Replacing E12 Midconsole Lights

[noedel]

How to change the original midconsole bulbs into LEDs

In a corolla E12

I ordered my new leds here:

http://www.leds-buy.nl/standaard-leds.html?limit=all

It's a Dutch website, because I live in Belgium.

First we have to start with taking the midconsole out of the car, and opening it.

On the following link you can see how to do that (it's in Dutch, but the pics should be clear enough ;) )

http://corollaforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=36739

At the bottom of the first post on the previous link you can see how the printplate looks, where the bulbs are fitted in:

Turn out one random bulb, it will look like this:

When you watch this bulbholder from the bottom, you'll see that the bulb is kind of "fastened" around the holder, with the + and - wires.

When you untie thise small wires, you can take the bulb out of the plastic holder.

The bulb that you just took out will look like this:

Now we have to get a new LED bulb into the empty plastic holder, in the same way as we took out the original one.

But know that: every new led bulb needs it's own resistor!

without resistor the led bulb will shine too bright, it will irritate you all the time (day and night), believe me.

Without resistor the bulb will also get too much power, possible that it stops working very fast.

Normally when you order leds, you can choose what resistors u want with them.

For the interior, it's all 12V. So u need a 12V resistor for each new led.

Let's take a new led bulb, with their 12V resistor:

Don't mind the brown colour of the led bulb, I took a broken one (the effect of not using a resistor :) ).

First find out what is the + side of the led bulb.

I took a small Battery to test, because led bulbs always have to be connected on the (only) correct way.

Else the led won't light up.

Once U've found the + side, cut off the + wire/leg on about 3mm from the led bulb.

Now we have to solder the resistor onto this + wire of the led bulb. Try to do it in a way so u get +/- the same shape of the original green bulb we took out.

Because this LED has to fit into the empty bulb holder ;)

1 drip of solder was enough for me.

Test the soldered led bulb again with the Battery.

If everything's ok, the led should light up. Not as bright as first, but that's ofcourse because of the resistor :)

Now we have to get this led bulb into the empty bulb holder.

Fasten them the same way as the original bulb was (+ and - wire/leg tied around the plastic holder).

Now do the same for all the other bulbs, except the bulb in the white holder!

Because that's the light for the 4 warning indicators!

This was part one.

Because there are also still some leds in there which light up when you push the window heating, airco mode, etc.

When you look at the front side of the printplate, they look like this:

Let's cut them off!

Now we solder together a led bulb and resistor again:

When having done this, cut off the + wire on about 2mm under the resistor.

Cut off the - wire at the same length as the + wire.

This now has to be soldered onto the 2 pins where you have cut off the original led.

Again, solder the resistor only at the + wire (the + sign is visible on the printplate, so you can't miss it actually).

When all this is done, you can put everything back together, and test it in the car.

But now it's still possible that some led bulbs don't work.

That's completely normal, because, as I've said, every led should be connected in the (only) good way (+ and -).

The leds who didn't light up are supposed to be swapped qua + and - wire.

Take out the leds who didn't light up, and turn them 180°. Put them back into the printplate, done.

Now they all should work fine!

Enjoy!

Grtz!

[Necron]

Awesome tutorial mate! I will definitely make this mod and eliminate the nasty green LED's.

I'll try using these though:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2pcs-T3-T4-T5-Neo-Wedge-Dash-LED-Bulbs-Blue-White-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2eb62ff869QQitemZ200625092713QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

[noedel]

Hope it works mate, because they seem very bright on the pictures of the link :D

Success!

Grtz

[Necron]

Hmm yeah well, I think I will try finding a low brightness one. If else fails, I'll use your method. Just put a resistor in the + and fasten them again to the bulb holder. At least I'll keep the original ones intact in case I want to make it original again :)

[Necron]

So today I had the time to strip the center console to find a bit of a problem. As i stripped down the stuff, all of them had green plastic on them as you can see in the following album I've just uploaded. The dials also have some kind of green tint to the plastic on them ;/

Pics are here

I also don't know why I have this gap. I've bought the car with this kind of gap, is it a broken clip or?

[madvinegar]

You shouldn't have such a big gap. I see that you have 2 kinds of gaps. One between the radio cd and the frame around the radio cd, and one between the frame of the radio cd and the upper console...

It's like the radio cd in not put back in place properly. Try taking it out and putting it back again more carefully.

[vikvallabh82]

If I remeber correct the E12 is notorious for the gap inyour picture, its a case of live with it or wedge some other black thing in thereto "hide" it. But I could be wrong.

[Necron]

I haven't ripped the stereo out. the gap was there when I bought the car. Yes, I might try to rip the stereo out and refit the whole thing ;/

[Necron]

P.S. how did they do this? This might solve the cluster light in green?

It's also nice :)

[teki]

P.S. how did they do this? This might solve the cluster light in green?

It's also nice :)

Has anyone got an idea how they managed not to lose the symbols on that? Been thinking of doing this but I don't wanna lose the symbols.

[Necron]

Yes that's what I ment. Any ideas mates? Was that custom made?

[ChrisRuffell]

They could just be very handy with a craft knife ??

[LAA69]

Gap around the Vent/Radio surround is common on E12s, there are no screws at the top for a positive fixing, just weak clips, i have the same issue and T could not resolve it, poor build quality basically.

[Necron]

Oh damn, that's a bit of a pain ;/

I don't think that the pannel film was cut. seems sort of like a sticker or something?