355 BLUE LED INTERIOR CONVERSION & HVAC PANEL.

Currently as part of a total LED upgrade on the vehicle I'm turning my attention to the interior lighting
Specifically the HVAC Panel which is in fact the achiles heel of this conversion.

The Instrument cluster lights are easy.. T5 and off you go.. Same with the radio bezel guages..

The x12 toggle/missile switches (in a spyder) are somewhat more difficult.. but you can achieve good results with just some simple soldering and disassembly of the switch (1210 SMD) .. Same too with the x4 round shifter buttons that have a simple 3mm LED inside..

The HVAC Panel however is the rate limiting step..

It has a green coating layer, just under the black peel off top layer that acts as a filter to turn the light green..

Sure this can be removed, but then the stumbling block becomes the dial indicators themselves ( circled in yellow). These are made of green see through plastic and have a white coating on the top and are impossible to change.. It would necessitate removal of the pieces and replacement with see through blue equivalents..

Putiing blue LED's into the HVAC Panel will work, but they need to be VERY strong to override the green filter on the outside layer of the HVAC Panel.. And you are limited by the size of the hole in the PCB ( 6.2mm) to T4.2 Neo Wedge LED's.. T4.7 LED's are brighter but the diameter is too big and they won't physically fit through the hole.. unless you open up the hole a bit to force a larger 4.7mm LED in.. ($$) And even when you do manage to get bright enough LED's into the HVAC panel, you then still have to overcome the inherent tendency for the fascia to "want to look green" instead of blue..

You can see this in the trial of green vs blue LED in the fascia.. The green just looks more "right" But that may also be because green LED are simply brighter than blue LED even if made from the same components.. I dont know why this is the case,,

And then of course there's the STOP and Recirculate buttons that have the tiny incandescent bulbs in them.

Changing the colour of the green socks to blue works somewhat but it lacks the vibrant blue LED look of the rest of the interior.

So I have an idea..

We all know how the red LED in the centre dash vent of the 355 is simply pull out and removeable..
And if you wanted to you could change the color of the LED very easily by a simple swap out..

I am wondering if this same "modular" in/out swap mechanism could be adapted to the HVAC Panel..

Im a bit *********** ($$)to pull the PCB board out and to look at how the stop and recirculate bulbs are inserted into the PCB, especially since they have a black sleeve supporting them.. But It makes me wonder how they are attached to the PCB and more importantly how are they replaced when they are blown..

Do the small "grain of wheat" globes simply pull out and push in new ones or does it require de- soldering from the PCB.

And if that is the case can the insertion be made modular to allow a very easy green/ blue swap out of LEDs if you so desire to go back to OEM..

Furthermore if they are pullout bulbs.. then you don't even need LED's do you..? You can just swap them out with green or blue coated 3mm grain of wheat bulbs..

Any thoughts..?



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Here are the photos of the red immobilizer flashing led in the centre console if anyone is interested. It pulls out very easily and can be replaced..
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