calling LED guru's!!
 

I hate to even start a thread about this, I know there's one somewhere but I can't for the life of me seem to find it. I'm wanting to change out all the bulb's in my 02 sierra to LED's, I know the cluster bulbs are the 194's , and I know I'll need the twist locks for them. What I need to know is what to do with the other's, the HVAC and window switch and fog switch and ect ect. I know I'll need 5mm bulbs, and resistors, but what kind and ect? Also how do I know which is the positive on the switches and everything? I'm willing to pay someone IF I have to for the exact info, or course I'd need to know you know what youre talking about and proof (pics/videos) I want to do it myself, not ship it out to someone. Any help is greatly greatly appreciated!

Helpful info would be:

Bulb sizes and type

What type resistors, sizes, how many

What end to solider the resistor to

Which bulbs for best/brightest outout

How to avoid hotspots

Best solidering iron/wire to use

Any tips/tricks to get the best results

If you get this done let me know, i'll drive my heap up there so you can do mine lol.

guess Im going to do the trial and error method lol Im too impatient

I have done all mine in my 01 Suburban.
Here are a few links to some pretty detailed write ups I did on another forum.
AC Panel: Change the color of your 99-02 GMT-800 AC control backlights - Truck Mod Central
Door switches: LED power window switch mod 99-02 GM fullsize - Truck Mod Central
Cluster:How-to: Change the color of your 99-02 GMT-800 gauges - Truck Mod Central


And here is how to do the 03-06 clusters:2003-2006 GMT800 LED cluster conversion HOW-TO: - Truck Mod Central

I have even done LED conversions for dozens of people on other forums, and one person on this forum. I'll answer any questions you might have as well.

Bulbs should be here tomorrow for the gauges , the easiest of all the swap haha. The rest should be in by next weekend. I ordered a ton of leds and resistors so hopefully it'll turn out good. Will post pics as I go and details of how I go about it. I'll be following most of Tootall's directions in his 03-07 thread and some of the directions from ScottyBoy's threads. I already have the lights in the floor, doors,glove box,map lights, dome light, cargo lights, and tag light swapped to 6000k led's so I think the blue will go good.

One more tip:
On the AC control panel, do NOT hold the soldering iron against the circuit for more than a few seconds. If you get the board too hot, the copper tracers will separate from the board. I learned this the hard way.
Use an iron at least 35-40 watts and it should melt the solder very quickly, and you won't get the board as hot since you won't hold the iron on it so long.

It's not hard to do, I did all mine on my '02, the hardest part is getting the leds pointed the right direction for no hotspots and even coverage. And as Scotty said the tracers on the ac controls are very delicate, one of mine peeled off and I had to re-glue it and solder in a connector since it wasnt making contact after a few months.

the lower the MCD , the deeper or more "royal blue" like the color will be
heat is the #1 killer
get the lowesr watt iron
if you screw up on soldering a resister on... toss both of them and start over

the surface mounts work the best

Thanks for the info guys. I ordered a ton of Blue leds , both flat top and round top, some are 5000 mcd, some 6000 mcd and some 13000 mcd. Didnt know what the mcd meant which is why I ordered different ones. I'm too impatient to order a set this week then wait a week for them to come and decide they arent what I want and go through it again lol. All the resistors have came already still waiting on the leds though.

The dash lights and twist sockets came in yesterday and I installed them, but the sockets they sent would not line up with the plastic back cover and would not light up the bulbs, which kind of irritated me since thats money wasted. I ordered both the bulbs and sockets from superbrightled.com so I assumed they'd work. I did get the in though, managed to take the factory bulbs out of the factory sockets and put the leds in them.

Did anyone else run into this problem or is it just my bad luck?

Scotty will also do them also,he did my whole interior
Great guy