S14 HVAC with SuperBrightLED's?

[JVkouki]

Has anyone tried to replace the S14 HVAC lights with the LED lights from http://www.superbrightleds.com (or similar)?

I'm thinking about doing this to mine's since the lights burnt out. I know there's a write up in the tech section (I searched) on how to do it but it only uses the stock yellow bulbs. I'm trying to replace it with bright white led's instead of the stock yellows since they look 10,000X better.

Has anyone tried this? What bulbs to buy? Any suggestions?

[Broadfield]

I do LED swaps all of the time. Most LED's are not 12volt though, you simply have to wire in the proper resistor. This can be a little tedious depending on the OEM bulb setup. I stock 3mm in amber, red, green, violet and blue. I'm in the process of stocking up on more colors and more sizes. If a customer wants white for example, I will simply order a bulk of white ones for the job, then I will have tons left over for the next customer. 3mm is easily the most common size though. Even if you are replacing a bigger bulb, the 3mm LED is easily bright enough to make up for its size deficiency. Sometimes I have to use a higher resistance resistor because the LED is too bright in certain applications. I also have the proper resistor to go with the LED's

Here is how I do it in a S13 JDM climate control from start to finish. Or you can send it to me and I can do it for you for a fee of course

[JVkouki]

Nice stuff but Hah...I'd like to find out myself actually. What do I do for the bulbs in the S14 HVAC, same process you did, buy an LED and put a resistor on it? But (correct me if I'm wrong) I heard the bulbs from SuperBrightLED's come plug and play out of the box....if not, maybe I can just buy some white ones that are all ready to go off of you instead.

Any more insight??

[amakadius]

i might be looking into upgrading my tails to led if they can be bright enough

[Broadfield]

Nice stuff but Hah...I'd like to find out myself actually. What do I do for the bulbs in the S14 HVAC, same process you did, buy an LED and put a resistor on it? But (correct me if I'm wrong) I heard the bulbs from SuperBrightLED's come plug and play out of the box....if not, maybe I can just buy some white ones that are all ready to go off of you instead.

Any more insight??

Did you bother to pull a bulb out and see what they look like? That's where you want to start.

[Broadfield]

i might be looking into upgrading my tails to led if they can be bright enough

They would be FAR brighter than your bulbs.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I bet you meant just replacing your stock bulbs with LED's!?! That I'm not for sure. I am talking about building a new circuit board inside of the tail light assembly with hundreds of LED's.

[motoman399]

i have done s14 hvac led's a few times. they use 5mm led's and you have to shave the little ring at the bottom of the bulb itself. super easy. i do it similar to broadfields pics above. but my resister lays flat. actually i have done every light in the dash in led's in the s14. looks baller!

[asoomal]

i might be looking into upgrading my tails to led if they can be bright enough

Done that..made it worse.

Those plug and play bulbs suck. You can barely tell the difference when you're braking when you have the tail lights on.

[thinhthan]

so we use 5mm led and what kind of resistors do we use for the s14?

[JVkouki]

they use 5mm led's and you have to shave the little ring at the bottom of the bulb itself.

Can you elaborate a little more on this? I'm obviously a n00b when it comes to bulbs and such. If I get the 5mm LED (which ones...http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... 2Fleds.htm).....how would I go about shaving the bottom ring like you said? The bottom looks like this:

[cbt240sx]

Couldn't you just order these?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... ument.html

[motoman399]

so we use 5mm led and what kind of resistors do we use for the s14?

im not sure on that. i get my led's from ebay and they always come with resistors.

they use 5mm led's and you have to shave the little ring at the bottom of the bulb itself.

Can you elaborate a little more on this? I'm obviously a n00b when it comes to bulbs and such. If I get the 5mm LED (which ones...http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... 2Fleds.htm).....how would I go about shaving the bottom ring like you said?

i was talking about the bottom of the led's them selves not the socket. i use finger nail clippers to remove the lip.

Couldn't you just order these?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... ument.html

those might work? one other thing i wanted to point out is that on all the wide angle water clear led's the tops of them are flat. i make mind flat by sanding them flat then polishing them smooth again.

[thinhthan]

can you give me the link to the leds you use for the s14 hvac

[motoman399]

look for 5mm water clear led's. thats all they are. you can get them in any color. i use ebay for them.

[agermanleper]

Don't forget which side is positive when working with the LEDs. Most of you know this but if you wire the LED the wrong way it won't light up.