R50 window control lights to LED's

[scottrainey]

I've been following the work of a few folks on this site who changed out their dash lights for LED's. I've successfully changed out my instrument cluster, climate control unit, and gear shift indicator on my 2001 Pathy with blue LED's (mostly purchased from from autolumination.com, but I did a DIY job on my climate control unit with LED's purchased off the shelf at Radio Shack, which necessitated wiring in resistors. While the setup isn't very pretty from behind (the resistors kind of hang in the open space behind the unit, but they're rock solid), I was rather pleased with myself that I made it work, and everything looks uniform.

The only exception would be my window/door lock control panels, on both the driver and passenger sides. They're both still rockin' the stock plain lights. So is my defroster switch, for that matter. Has anyone switched out those lights for LED's? Any recommendations for size? After spending the good part of an evening doing my AC unit, I'd rather go with ready-made, off-the-shelf items rather than futz around with resistors again. I'm guessing the clearance in there is similar to the (lack of) clearance in the defroster switch.

Speaking of, I've read a thread somewhere (either here or on nissanpath) about exchanging the defroster bulb for a LED and resistor setup, similar to my climate control mod, but I found with the LED I had from Radio Shack plus the resistor there was just not enough clearance, so I've left it stock.

Lastly, does anyone know if the mirror control switch is supposed to be illuminated? I'd rather not go through yanking it out of the dash to look if there's not a bulb in there...

[Towncivilian]

I changed out my window switchpack LEDs, you can find pictures of my results here.

I just bought 10 RL5-W10015 LEDs from superbrightleds.com and soldered them directly in. The factory resistance values were adequate to power the LEDs without fear of failure. However, as you can tell, a couple of the LEDs are slightly brighter or have a slightly different color. The "AUTO" text on the applicable windows looks particularly yellow on both driver & passenger side switchpacks (when actually sitting in the car, not in photos, of course). Other than those minor qualms, I'm quite happy with the mod and it was pretty easy to do, and it looks tons better than the stock LEDs. Be careful when removing the old LEDs and soldering, though, since I accidentally lifted two traces on the driver's switchpack at the "AUTO" switch LED positions, but was able to mend them back into position. Sometimes they don't light up immediately and require a press of both buttons to light, but that's a relatively rare occurrence.

You can also see my pathetic attempt at a LED in the defroster; it's off-center. I simply soldered on a 74-CWHP3 bulb from superbrightleds, with base and all, and it barely fit. The button no longer clicks when depressed, either. I should have removed the LED from its base (since it has a resistor and a diode in-line with the leads already) and soldered that on instead; it'd be a much better fit. Removing the LED from its base has the risk of destroying the LED in the process, however, and I lost two or three to that process at one point.

And the mirror control switch is not supposed to be illuminated.