The DEFINITIVE interior/dash lighting Q & A forum!

Woo hoo! Got one half of my order today. Installed LEDs for my cig lighter and my rear window defroster button today. Looks excellent, can't wait to get the rest of my parts and pimp it out more! Anyone got a good A/C button tutorial? I can't figure out how to even begin with that thing, thanks!

Yesterday I was checking my cluster's burnt bulb.. its kinda hard to remove the cluster without a tilt steering wheel but it can get done anyhow.

I was wondering what kinda bulbs arethose.. and is it possible to change them to LEDs?

Its a 2001 Corolla btw w/o tach. I'm trying to make it look like the S cluster with the red backlights, afterwards get a nice reverse indiglow gauge set.

Fox - They should be #194 (supposedly interchangeable with #168), your cluster would have a total of 2 or 3 of them. You can pick up LED #194's (complete with the wedge connector so they just change out without any modification needed) at autolumination.com. Probably other places too, but that's the site that I know of offhand.

OK, here's a riddle for you all... i decided to change out my instriment lights to "mood" lights-so i picked up a couple of #194 bulbs-(these are NOT leds btw). SO, i pull out the cluster no problem, and then a pull out the socket of one of hte bulbs-the only problem-the bulb WOULD NOT come out of the socket-so i was like-"huh, thats wierd" -i got aggressive and yanked that biatch out of there-turns out-i broke the wires THAT were WRAPPED AROUND 2 metal prongs...I went to toyota dealer and he looked it up in the computer, and found that there is a bulb and socket that he can "special" order for me..but they DONT come together! "What you have to do is rewire them around each prong.." ...bah this is hopeless! THANKS FOR READING! please help me out!

Dude you can get those at any auto parts store for dirt cheap, like $3bucks for a 2pack, try advance auto parts that where i got mine.

d_samuri

What year is your car out of curiousity? Yeah, some of the older models bulbs don't pop out (without damage anyway). Like Miguel said, give pepboys or something similar a try!

I guess I should get the Incandescent Bulbs like this one:

http://autolumination.com/images/auto_bulbs/194r.jpg

it looks more like the original bulbs... or should i get the leds for better results?

NO you guys dont understand! i went to 3 stores...advance auto, pep boys, autozone-NONE OF them had it! if they did-DO THEY COME TOGETHER??? as one unit? oh and its a 96 4afe. the 194 bulbs-fit in the socket, but they dont work until their metal wires are wrapped around the prongs-does that make sense?

they are sold seperatelty at advance auto, did you ask one of the guys that works their. I know they should be in the same aisle. Makes sense

No, they didnt have anything there-its ok, i figured out how to work it...basically, i took one of the new 194 bulbs-twisted the metal around on each side of the bulb-and placed it in the socket-so that the metal was "touching" the metal prongs-using an ohmeter-i found current through it-so it worked finally-i havent checked it at night yet-but i cant wait-i really appreciate the help and the responses guys-keep up the good work!

I read over the thread and have a question:

Is there a way to replace the bulbs with an L.E.D. without having to solder anything?

I have the center bulb in my cluster burnt out, the right bulb in my a/c gauge burnt out and the bulb in my ashtray (change tray) burnt out. I really want to change the color as well.

It's real easy. But there is one issue first. In order to use a LED you need a resistor in place. You can buy LEDs prewired with resistors "in-line". The two websites in my sig sell them, autolumination sells them at $5 each as "snake lights" and speeduss sells them as "Varad 4 LED kits" for $12.99 for 4. If you wire an LED directly, it will burn out.

To replace a standard bulb, you can do it a few ways. If you are lucky the bulb socket clips into a harness of some sort. You can pull out the whole socket (without removing the bulb or cutting any wires) and directly plug the LED wires into the harness from which the socket was removed. I like this method because it's easy to reverse and you don't have to cut any wires. You can use either electrical tape or zip ties to hold the wires in place. I prefer a good zip tie, you can pull on that bad boy until your fingers are purple, and there is no way that it's coming loose later. It's also easy to remove at a later time with scissors.

Your other option is to tap a wire (splice into a wire) which I don't like. You can also cut the wires and hard wire the LED in. Or you can try to wire the LEDs into the bulb socket (good luck with that method!) With that method you'd be trying to wire into the world's tiniest connectors.

Let me know if this helps! I just wired in 2 LEDs that light up the front feet areas, I wired them up to my ignition light, so they come on and off with the door now, pretty sweet, waiting for dark!

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Anyone have any indiglo issues? I figured I'd get a lot of questions for that install. I guess Vamp's DIY kind of covered everything!

Lol...I PM'd sdang about his console since I own a 2003 corolla S and I love what he did and hopefully he will reply soon.

Anyways, I would also like to change the overhead dome light to a nice LED blue, is there an LED I can use to just plug directly into the overhead dome?

I don't know the size of the lightbulb. Also, I am not too good with soldering either since I basically don't know how to use a soldering gun and just basically glob it on lol.

Any suggestions?

Should I just take off my dome cover and measure the light?

Lol...I am pretty sure that it would be close to the same size.

This place sells them

Carbon B:

Try the LED place in my sig, they sell every imaginable LED, type, size and color. That's where I got my dome light from. Mine was a 31mm dome light, in a 2000.

Yeah, that's what I did. Mine is actually a 29mm, but no one makes those, so I used 31mm. I have blue LED for mine, it has 4 LEDs and from the outside when it is on at night, the car kind of glows. Looks sweet. I angeled it so it points towards the dash too, instead of straight down (since LEDs are kind of spotlightish).

I saw someone rig a 9" neon stick in his console to light up the console buttons, do you think it would be possible for our corolla's?

Using a 9 inch neon blue to do this to light everything evenly?

Then use the LED's for the ac and other lights?

I am thinking about doing this.

Got the bulbs in, I only needed 1 194, and I had 3 74's.

I didn't have to wire the 194 just pushed it into my shifter light place. Now fort he 74's I had to remove them from their base. Come to find out they have presoldered resistors on them.

So just remove the blue plastic base, put in the original base and that's it. It lights up good and I haven't done the knobs, only the ac and the interior air light.

How'd you do the damn A/C light? I can't even figure out how to get at it. If I could, i'd just disconnect it and use my own LEDs. Post up some pics!

Are you speaking of the lights behind the circular A/C button? To open that this is what I did for an 01 corolla S:
Open your dash and take off your cd player. Now you get to get the whole AC control piece off. This will be a bitch. First undo the bolts on the sides so you can move it around. You will see that the whole AC contorl piece is a black thing clipped onto a white thing behind it. First undo the bolts on top of the thing to get the defog/use outside or inside air button out. Just pull the piece through the front. With that out you can easier get to the other parts. Oh if you haven't already unclip all the adapter things for the cables so you can move it around easier.
Ok once you got the defog thing out then you need to unclip the black whole AC unit piece from the white part its connected to. There is 2 clips on top and 2 on bottom. This part took me a while because there isn't much space to work with and get things unclipped. Once you get it off you will pull forward and it won't come out completely. To finally get it off, you need to look on the right side of the long piece sticking out of the actual A/C button. Basically behind the A/C button there is a black housing. On the right side of this housing there is a little tab you need to push in while you pull out so the whole AC housing can get out. Once you get the whole AC housing out you should be able to figure out how to open the housing around the A/C button. Its got a wierd system of lights in there. One bulb in a socket thing that you can twist to get off and one right angle LED in its own housing.

If you figure out what to do with these then post back here. I opened it yesterday to see what I need but put it back together. I'll open it later this week again to actually change stuff and I'll try to take some pics on the install. If you figure out something to do with the right angle LED though I'm open to ideas

Anyone figure out what to do with this bulb on the cig lighter? Did you just cut the wires and wire in a LED or did can you get this bulb out and change it somehow?

captaincorolla: This is great stuff! I just ordered superwhite LED replacement for my dome light (31mm) and trunk light (168, same as 194). Any ideas how to actually remove the trunk light? Seems like there's a plastic post you can pull on, but it doesn't seem to budge, and I don't want to force it. Is there a technique I need?

ardothewan:

excellent how to on the a/c lights, i will try that next weekend when I have time!

On the cig light...
You won't be able to get that little stupid bulb out. I just wired in an led w/ an inline resistor. I didn't cut the wires, just stick em in the socket where you pulled that bulb out of. I do that and use zip ties to hold the wires in place. I like to avoid cutting things and soldering (or any work at all). Let me know if you need any more help with that bulb!

thanks that enough about that bulb. I might make a DIY for some of this stuff when I do it again later this week... If i'm not too lazy

Can anyone tell me what LEDs I will need to replace ALL the stock bulbs in an 04 S? I want to do all of the a/c panel and instrument panel. If anyone knows the exact bulb numbers and type of bulbs that would work the best. What type of bulb would work the best for the instrument panel (if it is a regular LED won't it only light up a portion of the panel since it is concentrated?). Also, anyone know if you can change the color of that ugly digital clock? The color is hideous....

The color is green.....the lights are probably the exact same as the 03 for the 04.

It's practically the same car. Anyways, I would suggest reading at my post at the top of the page.

Not sure how to do the clock yet, I've thought about popping it out and putting in a blue clear plastic covering, kinda ghetto, but should work.

Toyotaboy:
I kinda skipped your trunk light question. I'm not sure what you mean though... with mine there is a small plastic "cage" over the light, that is pretty obvious how it opens, then pull out the bulb. Maybe yours is different?