If your leds are burning out, chances are you're just pushing too much current through them....try adding a resistor (from any local electronics store, 1/4 watt should be good) in series with the led - a value of about 1kohm is about right - that gives you approx. 12mA of current from the 12VDC supply....without it, you're just limited by the on resistance of the led - not much, so it won't last too long without a low impedance load on the rest of the circuit....

if you get a white or blue led instead of a red, you'll need to lower the resistor value - check out the specs for the led to see how much current it pulls....

just an electrical eng w/ an 8.... :-)

 

electrical engineer eh? you are going to be very helpful around here

 

Good point, I'll look into this.

 

Has anyone tried this mod with a 1K Ohm resister in series with the LED?

Not that I'm doubting an EE, but I always feel better trying something that has been bench tested.

BTW, hats off to Omicron for such a simple but elegant solution to something that has erked me since the first night I drove my 8.

 

Well, thanks. :D

 

Hey! What happened to all the photo's?

 

old thread they 'disapeared' but I'll fix them look now they should be back

 

Yah - I fixed this soon as someone let me know they'd disappeared.

 

This was one hell of a bitch. But thanks again to Omnicron.

One thing that's missing is the tabs in the rear. Took me forever to find them because I didn't want to break the console and I wanted to see the tab.

The tab is right there where the light is. The trick is to use a 45 degree angle and push in pretty deep about 1 1/2 " into the console.

Then the rear of the console just drops out.

Also, I'm a guy who likes to make sure things work before I put them togeather.

I could only get the sunroof to close but not open.

After an hour and rework I found out the metal tabs connected to the plastic are connected inside the housing where they use it for a ground.

Make sure you push the console in hard for the tabs to contact then check for sunroof operation before assembly into the headliner.

Who would think metal connected to plastic would make a ground?

It's those hidden things...........

 

I just did this modification. It was a little less light then i was expecting but it still does the trick, i was thinking maybe of putting 2 leds in the switch instead of just one. There are 3 holes to put an led.

Thanks for the instructions. it really wasn't hard at all to do this.

 

Glad you like it... and I like the 2 LED mod to the mod idea.

 

This really was an elegant solution to a nagging problem for me - props to Omicron. I attempted to use 2 red LEDs for added brightness but could NOT quite get them to fit in that middle cut out aperture in the switch housing. The light is rather subtle but still helpful. The mod I added was to place 2 additional red LEDs (wired the same way) in the console apertures above the map light bulbs which are perfectly sized for this. Sorry, no pics, but you can see the apertures in the post #8 pic in line with the yellow crayon marks on both sides. They shine additional subtle light through the bulbs and onto the map light reflectors which also helps finding the sunroof and map switches in the dark. Totally masked in daylight. FYI I used Alpena Hyper LEDs from Advanced Auto and I am pretty sure they have a resistor included in the wire - no shorts for 3 days anyway.