Regardie
02-02-2012, 05:29 PM
I haven't seen this one written up anywhere so here goes. (With pictures!)
The seat heater switches are a little different than the Defrost, Cruise, and Fog Light switches.
Use a small flat bladed screwdriver to release one side of the switch and then pop the other side. When you pull the switch apart you will find two bulbs on little rubber fittings. The tall one is for the power on indicator and the short one is for the illumination circuit.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0002JPG-2.jpg
Quick fix: use the Radio Shack bulbs 272-1092 #7219 Micro Lamp 12 volt 60mA wire terminal base to replace the short one and put it back together.
Longer fix: I have cleared the back of my gauges and installed LEDs there as well as in the heater control unit and the other switches so to keep things consistent I had to find a way to put LEDs in here too.
I had a couple extra LEDs from SuperbrightLEDs that I wanted to use. The problem is that they are in a little package and I needed bare leads. So because I am not afraid of breaking things, I tried to take them out of the package. They are glued in pretty well and I broke the first one I tried to take apart. :cry: That let me know what I was dealing with inside.
The LED is mounted on a tiny surface mount circuit board. On the bottom of the circuit are attached a resistor and a diode and their leads make the leads for the bulb. They are polarity sensitive.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0001JPG-2.jpg
The second one I tried to take apart I managed to get open while only breaking off one of the components on the bottom. Yeah me! :smile:
That allowed me to see which component went where on the bottom so I took out the trusty solder iron with a needle tip and a 25 watt element and put it back together and tested it with a 9 volt battery and it worked! :shock: I used a Radio Shack 270-0324 Heavy Duty 9V Battery Snap connector to do all my testing. It just something that clips onto the battery and gives you bare leads to connect to things. It is so much better than the paper clips I had taped to a battery when I did my gauge mod. Don't let the bare ends touch each other for a long time. The battery will heat up and potentially explode.
So I put the other one back together and it worked too.
I spent some time trying to get the leads to bend around the little rubber thing but they are just too thick so I ended up soldering them to the buss bars inside the switch. The positive side is pin 4, the negative side is pin 1 of the switch. The side of the switch with the key is pin 1 -3, other side 4-6. Pin 1 is above pin 4. Now would be a good time to get acquainted with a multimeter because I forgot which was which in the picture. Be careful that the leads don't touch the other buss bar as well since that will take out your entire illumination circuit. I tried it and it works.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0003JPG-2.jpg
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0004JPG-1.jpg
While I had the switch apart, I tried to clear the green from the switch cap. Pop off the cap with a screwdriver from the back. First I removed all the green from the back. Not a good idea. The top and bottom don't really get any light normally and it just looked weird. The little arrow in the middle sits right on top of a piece of structure that blocks the light so only half the arrow lights up.
Dad's Dremel tool. Borrowed from my Dad year's ago, he has since replaced it.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0006JPG-1.jpg
A sanding disc.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0007JPG-1.jpg
Back of switch cover. The one on the left is completely sanded, the one on the right, not so much.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0008JPG-1.jpg
The only green stuff that should be removed is the area behind the image of the seat. The one on the left needed some black nail polish to cover up what had been sanded off, a Sharpie was not enough to cover the mistake.
Then I used a little rubber cement on the back of the switch cover to stick it back into place.
Inside the switch is a little sled that makes all the magic happen. It is covered in some kind of grease. Leave it covered when you rebuild the switch. Inside the switch housing is a tiny ball bearing and a spring. Try not to lose them, they are important to the clicking motion of the switch.
Test the switch with the 9 volt battery. The Subaru works on a weird subtractive voltage system for the Illumination circuit. Instead of increasing voltage to increase the amount of light, the full battery voltage (12-14v) is on the positive side all the time and the negative side is shunted through resistors to ground for the dimming. A 9 volt battery puts you somewhere between max and min voltage.
Install your switch and check to make sure the Illumination circuit still works. You will find that the LEDs are much brighter than the original bulbs.
The seat heater switches are a little different than the Defrost, Cruise, and Fog Light switches.
Use a small flat bladed screwdriver to release one side of the switch and then pop the other side. When you pull the switch apart you will find two bulbs on little rubber fittings. The tall one is for the power on indicator and the short one is for the illumination circuit.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0002JPG-2.jpg
Quick fix: use the Radio Shack bulbs 272-1092 #7219 Micro Lamp 12 volt 60mA wire terminal base to replace the short one and put it back together.
Longer fix: I have cleared the back of my gauges and installed LEDs there as well as in the heater control unit and the other switches so to keep things consistent I had to find a way to put LEDs in here too.
I had a couple extra LEDs from SuperbrightLEDs that I wanted to use. The problem is that they are in a little package and I needed bare leads. So because I am not afraid of breaking things, I tried to take them out of the package. They are glued in pretty well and I broke the first one I tried to take apart. :cry: That let me know what I was dealing with inside.
The LED is mounted on a tiny surface mount circuit board. On the bottom of the circuit are attached a resistor and a diode and their leads make the leads for the bulb. They are polarity sensitive.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0001JPG-2.jpg
The second one I tried to take apart I managed to get open while only breaking off one of the components on the bottom. Yeah me! :smile:
That allowed me to see which component went where on the bottom so I took out the trusty solder iron with a needle tip and a 25 watt element and put it back together and tested it with a 9 volt battery and it worked! :shock: I used a Radio Shack 270-0324 Heavy Duty 9V Battery Snap connector to do all my testing. It just something that clips onto the battery and gives you bare leads to connect to things. It is so much better than the paper clips I had taped to a battery when I did my gauge mod. Don't let the bare ends touch each other for a long time. The battery will heat up and potentially explode.
So I put the other one back together and it worked too.
I spent some time trying to get the leads to bend around the little rubber thing but they are just too thick so I ended up soldering them to the buss bars inside the switch. The positive side is pin 4, the negative side is pin 1 of the switch. The side of the switch with the key is pin 1 -3, other side 4-6. Pin 1 is above pin 4. Now would be a good time to get acquainted with a multimeter because I forgot which was which in the picture. Be careful that the leads don't touch the other buss bar as well since that will take out your entire illumination circuit. I tried it and it works.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0003JPG-2.jpg
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0004JPG-1.jpg
While I had the switch apart, I tried to clear the green from the switch cap. Pop off the cap with a screwdriver from the back. First I removed all the green from the back. Not a good idea. The top and bottom don't really get any light normally and it just looked weird. The little arrow in the middle sits right on top of a piece of structure that blocks the light so only half the arrow lights up.
Dad's Dremel tool. Borrowed from my Dad year's ago, he has since replaced it.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0006JPG-1.jpg
A sanding disc.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0007JPG-1.jpg
Back of switch cover. The one on the left is completely sanded, the one on the right, not so much.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/0008JPG-1.jpg
The only green stuff that should be removed is the area behind the image of the seat. The one on the left needed some black nail polish to cover up what had been sanded off, a Sharpie was not enough to cover the mistake.
Then I used a little rubber cement on the back of the switch cover to stick it back into place.
Inside the switch is a little sled that makes all the magic happen. It is covered in some kind of grease. Leave it covered when you rebuild the switch. Inside the switch housing is a tiny ball bearing and a spring. Try not to lose them, they are important to the clicking motion of the switch.
Test the switch with the 9 volt battery. The Subaru works on a weird subtractive voltage system for the Illumination circuit. Instead of increasing voltage to increase the amount of light, the full battery voltage (12-14v) is on the positive side all the time and the negative side is shunted through resistors to ground for the dimming. A 9 volt battery puts you somewhere between max and min voltage.
Install your switch and check to make sure the Illumination circuit still works. You will find that the LEDs are much brighter than the original bulbs.