Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Got my LED's swapped!

Pics will be posted tonight or tomorrow.

I soldered in new LED's for the gauges and the LCD screen where the odometer is. Looks awesome.

One problem though...I can't take the needles off to paint the backs of them. I can take the paint off by using a Q-tip to get under there, but I can't apply the paint. I'm thinking of leaving them clear because I don't want to break the needles by taking them off.

Anyone know how to safely take them off? I tried prying them off, but they won't budge, and they seem like they are going to break.

Anyone know the answer to the question in the post above?


Anyways, anyone looking to do this install, but is worried about messing it up...

I accidentally sprayed hot solder onto the board that came out of my desoldering bulb, and it still works fine. I didn't even remove the solder. Also, it looks like I did a pretty crude job of soldering, but it all works fine, so if you are not a retard, then the job is more than doable.

pictures please

needles come out if you pull hard enough, though i wouldn't recommend it because of recalibrating, i hate doing that, but they will pull out.

nice


i need to do that... where'd you get the LED's from?

I'll be doing this soon as well... not sure about the needles, I thought they'd just come right off

Just did mine tonight! From orange to hyper white .

Don't have pics... to tired(and lazy) Tomorrow...

This is easy as pie to do.
Worth the hassle of taking the gauges out, which was easy also...

for needles, i used two spoons. one on each side and pried it off

From Digikey.com

All the LED's cost me like $25. They would have cost me like $22, but I ordered more because once you buy $25, there is no stupid fee for not buying enough. And as I found out, you can change the color of other LED's on the dash such as the BRAKE light, and the Check Engine light, etc.

Anyways, I decided to just take the paint off the underside of the needle with a Q-Tip and nail polish remover. Didn't feel like taking them off and possibly breaking them. The needles are red and kinda blury because they aren't painted, but they look really cool at night, especially when they are in motion. Here's a few pics. The LED screen with the gas meter, odometer, etc. looks awesome.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but you get the idea...




Here's a pic of the LED's on the circuit board. One of the speed LED's didn't work, so I swapped it out and fixed it after I took this pic...

Another...

Last one...

very nice.

wait wait...you have a 4 year old celica...with 616 miles on it...you need to drive that baby a lil more! looks too sweet to be left sittin in the garage

Hah! I wish!

That's one of my trip counters. I use that trip counter to see how many miles I can get out of a tank of gas. I reset it everytime I fill up. It actually reads 61.6 miles, but you can't really tell cause the pics are blurry. I actually have over 75k miles on it.

On a side note, I installed the AEM Tru Power Alternator Pulley this weekend. That was the gayest install ever, not to mention it doesn't do anything noticable. I would have been better off just buying a smaller belt and bypassing the AC Condenser Pulley.

Same here. I used two spoons to pry them off and it took a bit of effort. Had no problems putting them back on though and recalibrating them.

If anyone is interested in doing this job, let me know and I'll post the part numbers of the LED's that I bought from Digikey.com

I remember before I did this job, I was always second guessing which LED's I needed since there's a lot to choose from.


Also, if there is anyone in the St. Louis, Missouri area that wants this done, and you are too afraid to do it yourself, I'll do it for free, as long as you buy the LED's.

Im really need to do this too

that would be helpfull for you to post the part numbers

Ok, but I don't have the order form on me right now (at school), but I will post it later this evening, so look back then.

i have the same gauges... but i havent switched my LED's.. how would i go about clearing my needles? just a simple qtip and nail polish remover? are the needles only painted on the top and sides? not the back of the needle?

please let me know.. and how long did this process take to remove the paint?

thats awesome

nice

sweet! looks awesome

The paint is just on the underside of the needle. Just dip a q-tip or napkin in nail polish remover and keep rubbing. You will notice the paint will slowly come off.

Second guessing? There is no second guessing or worrying if the LEDs you are picking will be of the correct illumination if you use any of the OEM matched LEDs listed in the pic below.

Ok try not to use nail polish remover use rubbing alcohol instead. NP remover aka acetone eats away at the needle plastic too but alcohol will only take off the paint. Its take a whole lot of force to pry those things off it will almost feel like your braking it so do it at your own risk. I found out a way to remove and repaint the needles w/o actually taking off the needles. I found it by accident, when trying to pry the tech needle off with spoons it popped of the black little cap on the needle came off but the needle stayed in place. this allowed me to remove the paint with a Q-tip completely and paint the needle with a fine brush. just put a thin piece of cardboard under the needle to protect the face. The black cap pops back in no problem. Unfortunately i couldnt do this with my speedo cause i positioned the spoons too deep under so the whole thing came off and now the calibration is all jacked up. Damn you people who had no recalibration problems !

heh your actually supposed to paint ONLY the back of the needle(the stock paint is only on the back). removing the paint only takes less than 5 min. use alcohol