Here's what you Need....
Philips screw driver
Small standard screw driver (if you don't have finger nails)
Wire cutters/Stripper (scissors) and teeth work but takes some practice)
Needle Nose Pliers
Soldering Iron
Solder
Some thin copper wire in 2 colors
(15) 3mm Gallium Nitrate (GaN) Light Emitting Diode (LEDs)
Heat shrink tubing (or electrical tape)
Krazy Glue
Scotch Tape
GooGone (or any other gentle glue removing agent)
Optional: 12V Power source (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
Here's what you do
First Remove the Climate control/radio unit from the car...
To do this you need to remove the drivers side lower dash. or part of it at least.. It's held on my the 3 screws circled in red and 3 clips where the yellow X's are.
It's easier if you remove the entire panel but I only removed the screw on the right side and pulled out the clip above it. The panel was flexible enough to get to the screws I needed.
Open the glove box and now you can get to all 6 screws that hold the center lower dash cover on.
(circled in red)
If you're having trouble accessing the screws on the glove box side you can drop the glove box down by pushing in on both sides at the top untill the stopper can squeeze by.
Once all the screws are removed pull the center panel out and disconnect the power outlet (pull black plug out of back of panel.)
Once you have the panel out you can now access the 4 screws that hold the radio/cc unit in place. (red X's)
After you remove them you should be able to pull or push (from behind) the unit out. It is held in by several clips so it takes some force.
Disconnect all the harness's in the back (you may have to reach up from underneath to disconnect the radio harness) and take the unit inside the house with you.
Next you remove the knob section from unit.
After you remove the 5 screws (circled in red) and disconnect the harness to the 3 lower buttons you can push the section out the back.
Now you have this, remove the 2 stock light bulbs (circled in red) by inserting something flat into the slot and turning it until it pops out.
Then remove the 3 screws that holds the gray section to the white section and lift up the clips (This is where you need fingernails or a small flat screwdriver.) and pull them apart.. It will then look like this...(without as much wires)
Disconnect the two harnesses (circled in red) so you can put the gray section on the side for the time being..
Remove the screw that holds this circuit board (for the stock lights) down and remove it.. Next cut off the connector and wires at the side of the light circuit board so you have just this
Now just pull out all 3 knobs and then separate the black face plate (A) from the white section (C). Yours won't have all that LED's/Glue/&Tape in it. Instead part (B) will be clipped in there.. Remove part B and then look at part A from behind like in the picture. You'll notice that the white part is gray/black/blue with 3 little round silver clips on pegs. This is a plastic filter to even out the stock lights that is glued to the face. Rip the clips off with your needle nose pliers and then pry up a corner with your nail or anything.. Just try not to damage the face. Once you have the clips off and a corner up you can slowly pull the filter off. Once it's off completely there'll be a lot of gooey glue stuff.. Remove the residue with your GooGone and clean it up nice and good.
This is where I determined how far apart I should place my LED chain.
I twisted the legs together and soldered them. The polarity of the legs is VERY important. I labeled it on the picture but if you're having a hard time reading it it goes...
[+LED-][+LED-][+LED-][-LED+][-LED+][-LED+]
Then I soldered on the resistors needed to cut down the car's +12V to something the LEDs can use. Because of the number and type of LEDs I used I needed a 100ohm resistor for each circuit of 3(one on each side of the 2chains of 6 and one for the chain of 3). The resistors are circled in yellow and the polarity of the half segment is shown.
Next I soldered on the wires and put heat shrink tubing over connections that might touch another.
The gray wires with a black stripe are the positive wires. The Blue wires are negative. If you notice the ground wire for the 6 LED segments are attached between the 3rd & 4th LED where the two Negative Leads meet.
As you can see I put the LED segments onto the unit. I curved them to fit and made the LEDs face the center NOT UP. they are very very slightly angled up but not to where their beam will touch the face cover. If you face them up it will be too bright and you will be able to see the beam patters of the LEDs. (looks horrible don't try it!) after I placed them there I taped some of the wires and LEDs down with scotch tape.. If you notice the 3 LED segment is on the opposite side. This is because the colored part of the climate control lets more light through so for it to look even the lights can't be right under it.
Next I attached the gray wires to the +12V of a computer power supply and blue to the ground of that power supply. I Tested to see if all the LEDs came on. Then put the face back on and tested to see if the Light came out as desired. If it comes out extra bright in one spot that means and led is facing at that section of the face and you need to adjust the bulbs position. Try not to move the bulbs too much or the legs will break off making it useless.
Success! It looks white in the picture but in reality it is the bluest color you can get!
Now to secure everything. I opened the face back up...
And put a few drops of crazy glue down to almost every part that touched the back, and let it dry for a white. Once everything is dried in place I put the face back on and tested it one last time.
Now all you do is even out the different wire lengths and solder them together. (i bound them together with heat shrink tubing) Then Solder the positive wires to the red wire of the connector you cut off and the negative wires to the black wire on that connector..
Then just plug the two connectors into the circuit board on the gray section and put everything back together the just like how you took it apart. And you're done.. once it's all back in turn your headlights on and enjoy :)
The lights will go on and off with your headlights and can be dimmed with your factory dimmer knob :)