DIY on changing the Center Dash lights. lots of pics

DIY on changing the Center Dash lights. lots of pics

I was borded today and decided to change my bulbs from green to white. so i made this DIY showing all the locations of the bulbs. You can also see this on my cardomain site on page 3.

There are a total of 7 bulbs in the dash and one near the shifter if you have Auto

for this install you need a Sharpie or glass paint i went with the sharpie cause i had it already. i may try the paint on a few bulbs later to see whats better, a phillips screwdriver and small flat screw driver or like me i used a small divider. the lights all twist to release then you just gently pry it out. hope this helps.

In the pics below first you have to remove the center fan knob to get the the phillips screw to remove the dash.
then pry up the Trim ring around the shifter. you pull first from where the E-brake is,
Then pull the dash strait out. put car in L so you can get it all the way out.
next is the bulbs. i used a pair of dividers to get the bulbs out. the first two bulbs in the dash are the easiest and you can just pry the nipple off and paint it there. i removed mine cause i accidently broke one off trying to figure out how they came out.
i also had to remove the other switches to get to the bulbs the Hazard, AC & Passanger Seatbelt reminder all needed to be removed from the dash trim. just slike the screw driver near the tab and pull it out gently there is only one tab per switch. the clock is something i did not do nor wish to try. that is still green.
all the lights have the same treatment to them. and are the same size except for the bulb in the passanger seatbelt switch wich on mine had a smaller bulb and no green cover. and the bulb by the shifter which had a large green cover on it. to remove the bulb near the shifter you need to remove the cover around it there are 4 tabs holding it in at each corner as showen and one bulb in the middle. you can remove this bulb by slowly pulling on it. just dont brake it or you have to buy another one. doing this install and taking pics took me 1 hour.

If you break a light dont go to the dealer they will charge you over 5 dollars for a replacement. if you do break it go to a local radio shack they may have it or a electronics store. the bulbs are 12 volts and 1.8 watts just take the old bulb and the plastic holder and they can help you with what you need just make sure to tell them it is 12 volts. I got this information directly from Toyota Today.

how did u remove the two lights in the dash and the one light under the shifter?

i used my dividers to remove the lights the some out from the back but you can twist them from the front as you are looking at them just keep a hand under the bulb in the rear or it can fall down in the console and get lost. there is no reason to remove the two center bulbs you can pry off the green cover from there and paint it there. i recomend not removeing them as if you dont have small hands it can be a pain getting it back in.

I removed the shifter bulb by useing a pair of visegrips and gently grip it and pull up do not squeeze to hard or you willl break the bulb.

***also i recomend the Sharpie over the paint too i used the sharpie on the lights except the two dash lights and it looks a little more light yellowish pinkish not white/blue like the dash. the shapie gave the light the perfect blue/white combo i was looking for. matches my spedo perfectly. and looks great in my dash. The only original color in my dash is my clock and that is fine with me.

damn nice nice DIY bro. you make all these steps look easy and not confusing us and all. very very nice bro. a DIY pioneer, doing what a few of us here are too afriad to do. thats me, I am getting my dash rattle fixed the 7th time.


thanks for the info bro. I am gonna do this soon, week for the weekends. school just started here. :cry:

hey so the center shifter you took care of too? also glowing blue?

I also heard you can also simpliy replace the green condom covers at walmart or something. just as good? or sharpie is better?

you guys got the instrument cluster down yet? the speedometer? is someoen gonna handle that? cause I didnt even know how to get it open in the first place. we need mroe pioneers.

not going there i am lucky enough to have the S with the white glow dash but if i did have the CE i would have pulled it apart to change it to o well.

I used the sharpie cause i have a ton of them at home i use them for work and did not want to go to store so i used that instead. I recomend the sharpie cause i ended up buying some paint and trying it on a few bulbs and it looks more pinkish than bule/white. But it could also be that the blue is to light. maybe if i got the dark blue it may have ben more true white. i personally like my blue/white effect i get. if you can get a cover at walmart you can try that too. you can make you dash what ever color you want. i am thinking of paintng the shifter bulb red and see how it turns out. You can make it light up pink, blue/white, red, green, and purple so far. at least that is what i have tried so far.

I am glad i helped you all out i was going to do it anyway and i always like to have pictures to look at so i know exactially what to do.

This is now part of the DIY section also

AESC, any pics?

pics of the dash light up at night? No not yet still trying different colors and will post pics when done hopefully by the end of the week

is taking off the dash like that, the same way to paint it too?

Thanks btw AESC

so are all the bulbs 12volts? ... even the two in the dash and the shifter light are 12volts too?

Someone said a while back the lights to illuminate the dash gauge cluster are LEDs. If that's the case some de-and re-soldering would be needed, just get different color LEDs.

Using a Sharpie to color the lamps...what an excellent idea! It's the simple ones that make you go "DOH! Why didn't I think of that?"!

I have a CE and thought bout changing those tor RED but dropped the Idea cuz white light on black face looks like my frineds's two lexuses, and i love the lex

im not sure about all of the bulbs but according to toytoa the small bulbs in the dash are 12 volts. but as for the one in the shifter area im not sure. you may be able to take out the bulb to see if it says anytihng on it. i tryed taking a picture of the dash and it just doesnt come out. if i use the flash you see it as in the day and if i dont use the flash you see nothing either. i must need a better camera. at least i tryed

actually i did the same DIY a while back but cuz i have a stick i didnt do it for the lights that you folks with the auto have so stylin helped me out with that and did one, look for the thread in the interior mod section.

i remember your diy but it did not show all of the locations of the bulbs so that is why i took the pictures that i did. anyway one question on your red dash. how does the temp gague look at night. im guessing the red and white part look good but how does the blue look. i remember teh green lights making it look ugly but not sure how the red would look with the blue??? has your paint faded or burned off at all either???

Hey ... guys ...

Does anyone know why my bulb 3 and 4 look yellow .. i took out the green capsule ... but it my a/c button still lights up yellow ... shouldn't it be white?

Thanks!

well maybe cause the bulb is yellow

oh ... haha ... i was trying to get the a/c light that glows white ... the bulbs i colored are the actual lights that glow AC ... so i i'm trying to make the indicator light white .... you know hwen you have a/c on there's this light? yea that one ... it's hidden in tehre and i dont' know how to take the piece out .... got grease on my hands and all ... wonder if that will harm the insides...

when i did the change i could not change the little indicator lights for the a/c, reculation, and defrost. they were still yellow/green. if you figure it out post some pics.

light bulbs

anyone know what kind of bulbs the 2 main dash ones? where it glows after the first main screw is taken out...cuz i accidently lost one...=\

damn that sucks ... i was redoing my paint cuz i had diamond blue before and now i'm using royal blue ... if it looked royal ... it sure didn't when lit ... very light blue ...

i almost lost one doing it! took about an hour to find it ...


indicator lights ... where the hell are they... i ripped out the black thing that's connected to the white thing ... the A/C and Circulation black thing ... and i still can't figure out where the heck the lights are .... so i put it back ....

my back hurts now ...

can't we just buy the blue bulbs and just replace them instead of going through this painting thing? If anyone knows the bulb # and where i can get brighter blue bulbs ... let us know!

thanks

Ya Id love some info from AFSC espically as to which is the best way to go and if the sharpie think is holding up. I know he sold the rolla, but maybe he'll see this anyway. I took off some of the stuff today after school cause i was bored. I got as far as removing the panal with the clock, but i wasnt pulling straight, i was going from the bottom so it wasnt working out. I came home and read how to do it lol. Ill try again when i get the chance. That first screw was a bitch man It was glued in or something. I tried for about 30 sec when i entered my car for the hell of it. I wanted to see what it looked like. About a week later I actually got the god damn crew to move lol. I had to put half my effort into pushing the screw driver in, and the other half to turn. When I got it out the tip was all white, looked like glue or something as i mentioned b4.

lol, i changed them.

http://03rolla.com/console2.jpg
http://03rolla.com/console1.jpg

buttons are blue when off, white when on

What did u use for light color?

blue and white leds

So did you buy new bulbs? If so then what do I ask for if I went to get them?

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