Climate control knob upgrade

Note one side deciding to not work just to fuck with me...

 

How hard was it to access the bulbs?

 

I to had a LED build issue and they were just backwards....easy to access after pulling the panel off

 

Oh man, super easy. They are right on the back of the panel of the HVAC assembly that you just pop right out using nothing more than a plastic paint scraper or something.

I may give them another go this weekend before I give up on this 5 dollar set of Chinese ebay bulbs, LOL.

 

Did you paint the ring itself, or the knob backing?

 

the clear plastic on the back side. Just make sure its a nice even coat. a couple light coats and it will turn out nice. It wont work too well if you try going heavy right off the bat.

 

Going try it when I get mine looks good

 

Going to try again to make the 6 dollar ebay t4 LED bulbs work tonight.

For some reason one side (with the old OEM bulbs) still doesn't work and it's really driving me nuts. I think if I drink enough beer I'll figure it out...

 

Got my knobs! Ordered on Feb 12, and they came on the 27th.

Covered the chrome rings in vinyl to go along with my blue dash trim mod.

 

I just did this myself, now I'm wondering how I can change my dash to black? Where are people getting the black background for your climate control? I read the thread for the 12-15's but is there anything 05-11 can do?

 

Installed. Perfect fit.

 

Who knew something so simple would make a world of difference.

 

Pull it apart and paint it. Easy mod.

 

The plate comes off pretty easy and I had no issues painting it (see post #243). Also have the black Metra double DIN head unit adapter which is more of a matte finish but the satin finish primer/paint combo I used from Rustoleum is a pretty close match.

 

rotate bulb 180 degrees

 

^^^
I'll try that tonight. Just still super annoyed the LED replacements didn't fit. Tried to "wiggle" them in and the wires on the set I got broke so they are garbage now. Oh well...

 

T4s are the right size. When I installed mine one worked and the other didn't. Went to my local mech frustrated and he tested them saying both were in working order. Then we switched the one that wasn't working and worked. Sucks one got bungled and hope you got the 6 pack. What didn't fit?

 

I'm still waiting for mine.

 

I see all the dial choices below and curious. Which are the best or recommended since there are at least 3 options. thanks

 

Well, specifically the diameter of the PCB the SMD LEDs are attached to is wider than the actual hole that the standard OE incandescent bulbs fit in by about a millimeter.



See the white part the LEDs are on? At least in my HVAC control module for my 2006 TRDOR Tacoma, that won't fit into the hole. If you take the LED off, the plastic base fits fine. But the fiberglass circuit board is just too wide to get into the hole straight. The other issue is that none of the ones I've got have the actual PCB centered over the base but for the cost I guess that's not really a surprise. The perfs from where they snapped the boards off the main array when they were pick-and-placing the components are also rough and probably part of the reason the pieces don't fit.

I was able to get the piece into the hole if I slightly pried up the board from the base but the wires are such a thin gauge that just angling the board into the hold was too much force and broke the wire off.

Something I haven't tried is taking a dremel to the sides and gently sanding the parts but honestly I'm kind of over messing with them. I'm going to just go back to the OE old school amber colored bulbs and try to get them on in the correct polarity so they light up.

One final step would be to try to route out the hole the bulbs go in so it's wider but I'm really not a fan of messing up that larger PCB and also getting debris inside the cavity where the light piping acrylic is. Or if I was really REALLY willing to mess with shit, I could just take off the LED from the base and permanently solder it to the board that the little wires are pressed against when you tighten the base down. But that would entail very carefully inserting the LEDs into the hole and super gently holding them there while soldering in the little space since taking apart the whole HVAC module is a major pain in the ass, and, and...

Fuck that.
Not going to mess with this shit any more for the moment.

There are a lot more "pressing" mods I still need to do and while it would have been cool to have the rings light up crisp white on the knobs, my set up doesn't really seem to accept using aftermarket lighting options so I'll cut my losses and just be happy with the metal knobs as an easy upgrade. I can deal with having the amber color the OE bulbs give off, I just need to rotate them so they actually turn on!