DIY: Interior Control LED Swap

[Stella Blue]

Yea I knew not to do that one. I've only done one cluster before this one, but that was on a Volvo. Needles came off very easily on that. I've resolved to wait for another day. Maybe the OP can shed some light on this for me.

 

[Rajini98]

the needles suck for sure to get off. not only must you not move them but you cant really bend them either. the credit card is simply to keep the needle upright while you pull cuz you gotta pull straight up. if you can find a better way to pull straight up, by all means do it. if you have the balls, use a vice grip and yank.

 

[PenAcow]

any pics of your green leds ?

 

[drval85]

Necro bump. I've begun this project myself. A few years ago I had my cluster upgraded to a mk6 color, and the needles swapped blue. Love it, but it clashes with the red interior. So I've decided to swap the LEDs. This thread is a huge help, so I figured I'd bump it, and add the issues I've encountered to help anyone else who wants to attempt it.

 

[drval85]

Driver side window switch

2 plcc-2s. No issues.



Passenger side window switch

The LED is a PLCC-2, but it's reverse mount. The light shines though a hole in the circuit board and upwards. I ordered them here.

https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/sunled/reverse-mount-rgb-plcc-smd-led


They worked perfectly.

 

[drval85]

Mirror adjustment switch

These LEDs are tiny, mounted sideways, and a pain in the ass. (At the 12 and 6 o'clock positions in the photo below).

Be careful when disassembling, the spring in the picture above is free.

This is the upper half of the switch.

At the 10 and 6 o'clock positions, you can see these.

There are 2 springs under each piece, positioned vertically.

This photo only has 1 spring in place and is difficult to see, but there's a channel for another spring immediately to the right. Then the gold piece sits on top of both springs.

Be careful when disassembling, because they can go flying. They're not under a lot of tension though.

There seem to be 2 versions of the switch, both with the same part #. One has a grey bottom, they other has a black bottom. The grey bottom is labeled as made in Italy, the black in Germany. They have different size LEDs, and the gold piece/spring mechanism is affixed in the grey bottom switches.

It took several attempts, but I finally managed to swap a 1206 LED into the switch with the black bottom. It's wider than the LED that was there, but the same length.

 

[drval85]

Driver/Passenger side door lock

Switches are the same. The small LED in center provides the color. The larger one (plcc-2) is the amber light when locked. I used a 1206 LED for the smaller one.

There's 2 small bronze colored posts that actuate the lock buttons. They are loose and will fall out when you disassemble the switch. The buttons will not spring back into place without them. In the photo above, one is in place in the switch, and one is removed.

 

[drval85]

Cigarette lighter/ESP button

The lighter has a red surround, and a red window into the ash tray. It's not possible to effectively change the color without replacing these.

Thanks to Carlosfandango on the mk6 forum, I tracked down this part #:5Q0919341, which is for a clear surround on the 12v socket. It has a white LED already installed. The red window could be replaced with a piece of clear plastic cut to size.

These directions are for swapping the white LED on the new part.

Pry open the front of the black connector. There's 2 tabs on each side. Make sure you don't pry from the hinged side.

Opened.

Pry out the circuit board. One PLCC-2 to swap.

The ESP button is pretty straightforward. From behind, once the ash tray is released, push in the metal clips (red arrow). The switch itself releases upwards (yellow arrow).

Remove the white base, and the LED is there. I used an 0805 LED.

 

[drval85]

Gas and hatch switches

Also 2 reverse mount LEDs.

Be careful prying the switch apart. There's 4 tabs. They're needed to hold the mehanism together tightly. If one of them breaks, there will be too much play in the mechanism and the switch won't actuate.

Here's the problem area. If you break off the thin plastic bridge, the tab won't be able to securely lock closed.

 

[drval85]

Steering wheel buttons

4 LEDs per side. I used 0805 LEDs. No issues, except for the very small size.

 

[drval85]

RCD 510

While this may seem complicated, once you know what you're doing, taking it apart takes 5 minutes.

Remove the one screw at the top. Size 8 torx. There's clips around the outside of the top panel. Pry them open. That's all that holds on the top.


Overview photo:

There's 2 parts to the front, a metal frame and the screen itself.

The 2 yellow screws hold the metal frame. The 2 red screws hold the CD player. Remove them from both sides.

At this point the CD player and metal frame should be free.

I didn't disconnect the CD player. There's not a lot of slack, so I set the top panel off to the side and put the CD player on it. The CD player should simply lift straight up. Make sure it doesn't get snagged on the back.

Now you can undo the red harnesses at the end of the beige wires. I would take them off the board, so you can clearly see what you're doing. Close up of the red harness in the photo below. They simply pry off, no clips. There's an alignment post on one side when you go to reinstall.

The large data ribbon also needs to be disconnected.

The brown lever clips it in place.

Flip it upwards to release the data ribbon.

Now you should be able to separate the metal frame/screen farther from the body of the radio.

Note how the SD reader fits in an opening at the bottom of the radio.

There should be enough slack to lay the screen face down.

Undo all the screws around the face of the screen.

The surface screws hold the metal frame to the screen, and the deeper screws hold the circuit boards. You can undo them all now. Size 7 torx.

Pull off the metal frame, and you'll have access to the 2 circuit boards, one on each side.

You can also detach the SD card reader. There's a clip on each side. Pull them away from the center to release the SD card circuit board.

2 PLCC-2s. I left it attached to the radio itself while I swapped the LEDs.

Make sure all the screws are removed. Gently pry up the circuit boards around the volume/tuning knobs. The knobs should pop off the front, and the boards should come out.

19 plcc-2 LEDs.

Now that the boards are loose, you can also remove the red clips on the other side of the beige wires if you choose.

Reassemble.

Screw the circuit boards back to the screen, the screen to the metal frame, and then join the metal frame to the body of the radio. Be careful with the data ribbons, the large one gets folded to enter the slot on reassembly. The red harnesses can also get in the way. Make sure the SD reader is aligned with the lower opening. Then place the CD player on top.

In order to test the LEDs, I installed it partially reassembled.

I put 2 screws in to hold the CD player, screwed the metal plate to the front, and left the screen off. The circuit boards and SD reader were left loose and hanging out the front of the metal face plate. I plugged it in and turned on the car lights, which should illuminate all LEDs.

 

[drval85]

Dimmer switch

Here's the switch with the casing removed.

There's 2 LEDs, one on the right side clearly visible, and one on the left.

I guess with precision gear you can solder them in place. I separated the switch so I had more room.

By heating the 2 outer prongs, you can pull it apart. Be careful, theres 2 metal discs that will fall out. I believe they go on the end of the wheel, but since I didn't see, I'm not 100% sure.

 

[drval85]

Climate control

Make sure you pull off the knobs before trying to separate! I used vice grips with a paper towel to not damage them.

The clear plastic setup provides light for the knobs. There's an LED at the end of each ring. The outer knobs have an LED for the pointer in the knob, and one for the ring around the knob.

So you can have the pointer and knob as a different color. The center knob, however, only has 1 LED that illuminates everything, so that one can't be different.

Remove the plastic rings, and the button pad. They're not attached.

These 2 clips hold the board in place.

There is an LED under each seat heater wheel.

The plastic channel above it is removable.

The wheel itself has 2 clips though the board to hold it down. You can release those clips and carefully tilt it to the side to access the LEDs.

The square LEDs I simply used PLCC-2s on their side. Careful with the polarity. You can see one corner of the square is recessed.

The center lights for the buttons are plcc-2. However, the amber LEDs that light up to show the feature is active are not.

Red= backlights
Yellow= amber lights

I believe a 1206 LED would work for the amber lights.

 

[drval85]

Overhead lighting

Pull off this cover.

Everything simply unclips and pops out

Be careful with the passenger side button. You do not want to remove the button cover, there's 2 springs and a small metal leg that can get misaligned. Make sure you're popping out the whole piece. There's 2 clips that hold it in place. You need to unclip them from the back.

The hole on the right is one clip, and the other is underneath the circuit board. I circled the general vicinity. It's a very tight space under there.


It looks like you need 6 3mm LEDs total. I'm not sure how to change the ambiance lighting LEDs, the ones that stay dimly lit at night. I'll probably leave those alone.

 

[drval85]

Headlight switch

8 PLCC-2s. I think the bottom left LED provides backlighting for the fog lights, top and middle light up for front/rear fog.

Auto switch will have 1 or 2 more PLCC-2s.