Weekend Interior Mods - LEDs and stuff

[Regardie]

So I had a free weekend and no one home to stop me so I got to do a bunch of interior mods that have been backing up on my 97 Legacy L sedan.

Mod List:

Swapped parking brake lever. Old one had a broken button.

Removed, cleaned, updated bulbs to LEDs on the stock radio and HVAC unit.

Swapped steering wheel with a leather wrapped wheel from a 97 Outback Limited.

Swapped wiper stalk with a stalk from a 95 LSi with the intermittent speed control dial.

Replaced bulbs in cruise control, rear defrost, and emergency flasher switches with LEDs.

Replaced bulbs with LEDs on the gauge package, and removed the green stuff from the back of the gauges.

I pretty much had the whole center section and drivers side torn apart for the weekend. The plastic trim pieces took a quick trip through the dishwasher.

I got to clean all the spilled drinks from the HVAC unit and the radio. I replaced the bulbs in the HVAC unit with high powered LEDs from superbrightleds, but did not get the bulb in the AC control switch. I didn't know that it was another neowedge type bulb.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/03/HVAC-1.jpg

The stock head unit has bulbs soldered onto the circuit board. I replaced them with the Radio Shack incandescent 12v bulbs and removed the green thing on the bulbs. I am going to have to get LEDs for the head unit as well since the bulbs are no where near as bright as the LEDs.

The switches required a little more work. The way light travels from the tip of the LEDs and not the sides meant there needed to be a bit of structure inside the switch cut away and a bit of reflective tape installed. I also popped out the cover and removed the green stuff from the back of the icon.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/03/switches-1.jpg

The gauge mod went pretty well. I used a dremel to get all the green stuff off the back of the gauges. I unscrewed the gauge faces from the backs and rotated them to get the RPM and some of the speed indicators without removing the needles. A lot of people have reported problems getting the needles aligned when they remove them so I tried to work around that. Then the LEDs went in, two different sizes that unfortunately have a slightly different color temperature. I notice it, but it's not that bad. The other problem has to do with hot spots in the lighting. Over the green stuff is a mask of dots that Subaru used to even out the hot spots. I think the next time I get to a U-Pull-It I will get a gauge package to photocopy the mask to even out the hot spots.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/03/gauges-1.jpg

So everything goes back into the car without a problem except I have one screw left over. I think it was from the steering wheel / stalk area of the car but I could not remember where it goes. 3/4 inch, natural, not black. Any ideas?

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/03/screw-1.jpg

Screw goes to the drivers door light switch. Forgot that I had pulled it.

Edited to add images

[Huffer]

Wow, I wish you had pics...

[Regardie]

Yeah, I know pictures would be nice but my wife was gone with the kids and camera that weekend, and the cell phone camera is not so good...

I can get some after pictures tonight in the dark so you can see the HVAC and gauge LEDs and why the radio needs LEDs too.

Most of the work was done following OneBadBG's LED gauge thread on LGT.com, maybe 10 min 10 dollar gauge mod. That inspired the LED swap.

There are threads to show removal of the HVAC unit as well. Good tip, the HVAC cable is much easier to remove under the passenger side of the dash, no screwing with the c-clips. Also, one of the bulb replacement threads shows that you cannot move the back circuit board more than 1/4 inch when in reality, there are tabs on the board to get it out of it's mounting. I found a picture of it disassembled maybe on Scoobymods that led me to find the tabs. The really hard part of the process was getting the fan control knob to pop off. You can't get it from the front without damage to the trim so it really comes down to prying it off from the back and the knob will come off. Then you can get the whole button assembly out to really clean under the buttons.

I don't have fog lights yet but I do have a fog light switch to mod so I can take that apart and get some pictures of the process.

[ubar legacy]

what bulbs do you need for the hvac?? can you possibly post a link?
were they just like a direct swap? or was some customizing required?

sorry for all the questions..ive been wanting to do this for a while..

[Regardie]

what bulbs do you need for the hvac?? can you possibly post a link?
were they just like a direct swap? or was some customizing required?

sorry for all the questions..ive been wanting to do this for a while..

So the HVAC uses 3 neowedge-3 LEDs from superbrightleds.com. Look for the autobulb section. I used the white high power Neo3's. The HVAC unit has two different bulbs, one tall and two short. What I found is the base of the LEDs are a little large and I used the dremel to reduce them a little so they fit the sockets. Just sanded down around the edge. I also cut one apart to put it in the tall base but I don't think that is really necessary. The LEDs are polarized so I used a 9 volt battery to figure out +/- and marked the base with a sharpie. After I installed them, I was able to check that they all worked from the connector on the back with the 9 volt instead of installing it in the car and finding out I did it wrong.

The switches use the neo3s as well, one for the icon and one for the indicator. I used amber high powered for the indicator and white for the icon.

The flasher uses one neo3, you can find it under the silver foil. I used white there as well.

The LEDs are special 12 volt auto LEDs. They dim with the control on the stalk, though I have noticed that they are extremely bright, and I tend to stay at the first click.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/10-dollar-10-minute-gauge-mod-124039.html

This is the thread that inspired me. Watch the videos, he goes through where to get the LEDs and then pages of useful information, pictures, and links follow.

http://www.scoobymods.com/legacy-hvac-bulb-replacement-t91.html?amp;t=91

Good walkthrough to get the HVAC unit out. That shows the little circuit board slipped out of the way to get to the third bulb.

If you remove the AC switch, you will see another neo3 bulb on the side of the switch that probably needs to be replaced as well.

Regardie