Complete Interior Centre Console and Accessories LED Light Mod (revised 24/05/2011)

[Kenshin X]

Disclaimer: Neither TOCAU or me take any responsibility if you damage/blow up your car/bbq the electrical components.

OK folks as the topic says, this is a revised version of the center console LED modification I posted long ago.

This topic has been discussed before but I want to make things more convenient for people, by posting a step by step guide with pictures to changing the colours on the console and other parts in the car. This guide was done on my ZZE123R sportive but I’m sure the facelifts and the other ZZE12x models are similar or the same.

In this guide I changed my colours to blue, people can choose whatever colour they wish.

Things you need:

Phillips head screw driver.

10x LED of the colour you choose (with the appropriate resistors soldered onto or in series with EACH LED bulb)

Soldering iron

Soldering wick (in case you make boo-boos)

Solder (no duh)

Polarising filters for LCD screens

A very sharp knife

Alcohol cleaner for glass

Rags

First: Removing the Center Console ZZE123R Sportivo

1) Remove the vents on the top of the console by pulling the sides out gently

2)Remove the ashtray by pulling it out and depressing the flap down then pull while flap is down

3)Pull the gear shaft cover out but just rest it down out of the way, u dont need to take it off completely.

4)For the main part of the console, grab the top bits on the sides first and gently pull it until it pops out of place, same on the bottom bits

[Kenshin X]

5)Back side view of the wires behind the console (with wires still attached)

Note that for the bottom light for the ashtray, u cannot change the colour unless u change the plastic on the ashtray itself... this light bulb is just the normal colour.

6)Pull out the ashtray light

7)Pull out the 3 harnesses that supply power and temperature etc to the LCD screen. There is a clip u depress and then u pull them out

8)Center console should be fully detached from the car

9)Now this is where the fun starts. Bring the console in and sit it on carpet or whatever soft material to protect the fascia.

10) There are 6 screws to remove the top part of the cover only. You dont need to remove them all. Open the cover

...and a close up view of the circuitry

remove the 2 screws to move the top circuit out of the way.

Note that there are three different globes on the board itself. Numbered 1,2,3... The top corner ones (hazard and passenger safety belt reminder) I won't change as the backing of the cover is already red.

Remove the light bulbs from the console. This is a simple twist and pull.

[Kenshin X]

Now from here you can go two ways... one is to replace the green coloured "condom" from the light bulb with the blue one and put it back inside the console

But I chose to solder the 12V LEDs instead. note you cannot use the 3V or 5V LEDs because it will blow being the car battery 12V. As stated above, you need to either get a resistor soldered on it or buy one with one already on it. unfortunately I don't know the resistor capacity i'm sure the jaycar or whoever guys will help you out

Back to the task at hand... With these LED bulbs

Note, being LEDs they have polarity so take care in soldering them on the correct way. It won't damage the circuit board if you get tit the wrong way, it won't just light up. For some reason, the way the circuit was built, all the polarities arent orientated the same for each part across the board. So for your convenience, I have marked the polarities on the board for you It’s up to you to find out the correct polarity on the LEDs. Just hook it up on your battery and see which one it is

Now the best way I found to solder these on is on a 250*C and thin solder. You first put a bit of solder on the leads first and then you melt it on the connection on the board. Make sure the bulbs are straight and not crooked when shining into the space. You can try to make the light more uniform by sanding the LED back abit with sanding paper or filer. Also you can solder the LEDs facing towards the back of the circuit board so it bounces off the back of the board then to the LCD screen (this is what I did)

You can put abit of insulation tape across to trap the light into the space. White would be the best colour to reflect the light off.

Finally when you are done, put everyone back the way it was before! This is the end result...

The bright dots were removed but on this pictures its still there as when i revised this guide i didn't take the updated pictures for it. you should know what i mean anyways :)

Now for those who are comfortable with finishing up here, that's fine. For those who want to venture more into more complicated stuff read on...

[Kenshin X]

Additional LED mods.

The cigarette lighter:

This mod isn't too hard but it requires you to break the stock bulb and then solder on the LED replacing where the stock bulb was.

Behind the gear shaft cover the connections to the cigarette lighter, pull these off. one of them should have the light attaced to it.

as you can see its the ugly Casio green colour again...

unclip the whole bulb holder with the bulb and bring it inside to do some hacking :)

the condom shouldn't be too hard to get off, its like all the other ones in the centre console. the bulb itself however, u can try to get a sharp nose plier and take it off but 95% of the time u will ed up breaking the damn thing. if u do just clean it up and there should be two metal connectors in the holder to put the legs of the led in.

i didn't have to solder them in cuz the led sits nice and tight. feel free to solder them on if u want a good connection :)

Take the holder out and plug the connector back in. if it doesn't work then most likely u have the led the wrong way. so instead of taking the led out and swapping it, just swap the connector the other way and then it should work (remember LED have polarities :))

Put everything back together again. results here

Reversing the polarising filter:

If you read through the Intrumental Cluster Mod, u'll know that its basically the same thing. With the sharp knife take off the stock filter. With alcohol and a rag clean off the residue and with a new filter stick it on the LCD screen. (please remember to orientate the filter the right way before you cut and stick it on!) Without going into the techicalities of why it reverses it, the light when passes through these filters, doesn't bend and then what was dark when the LCD screen was stock is not coloured and what was coloured is now dark (or darker in my case)

Result

AUTO button on the power windows keys:

ok with this mod there is already a LED in the auto button. but as u can see this button's colour is very dull looking so we gonna brighten this thing up.

First take the assembly out of the car:

1) Pry open the door handle on the inside (be gentle and pry it from the outside to inside)

2) pry open the assy and housing and unplug the connector behind it.

3) there are 3 screws to take out and you will be left with just the assy

4) there are 4 more screws (which i thought was useless to unscrew as the bottom part of the assy cannot be separated with the circuit board as its been soldered on

5) Now with your fingers, carefully take off the buttons on the assy. u need to GENTLY put pressure on the buttons and it feels like you’re going to snap them off but a bit of tender loving force will have them off

6) now remove the black plastic to separate from the circuit board

7) Remove the clear plastic clip located in the auto button light space. you have to remove this in order for the new led to fit in... (unless u can find an led that is small enough to still fit here)

8) you can see the tiny LED thats soldered onto the circuit... now since you cannot separate the bottom fro the circuit to get to the bottom of the circuit. u need to break off the led from its legs and solder the new one on top of it. you can also clearly see the "+" sign so you know which way to orientate the LED. They way i know which one is positive on the LED is that the connect inside, you see one of the ends longer than the other and this looks like a "-" sign so its negative

9) replace it with a 12V led or LED with resistor on it. the way i did this was that i melted abit of solder on the leg and then transferred abit of it onto the board. It may get a bit frustrating at first but patience is a virtue...

10) put it all together and this is the finished product! Make sure before you clip everything back, you test it out first. I just didn't want to take out the buttons agian becuz of the "snapping" sound, :(

Thats all and enjoy!

[RollaRollin]

Awesome write up!

Guide's take a bit of time to complete so I'm sure every Stivo owner will love you for this :)

Just wondring how you got rid of those 'bright spots' on the climate control panel when you installed the new LED's?

[Kenshin X]

Awesome write up!

Guide's take a bit of time to complete so I'm sure every Stivo owner will love you for this :)

Just wondring how you got rid of those 'bright spots' on the climate control panel when you installed the new LED's?

i think i stated above that i turned them up-side down... :P

[the-converter]

Good write up!

Can I ask you where do you get your stereo fascia kit?

[Kenshin X]

Good write up!

Can I ask you where do you get your stereo fascia kit?

it came with it when i bought the car. autobahn should have it. dont cost much :)

[ryan--c]

Sick write up.

[handsome]

Quick question. What wattage are the bulbs for the CC? Buying some T5s to replace but not sure if it's 1.2W

[Kenshin X]

Oh good question i do not remember... I think they were 1500 lumens

[Kenshin X]

Oh crap sorry,i think they are T5

[handsome]

Oh good question i do not remember... I think they were 1500 lumens

Oh crap sorry,i think they are T5

The wattage bro! not the size or lumens :P

[Kenshin X]

I think led dont have wattage... Its lumens for brightness