plugs have slightly different strips of plastic on the side that prevents the plugs from being swapped. Of course you can cut it off and it will probably fit. Also, the ESP switch only has one LED in the center. Yes, I took it apart just so I can answer this question. I'm sure the reason is that you only need one LED to evenly illuminate a switch that says "ESP OFF" while you would need three for "PASS AIR BAG OFF".

It could work well enough though, assuming the pin-outs are the same and the system doesn't register a fault because it thinks a light bulb is out. Not sure how much the ESP switch would cost but it might be a viable option for fellow OCD sufferers that aren't handy with a soldering iron.

Alternatively, if you don't like the light coming on at all, you could just remove the LED board completely, no? I wonder what that does to the circuitry...


Modified by a3anson at 10:00 PM 5/18/2006

great diy joe...i may attempt this one day

B7S4 CH's // SolarGuard 25/40 // GTI pedals // MK2 TT dead pedal // DICE // Vag'd // debadged // premium mats // THULE aero roof rack // NEUSPEED RSB // AWE Boost Gauge // Carbino // STaSIS streetsports // Eurogear CF hood w/ AeroCatch latches // ATE super blue // ss brake lines

yeah, that's my issue with it too. i'm kinda fussy about various light levels at nighttime. (also bugs the heck out of me that the dashlight dimmer acts on the button illumination but doesnt affect the any of the lcd display backlighting. and don't get me started on my #1 gripe: how the fancy automatic interior mirror is so completely useless at night)

since you've been inside the switch housing there, do you think there's room in there to merely drop in a little square of dark crimson filter gel and achieve much the same effect (less bright + more red) without all the soldering?

Are you talking about the auto-dimming rear view mirror? I un-auto-dimmed that a long time ago. Check this thread:
http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothread?id=2335600

Quote, originally posted by nolita »

do you think there's room in there to merely drop in a little square of dark crimson filter gel and achieve much the same effect (less bright + more red) without all the soldering?

Yes. There's actually a mostly clear lens that you could replace or cover. Someone at the last SoCal GTG had wrapped black electrical tape around it to completely black his out.

Uh, yes, but for completely the opposite reason. At night i like it *more* dim; like a manual mirror on its "dimmed" setting. Outside of city traffic, I find that the glare from headlights is a big distraction in my peripheral vision, and more than offsets any benefit of seeing more detail behind me. I prefer the disembodied blobs of dim light and over the years have become quite used to interpreting their movement. (Now I'm even *avoiding* studying anything in the mirror at night, and instead just make a binary decision; if i catch glare coming from mirror, something is somewhere behind me)

heh. talk about OCD behaviour. i should check myself in somewhere...

Anyway, I notice there's a forward-facing sensor on the back of this mirror as well; does it supply data to any other components besides itself? I would gladly swap out with a manual mirror *if* i didnt lose any other photosensor functions in the process (e.g. auto headlights, coming-home, etc)

I'm not certain, but I believe the sensor in the mirror is only for the mirror. I think the sensors for the other stuff is in the two bumps on the sides of the mesh that is in the center-top-forward part of the dash by the windshield defroster vents. I completely disconnected the plug that goes to the mirror and my auto headlights still work. I never use the coming-home feature.

FYI for anyone w/ nav, the trim piece around the buttons can be removed w/o taking off any other parts by pulling directly outward. You should be able to use the card tray as a starting point. I picked up an Audi repair tool for about $30 from ebay that makes removing trim pieces a lot easier. Looking through the Bentley manual, this tool is used for a lot of items so I figured it was worth the $30 to remove the chance of screwing up my trim

I tried this with 3 layers of red photographic gel and you never get to fully matching red. Basically it takes down the brightness quite a bit and turns it to more of an orange tone. Sort of a quick fix that takes you 50% of the way there without turning to the soldering iron or blacking it out completely.

It might be a good solution if you do replace the yellow diodes with red and find that it's too bright. Just pop al layer or two of the gel into reduce the brightness to taste.

The Volvo C30 Thread

Go back several posts and you'll see that others have mentioned that you can just use a piece of black electrical tape to block it out completely.

I left it wired up but behind the climate control and installed a new switch to replace it. thanks to mister JJ for the led bulb info.

DIY replace the entire airbag switch;)

Modified by RyanA3 at 3:55 PM 1/2/2007

The Volvo C30 Thread