Climate control knob upgrade

Thought this thread was good enough to ask this in... What climate control lights did you guys buy? I bought some and they're shit, they turn on or off after a while and I have to bang on them or take it off to re align them... 2007 tacoma

 

So, I know this thread is ages old and this topic has been beaten to death, but I figured I'd put some info out there as to how I approached the issue of color matching the climate dials in the case of those of us who have the orange/amber interior lighting.
This idea of mine was taken from previous contributors who mentioned Mod Podge and food coloring, and this an adaptation of that idea which goes more in depth and makes it easier to get a consistent color.

So, firstly, I got a small cup, and poured in about a 1/4 cup of the Mod Podge. When going to buy the Podge, you'll find a few options, including Gloss, Matte, and Satin. Personally, I went with Matte, but I don't think it particularly matters.




Then, I took red and yellow food coloring, and put in about 4 drops of yellow and 5 drops of red, before thoroughly mixing. When that's done, your solution should look like this, give or take:




Now, here's where I got the idea that made this worthy of sharing in my opinion. When initially trying to just rub the Podge around the inside of the dials, I found the spread impossible to keep consistent.
So, instead, I took a plastic kiwi container (this can be any kind of container really, from raspberries to strawberries, so long as it's a clear thin plastic, and is big enough to give you spaces to cut smooth circles about an inch in diameter).




In order to do this, I made a template first, and that was via taking some Podge, and on the underside of the dials, rubbing it around the inside of the outer edge, made of black metal. Additionally, you'll need to rub some around the outside of the clear inner cylinder (the thing that attaches the dials to your climate controls), because you'll need to make a cut for that too.

The Podge should be applied conservatively, and such that when you place it underside-down on a piece of paper, it'll get onto the paper, leaving you a nice little ring to trace a pen over when you lift the dial up again.




Now, take the clear plastic from your fruit container, and place it over your template, before using an X-Acto blade to cut out your circles, and the inner circle as well.
Then, you'll want to take those circles, and place them within the underside of the dials, slipping the inner cylinder through the cut-out inner circle. You'll almost definitely though have to cut and trim slightly to get it to fit nice and flush.

Finally, take a Q-tip / cotton swab, and submerge the end in your colored Podge sollution, before rubbing the Podge onto the inserted plastic circle, and repeat this process for a total of about 5 swab-dips worth of Podge. No need to be conservative here, and just rub it around so that you have an even spread, and if needed swirl around with your swab just barely touching the surface of the Podge, to smooth it out.

Then, leave it to dry until the solution looks solid, and is a deep reddish color. I left the dials unwatched for about 7 hours, so I have no idea if it takes that long, but, it should take atleast a few hours.




And then, boom, just put the dials in the module. For me, the color match was perfect, with the middle dial only slightly more saturated due to the backlighting being more intense on that one, but nothing you can do about that.

 

switching from an old design vertical slit that can be operated by shoving a finger in the hole to twist it while your hand is holding something

to one that requires your whole hand to grip with with both sides using two fingers (thumb and pointer finger) so you can't operate it while holding something

Climate Control Knob Downgrade

 

Looks good man! I forgot about this thread. I went with the tail light tape method from a previous post. Also added some vinyl triangles to help indicate knob position better in daylight hours.

 

Thank you! Also, I was thinking about doing something very similar for the daylight hour visibility. I was thinking perhaps just a simple dot, or something along those lines, or maybe even adding a black strip over the metallic ring about the width of the night indicator line.

 

Got non-AJT knobs years ago.
Threw stock knobs in trash with metal collars/sleeves inside the knobs.

Now have AJT knobs as of yesterday. How are y’all tightening up the fitment without metal sleeves?

can you buy them?

 

You need those little sleeves/inserts. I had the same issue. I went to a local junk yard and found 1 in a Tacoma and 3 in a Sienna. The junk yard didn’t even charge me for those little inserts when I showed them. I left the ac knobs in the junk vehicles.

 

Haven’t seen this on the 45 pages of this thread, nor the video on the AJT site. One of the little cheap hooked gasket tools makes pulling the retention springs on the factory knobs much easier than a small screwdriver. Physics! Didn’t shave my 4wd knob but may at some point. NBD.