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Gauge color mod!!

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#181 ·
Big_Texxan said:
your glove box is empty !!!! damn, mine is full of tools hahahahaahaha. I want to change out the bulb in my ash tray and cigarette lighter but those are for another day...maybe in a week after my amp bypass :D
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trust me, its not empty!!! just random shit under the owners manual lol :D iv taken my dash apart so many times i can do it with my eyes closed lol
 
#182 ·
DakOnFire said:
Troysdakota, I'll pay you to send me your hvac and headlight switch and send u my stock ones...... Deal?
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yea not gunna happen :D but i might start making the healight switch bulbs for people :)
 
#183 ·
wow, what a noob. Hey Dakonfire, ill do it since he wont take the initiave :D
 
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#185 ·
You do realize it's going to cost you $15 in shipping for something that takes approximately 9 seconds per bulb to do, right? I mean, you are doing literally 99.9% of the work to change the bulbs just to take the switches out of the dash.....
 
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#186 ·
Anyone have any hints on how to get these bulbs out of the headlight switch? I put the tall bulb back in, and naturally got it backwards, so now I have to take it out and the fucker won't come out no matter what. I've untwisted the thing, and it's loose, but it just won't fall out and it's really pissing me off. The god damn hole that it sits into has almost no spare room so I can't stick anything underneath it.
 
#187 ·
Unbend a paper clip and use a bf hammer and a bench vise anvil to pound the tip flat. Then use needle nose pliers to bend a tiny tab that you should be able to get under the base to lift the socket.

Or you can unclip the lid of the switch - BUT you have to be very careful. The contacts are spring loaded and if they fall out you have to take the whole switch apart to put them back in. You also have to be careful with the fog switch contacts because they're fragile.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II using the piece of shit free Autoguide App with ads blocked
 
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#188 ·
So there are springs on the other side? Could I have snagged into one? Maybe this is why I cannot remove the other bulb too.

BTW, I resolved the issue. I actually thought I was heading to a "Get pissed ==> Bitch online ==> Return to problem and solve it embarrassingly easily" situation, but that stupid bulb base would unlock but would not pop out for anything. I ended up busting it out of there, making a new one from the fragile old ones I had damaged, and then used Bondo to fill in the missing space.

Here's a tip to others: test the bulb out by pushing it backwards against the spot it connects to on the switch. It will let you test that the bulb works and you can even see which side you need to use for the +/- contact points.
 
#189 ·
No the springs arent anywhere near the bulbs. they are in the rotating part of the switch underneath six dogbone shaped copper nuggets which act as the moving contacts.
 
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#192 ·
FYI: I recently noticed that even though my gauges look great in the darkness of night certain areas look weak at those times when you turn on the lights during the middle of the day (like if it's gloomy and rainy at 2pm). It's not like there's difficulty in telling what the gauges are trying to display, but during those times there are certain sections that are clearly no where near as bright as the rest. In the darkness of night everything seems nice a bright though.
 
#193 ·
Well I had the same thing, i drove it yesturday and noticed some dark spots as well, but I took the dash apart and flipped around the bulbs and it fixed it. They were turned on LOL... Facepalm
 
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#194 ·
Big_Texxan said:
Well I had the same thing, i drove it yesturday and noticed some dark spots as well, but I took the dash apart and flipped around the bulbs and it fixed it. They were turned on LOL... Facepalm
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It's definitely best to give the gauges a test without that clear inner piece holding the overlay and needle motors being in place. The way the lights "mix" together it would be easy to miss one of them. As for my dark spot, it's only apparent when I have the lights on while the outside isn't dark (like if the lights are on because it's raining). It's fine at all other times.
 
#196 ·
If I had to guess I'd say it's due to the fact that you used the two red bulbs. The gauge face uses light pipes to ensure even lighting across the mask - just like the headlight switch, and you have two pipes that are receiving light that is mostly blocked by the mask. At night, the sheer brightness of the LEDs is thrown around the white casing, and it 'gets there' anyway, so it isn't discernible, but in the daylight you're seeing only the 'hot spots' where the light is getting directly piped.

I'd say try swapping the red LEDs for white, but I don't know what that'll do to your colors. It might wash out that intense blue a bit.
 
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#197 ·
Eh. I'm fine with it. I rarely have the lights on in that situation anyway.

You'd be proud of me though. There was a phone I almost bought the other week and one of my friends had one. I asked him how he liked it and whether or not it was buggy. He said it was a good phone and didn't give him issues. Then a few minutes later he was bitching up a storm at it and blamed me for breaking it! I don't even need to touch things anymore! Just my mere presence can cause electronics to f' up!
 
#198 ·
I noticed today driving in daylight when the lights are on, the needles on the oil pressue and fuel guage are brighter than everything else. Hmm but everything works lol.
 
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#200 ·
bbuba, color the sticky side, then put another piece on top of that, thats what i did and it matched perfectly
 
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Dango14
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