Looking to see how many leds do I need, to do entire interior? This would include dic controls, radio, hvac, map lights, driver and passenger switches, select ride control, interior lighting & license plate lights. Did I miss any? What are the correct ones to get, what resistor, and where to get them from? Thanks, Jason

 

jason, I am planing to do the same thing, let me know, maybe we can have a led mod day.

 

It'll take you a while to read them all, but I have posted a bunch of links to the LED threads in the C5 General Sticky....link in sig. When you find out, please post back here.

 

There are a couple of variations, but I've done several cars, incuding mine with:

3mm LED's (Super Bright) and 1/4 watt, 430 ohm resistors (Door switches, DIC controls, T/C switch and Ride Cntrl.

I hope someone else will chime in on the HVAC and Radio

Good luck

Dave Q.

 

HvaC is 19 leds (3mm)
driver door switch 4 leds (5mm)
passanger switch 2 leds (5mm)
tacktion buton 2 leds (5mm)
left gauge cluster 4 leds (5mm)
right gauge cluster 3 leds (5mm)
trunk button 1 0r 2 leds (5mm)
rear view mirror depending on miror 12 leds (5mM) or 2 bulbs with leds in them.
as far as the foot wells and trunk and tail lights you can buy plug and play leds, bulb is 194 from
(3mm)autoalumation
radio 10 (5mm) 1
you can substitute the 5mm for 3mm if you want they fit a little better in the sockets.

 

Jason, I think the LED mod to the interior looks great. When your done with your car you can do mine. Thats too much work for me. I guess I'll just deal with the dingy white.

 

You will have to shave alot of plastic off of 5mm LEDs to get them to fit into the bulb openings on the left side. My experience is that 3mm LEDs fit better and cut down on the brightness, bringing it more in line with the right side.

 

Jeff, I didn't think I was going to do this mod yet but since one of my guage bezels fell off, the speedometer cluster has to come out. Might as well fix my air bag light and start the leds too. We'll all get together with Max and have an led modfest Illmac thanks for the list. Thanks everyone for your help!

 

what color are you going to do??

 

With the left side of the DIC, you have to use 3mm to make them fit, or you will be shaving off LOTS of plastic like LV 2 XLR8 said...

As for the interior stuff, this count below is right. Just make sure you get extra just in case. (I used 5mm LED's in my HVAC though)


For above your feet near the pedals and passenger's feet, I used 2 5mm LED's on each side. For the rear comparment, I used 4 5mm LED's on each side, and for the taglights, I used 3 5mm LED's for each side!

Good luck!

 

I didevery thing including HVAC

 

One comment, the HVAC has fourteen bulbs that need replacing, and there are already five LEDs for the indicators on the controls (amber from the factory). Some replace these, some don't. I replaced with red. Also replaced the factory fog lamp amber LED with red (shave this puppy down it is too bright in its original form).
In addition, for the left DIC switches, use 3mm LEDs, those are the smallest bulbs I have ever seen and even 3mm have to be trimmed.
Just did the same replacement (thanks to Spdklz and CULookin; I probably drove both of them crazy with emails ), and found the left DIC to be a lot brighter than the right DIC. I will be going in there this weekend and painting the sanded down tips of the left LEDs black to help equalize the brightness to match the right DIC.
I'm also going to add a 6K ohm resistor into the backlight power feed of the HVAC unit to dim down the HVAC to have the approximate same illumination as the radio (thank you LV_2_XLR8 for helping me with this item ). (I'm adding the resistor rather than go into the HVAC box...something I will never do again. ) The HVAC and left DIC are bright even during the daytime, while the right DIC and radio (along with all the switches) are great at night, but can't be seen in daylight.

Also, for anyone interested, if you should lose or like I did, break one of those plastic holders in the DIC switches, the part numbers are:
left DIC (small ones) 12198644, right DIC (larger ones) 16056613. This includes the bulb and the plastic holder. I suggest ordering from Bob at Fichtner or GM Parts direct since my local stealership really put it to me on this little bulbs.

 

thanks for the part#s

wow just looked up the price on gmparts direct, and those little baby are expensive, $1.60 (small) and $3.27 (large)

 

WhiteC5Vette/CUlookin/anyone else - has anyone managed to actually CHANGE that stupid orange "ambiance" light in the rear view mirror yet???????

WhiteC5Vette, I know you sent me instruction on how to disassemble the mirror - but has anyone actually completed this mod??

That's the only light I want to change real bad - to Evil Red

EG

 

That is the only amber light in the vehicle I like.

 

ive split open a spare mirror before, and its just 2 wires soldered to the led, i think ill try it tomm.

 

Schweet!

 

I'm leaving mine too Stephen... sorry man!

 

Hey man, shoot me a PM when you get this done... My HVAC is still sitting on my kitchen table waiting for your results! Thanks!

 

A word of caution here...

When I did the single resistor thing, I ended up using two 12 watt, wire wound resistors in series, in order to get the resistor to be cool enough to touch. (1/4 watt resistors come with the LEDs) And the 12 watters still get pretty hot. These little suckers really draw some amperage. (the ten I used in the radio drew 1/2 an amp total!) if you use more in the HVAC the amperage will only go up. Be sure you test the unit with power on it for a while before you reinstall it in the car. Keep checking the temperature of that resistor. If it gets too hot, it will fail and could cause a fire in a spot not easily extinguished.

Let us know how you do.