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Old 12-29-2014, 07:49 PM   #2957 (permalink)
Zcup
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 39
Drives: 13 370Z Touring
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Default Ambient LED

Does yesterday count?? I guess with the Christmas season I am all about LIGHTS right now. In addition to the rear fog lamp debacle with the dealer in my earlier post, yesterday I decided to try the DIY replacement of the little ambient light LED shown at http://www.the370z.com/519440-post30.

I replaced the factory orange LED with a super bright blue one. The new LED is much brighter, so you can actually see the illumination of the shifter area even along lighted streets (the weak factory LED basically did nothing unless you were on a very dark road). The blue illumination of the orange factory control panel lighting adds a very cool effect in my opinion, and makes the factory panel lighting really "pop." I purchased the LED from SuperbrightLEDs.com. It requires 3mm LED (I tried a 5mm for more light but it would not fit.) I also replaced the resistor value to 470 ohm.

The DIY went pretty much like explained above on the DIY post by DIGItonium. Only difference is that his did not have a Bluetooth speaker, which made the process a bit more difficult for me as the speaker harness prevents you from pulling the black assembly down much from the headliner and leaving not much room to work, and I have to say getting the little LED circuit housing apart requires about three hands, but perserverance pays off.

See the Pic below. The illumination of the shifter and head area is from the blue ambient light LED. Please ignore the blue illumination in the footwells...well, you did not see that! (Oh, I can hear it coming!)
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File Type: jpg new lights.jpg (599.3 KB, 21 views)
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