Changing Cluster/Button lighting

[Rayrayrr]

Hey guys,
Undertaking my new project...

Changing my cluster and button to be blue/white... very sick of the red now.
i have a 2009 SV6 (which im pretty sure makes it a MY09 or MY9.5)

So far Ive read the Document on how to change the LEDs..

My plan is to change the gauges to blue (leaning towards white now..)
blue needles
blue lcd
Ive seen a picture and that looks very good.

Couple of questions..
In the changing illumination document, it says the MY09+ needs to have 90 degree angled leds...
Does this mean they are just mounted differently or does this mean that the led is actually different to the 1210 smt?
and does the SIC use different LEDs or are they same as the cluster..
also have notice there isnt a document for changing the SIC LEDs... might take some pictures whilst im doing this to upload

Parts list:
14 x 1210 SMT LEDs For speedo and tacho - White
24 x 1210 SMT LEDs for the central lcd (special 90 degree ones) - Blue
2 x 1210 SMT LEDs for the Fuel and Temp Gauge - White
8 x 1210 SMT LEDs for the needle - Blue
6 x 0805 LEDs for steering wheel controls - Blue
6 x plcc 2 LEDs for headlight switch - Blue

Does anyone know the type of LED for the window switches?? (might have to pull it apart to check)

Thanks.

[TazzI]

You don't *have to* use the side leds, you can simply use the 1210 smd LEDs on their side. This way you can actually slightly angle them to get a nicer brighter light.

Alternatively, by a 5m led 1210 reel. Snip off the 3led sections and wire that to the led pad. Again, this gives a more vibrant even lighting.

Personally I haven't messed with VE lighting, just going by experience with the vy/vz components.

Pretty much between using 3mm LEDs and smd LEDs, you can do a whole car conversion.

Just take pictures of everything you pull apart before you start desoldering, comes on handy as you can add the positive and negatives onto the image.

Also from what iv been told, some of the leds are "variable colour", as you can program the colour from blue to red or vise versa (not sure if that's the radio only?) So ull need to make sure you solder onto the correct pads as one set will be blue an one set will be red.. Unless you just bridge both positives and negatives and you won't have to worry about it

[Rayrayrr]

Ahh k awesome... so just make sure the 3 leds are facing inwards to the screen, and solder wires inbetween the cluster and led strip??

yeah im going to take a heap of pictures and maybe try write up a small how to... maybe help future people

[TazzI]

Yeah pretty much. Although the strips are made for 12v. So I wired a few of the led pads to the strip so it made up 9-12v to give good illumination.

I only used the lcd strips when illuminating the LCD screens since they gave a better distribution of light. The rest of the led's generally are placed well enough to illuminate the backing/buttons fairly evenlyl.

[Rayrayrr]

Nice, will have to give that a go
ill be ordering all my LEDs this week.
Want to sort out exactly everything i need so i can buy them in one hit.

[Morris70]

Window switch uses regular 3mm round leds instead of smd, think there's 6 from memory.
EDIT -it's more like 10 leds.

I changed mine from green to white and used Jaycar ZD0140 1000mcd ones

window switch.jpg

The SIC has 30 x PLCC2 red leds (3 rows of 10 leds), the traction switch has one plcc2
The transmission illumination has 2x 5mm high brightness leds, but these are fiddly to replace, as each led is in a plastic housing with a 1/8w dropping resistor.

[Rayrayrr]

So my tacho and speedo are already white, im going to change the needles and lcds to blue and make all my buttons white

Thanks for the great info guys!

With the needles is it just as easy to carefully scrape the paint off and then apply like a glass paint to give it the right colour and obviously with a blue LED.

Edit- Excellent picture, looks great! i wont have to worry about the transmission lighting as ive got a manual so i suppose that makes life easier.

[Rayrayrr]

Project is on hold again
until i get my car back from the mechanics..
thinking the throttle body has crapped itself.

Will have to wait until i get my car back and look at it next weekend.

[Morris70]

When I put the Calais cluster in, all I did was change the needle leds from white to red, but couldn't be bothered repainting the needles.

calais cluster 1.jpg

They still light up bright red at night with the white paint, blue leds might look ok this way too

calais cluster 2.jpg

[gsuggett]

When I put the Calais cluster in, all I did was change the needle leds from white to red, but couldn't be bothered repainting the needles.

They still light up bright red at night with the white paint, blue leds might look ok this way too

Looks awesome Morris70! I am doing my cluster now. I found that if you have needles that are painted you can use Acetone to remove the paint on the bottom and I used white-out to see how it looked. Once it looked good I just cleaned it off and put white finger nail polish on.