1997-2003 Grand Prix Fog Light Switch LED Conversion

[tblake]

Hey guys, Is your fog light switch bulbs burnt out? As you can see, this orange indicator bulb burnt out. So i decided to convert both the bulbs to LED's.



As you can see I was able to get enough room behind the dash bezel for fog light switch removal simply by unscrewing the two screws on the drivers side kick panel, and then just snapping the kick panel off, and then unsnapping just a portion of the main dash bezel.

The switch comes out by carefully with a small flat blade screwdriver prying apart two plastic clips, and then unplug it.



Once you have the switch removed, then you have to disassemble it. This is done with a really small flat blade screwdriver, just dont want one too small so you dont mess up the plastic. You will see four clips around the edges of the switch, just carefully try and pry each one apart. It may take a few minutes, but take your time. Once its apart, be carefull because these is a small metal piece that closes the switch contacts. It just sits in there and will fall out once opened.



Here are the LED's and Resistors I used. Both came from radio shack. The resistors are 1K ohm 1/2 watt and came in a 5 pack. The LED's I have no specs on. The guy working the counter knew nothing about them either. All I know is that they came in an assorted pack. The total for all these LED's and resistors was under ten bucks.



Here is a picture of the inside of the switch. I just used a multimeter to figure out what terminal was B+ and what one was ground. Of Course you don't have to worry about it since I have already done if for you. You will also notice that the bulbs currently in there are just regular incondescant bulbs with little color covers slid over the tops of them.



Here is just a close up of the hardware. Remember LED's are polarized, meaning they can only go in one direction to work. The longer lead is always the positive one. I used red and yellow LED's from the radio shack kit because there weren't any orange ones. (It wasn't untill I finished that I used a resistor and a 9v battery to power up one of the clear LED's from the kit and realized that they don't produce white light like I thought they would, but actually make an orange light). Use what you want. I went with yellow still, and it looks very very close to the stock color. If not exactly like it.



Here is my finished produce before I put the top of the switch back on. Make sure you solder the LED's and resistors in. I know some guys here are going to say... "Resistor's always have to go on the Positive lead of an LED" Its true, but I put it on the negative lead of the red LED mainly because there just isn't enough room to squeeze it in there on the positive lead. It works just fine.



Then put it all back together. Here is a picture of the switch back in the car and working. I realize you cannot see the red LED lit up because its not dark outside, but I assure you it works.



Good Luck to anyone who decides to give this a try. Its not that hard and only took me about a half hour to complete.

[sharpie22]

I want to do the same thing to the climate control lights in my heater control. How did you determine what end of the light is the B+ and which is the ground?

[00GTP4ME]

Did this mod this weekend! Thanks for the write-up Tim!!!

[00GTP4ME]

Originally Posted by sharpie22

I want to do the same thing to the climate control lights in my heater control. How did you determine what end of the light is the B+ and which is the ground?

Did this mod as well. We just guessed and got 3 out of 4 correct. The one we had to de-solder and just reverse and then it worked.

[tblake]

Sweet!!! Blue looks good. I had mine blue to start with too but coming home late at night I got confused whether I had the highs or lows on. HAHA

[00GTP4ME]

Yeah, I was really stuck on which color to do. Red was a very very close second.

[00GTP4ME]

I'm thinking about doing this mod with the heated seat switch.

[00GTP4ME]

Well the blue finally got to be too much so I put a red one in and I like it A LOT better. It matches and just looks cool.

I also put LED's on the HVAC console and the heated seat switch (the HI/LO are already LED's, but I put an LED in the middle cause mine burned out.).

[tblake]

Hey Matt,

I had blue too, but it was too much from day one to me.

My heated seat switch did the same thing. Also swapped that one out to LED.

My HVAC has a bulb burned out, how did the crossover to LED's go? How many are in there? And was it easy to disassemble?

[00GTP4ME]

I think there are five in there if I remember correctly. The dis-assembly wasn't terrible, but it did take a little patience.