Here's a nice little guide to do on a rainy afternoon.
In this guide we show you how to change the illumination colour in the cig lighter surround.
Tools Needed:
Soldering iron and stand,
Solder,
Helping hand or crocodile clips.
Small flat bladed screwdrivers
470ohm resistors (Maplin.co.uk code: M470R)
Blue 3mm 5Volt LED's (Maplin.co.uk code: N31BY)
Blue 5mm 5Volt LED's (Maplin.co.uk code: JA25C)
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Let there be light!
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Bit of Blue
Goooo Onnnn!
Applies to:
Cigarette/Cigar lighter surround
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First off
If the cig lighter is out of the car already, well done!
It's hard to get out but you don't actually need it completely out. You only require the bulb holder.
To gain access to the bulb holder the facia panel needs to be removed,
meaning that the radio has to come out; this is manufacture dependant so please refer to the owners' manual.
Remove the heater control dial and knobs by pulling them.
Now remove the two screws from the bottom (one under the cig lighter other in the ask tray cut out)
Make sure you remove the screw that is securing the radio runner to the front panel,
this is inside the ashtray cut out on the top edge.
Get a flat screwdriver and remove the trim panel making sure that you twist out
the bulb for the illumination of the heater control.
With the panel removed you now have access to the cig lighter.
Disconnect the grey/yellow wire connected to the bulb holder.
Gently pull the holder free and take to your workstation.
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Notice the notch in the top? Insert a small flat bladed screwdriver here and
pop out the positive contact and bulb, by pushing with a pair of pliers.
The negative contact will need some persuading to come out, but it will eventually.
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Cut the negative leg of the LED so that the end of the LED is at the same
position as what the bulb would have been and solder it to the negative
contact in between the two raised bits.
With the positive contact, it will need to be cut down to eliminate the risk
of a short circuit; this involves removing the side parts and a section of the base of the contact.
As a 5volt LED is being used, a resistor has to be used to resist the flow of
electricity from 12volts to around 5volts, if no resistor is used with a 5volt LED,
there could be a sort circuit or even a fire.
Solder the resistor to the positive contact pin (the big one) then solder the other
leg of the resistor to the positive leg of the LED ensuring that the contact pins
are still inline with each other.
Insulate the positive leg if possible to reduce the risk of short circuit.
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Slightly sand the LED with fine sandpaper to diffuse the light emitted from the
lens (so the light comes out of the side).
On the bulb holder you will notice that there is a block in the middle that
stops the flow of light, I cut this out and also blocked the other side of the
hole with sticky back aluminium foil. This makes the light reflect back down into the plastic surround.
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Push the new LED and holder back onto the plastic cig lighter surround and reconnect
the wire and plug, turn on your side lights and well the out come is frankly rubbish,
no light is shown or if you are lucky maybe a little bit.
Take the bulb holder off and return to your workstation to add another two LED's.
I used two 3mm 5volt LEDs like I have used in the other guides,
Solder the resistor to the positive leg of the LED then the other leg of the resistor
needs to be soldered to a length of wire about 2 inches long.
Solder a piece of wire the same length to the negative leg of the LED.
Insulate all joins that are exposed.
Repeat for both LED's or how ever many you require.
Now take your bulb holder and solder the positive wires from the additional LED's
to the big contact pin as close to the base as possible.
Now take the negative wires and solder to the end of the copper tag that sticks
out of the bulb holder (the negative pin).
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Replace the bulb holder onto the cig lighter surround and wedge the new LED's
between the facia and the surround at regular intervals. No need for glue here as
they will be wedged in tight. You can glue them in if you want though. Entirely up to you.
Plug in and test and the result should be like this, which is much better than the
result attained from just one LED.
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See also the guide for changing the colour of the electric window switches, dash switches and
also the guide for adding illumination to the boot popper switch.
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Hope this guide is of some help.
Guide Written and © On 02 June 2005 by Andrew Whiteman (AW3K)
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