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Thursday, March 22, 2012

The HVAC Cluster Light Conversion



The time has finally come to debut the marvelous HVAC cluster light conversion. From reading countless forum threads it occurred to me that this is one of those mods you just have to do if you own the 05-07 STI. As mentioned on some previous blog posts, the STIs made in these years were in this weird transitional period. From the year 2008+ the STIs have come stock with beautifully red light interiors. Hopefully these conversion episodes help my fellow Subaru brothers and sisters.

Obviously, if you don't like red, you can use any other color. I actually have a friend who changed all his interior lights to illuminate blue! It was different, but fit his car quite well. Of course, if you don't mind the green, you don't need to lift a finger.

This conversion is based on a couple of old forum discussions, so I can not take full credit. However, I will say I have made a couple of improvements to fix issues that were mentioned from the old forum posts. One of the major problems people had were the lights not being bright enough. Another major concern was the dial face buttons seemed to get stuck, or unable to push down all the way due to the wires and lights. I am proud to say, my mod worked out perfectly. You can see the red lights during the day, eventhough you wouldn't really need to, and it looks beautiful at night.

As always, these articles written after the video are always a way for me to give you guys some tips, tricks, and important afterthoughts on my modding process that I may not have been able to show on film.

To set you guys on the right track, I will tell you exactly what I used for this mod. The lights are Red 5mm straw hat LED 3.2v 5000 MCD with Wide Angle. These details are very important. The 5mm LED is a must if you want it to fit inside the dials. 5000 MCD (Millicandela) just means it illuminates very bright. The higher this number, the brighter it illuminates. I used 3 of these lights per dial, giving a total output of 15000 MCD. You won't need anything higher than 5000 MCD, unless you are running less LEDs per dial. Many people in the past have sanded down the LEDs so the light looks more diffused on the dial. I strongly advise you not to. The face of the dial already diffuses the light for you, so you don't need to sand down each light. Sanding it down will only lower your illumination output. Make sure you purchase wide angle ones as well, if it's not wide angle, you will get hot spots on your dials since it doesn't illuminate evenly enough. However, if you choose a different LED setup than mine, then you will need to calculate what sort of setup you'd like to do, and what kind of resistors you will need to purchase. For my setup, I needed three 150 OHM Resistors 1/4W 5% Carbon Film. I chose to wire my LEDs into three parallel series because it's just easier to fix when one dial malfunctions. For the wire, I just picked up some old telephone lines, and stripped them. The wires are extremely thin, so be extremely careful with them. Lastly, I would advise that you guys use heat shrink tubing instead of electrical tape, where possible. This will give you guys a much cleaner and secure connection as time passes by. I honestly just got lazy, lol. Now, mind you, whether you are a professional at soldering or not, this is not an easy mod. It will take plenty of time and patience on your part. There are many risks to this mod if you aren't careful and precise, so please DO NOT DO THIS MOD UNLESS YOU ARE CONFIDENT!

Otherwise, the results speak for themselves. As time goes by, I will continue to convert the rest of the interior to illuminate red. As of this moment, I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to bother with the Head Unit, since I still want to go with an aftermarket double din, but we'll see.

11 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Are the back of your dials(the face plate of the dials) green? Which is why you chose to do super bright red LEDs? I will be doing blue on my '07, but the back of my dials are green... so I'm not sure if this is the mod for me...

    Also, the purpose of the film is for the indicator lights? correct?

    Thanks,

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  2. Yes, the back of the faceplates are made of green plastic. There is no way to remove it. If you are doing blue, that can be tricky because Blue + Green can create a slight Teal. Which I doubt is what you are looking for. HOWEVER, I DO believe you can force the colors if your Blue LEDs are bright enough.

    Do you mind confirming what you mean by 'the film'? If you mean the red plastic overlays, they are also to boost the dials in their "redness". Those stock LEDs illuminate white/yellowish to illuminate the dials.

    If you have more questions, feel free to e-mail me personally: jagan323@hotmail.com
    Hope this helps =)

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  3. where exactly do you solder i didn't quite see it and i wana be sure before i do this

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  4. I'm not quite sure what you mean by where exactly did I solder. You solder the lights together, then solder the wires to the end of the series. If you do it like mine, 3 series, then you solder all 3 positive ends of the wires together, and solder the 3 negative ends together with your resistor. Then, on the back side of the Harness connector, there should be an array of pins. You solder the Negative leads to the Top left pin, and the Positive leads to the Bottom left pin. Hope this helps =)

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  5. if you do blue do you need more led's and where did you buy your leds as i am doing blue in my 07 impreza and don't know if 3 bulbs would be enough

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would say, 3 Blue LEDs would illuminate brighter than 3 red ones at the same MCD (Millicandela). I bought all my resistors and LEDs from eBay. It's the cheapest in price. Look for LEDs that are as bright as the ones in my write-up above. Keep an eye on the voltage for the LEDs as well, because that will determine your final Resistor selection.

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    2. see i forget how to do all the calculations and such and also can you figure out the resistors for these bulbs http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/component-leds/blue-5050-smd-led-120-degree-viewing-angle-1200-mcd/318/1250/ as i want to put those in the door controls and fog light button there isn't enough room to do the led's like u did with the hvac

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    3. My advice is to find the same lights on Ebay, you can save a lot of money imho. I've dealt with Superbright LEDs before, and their shipping fees for such a small light is ridiculous. But up to you. As for resistor calculations, just search Google for "led circuit resistor calculator" and there will be lots of useful ones =D. Though, I'm not convinced you need a resistor for that LED... espcially if it's drawing the same amount of power as the stock ones. However, I haven't fiddled with those lights yet, so don't take my word for it. I'll get to them eventually though.

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  6. well on the door switch on drivers side there is only one bulb installed the other 3 slots are empty and there appears to be a small resistor under the bulb

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  7. will flat top leds work just as well as straw hat leds?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they should work just as well. However, you need to make sure they are bright enough, 5000 mcd or higher preferably.

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Please feel free to leave questions or comments!