Of all the cars I come across on the street or in the parking lot, most have a security system in it. A common sign of the existence of such system is a visible light-emitting diode (LED) flashing somewhere on the dash. It is not only an indicator of system operation, but also a deterrent - telling would-be thieves to stay away.
My Saab has one right in the center of the dash, like so:
Sadly, I found the LED to be reaching the end of its useful life. It is still flashing, but the luminosity has dropped to a point where it's only noticeable in very dark setting. For a security feature, this is simply unacceptable to me.
In this post, I will walk through the simple process for a changing that LED.
Saab made this easy, as the LED is mounted on a removable part of the dash.
Be careful when pulling this piece out. Due to years of exposure to the sun and heat, those little plastic tabs are fragile.
Before going into the actual replacement process, I will talk about the LED itself. The one from the factory is a typical red LED, with an industry-standard size of 5mm diameter. It is possible to change the color, since LEDs come in many other colors.
The replacement LED I picked is similar, but much much brighter. The lens is clear but the light it emits is still red. Most LEDs have integral optics to produce that focused beam of light. Such effect is not useful in my case, though, as I want a reasonably bright red light emitted in all directions. The trick is to "frost" the lens by rubbing it with fine sandpaper in a circular motion. Also, I "flatten" the top with a file. You will see the difference towards the end of this post.
The LED has two electrical connections, just like the original. One thing to take note is polarity. If the two wires are in the wrong order, the LED will not light up at all.
In my case, I just stripped the wires on both ends and twisted them together. I did this for both wires. Once the twisting is done, I put heat-shrink tubing to protect the bare twisted conductors. I could have used soldering to form a permanent bond, but AC power was not available in the proximity of my vehicle.
The blue plastic thing is an inline splice connector but with its internal cutter removed. The shell clamps down tightly on the wires, and acts as a friction-lock to keep the connections in place. It is optional... but better safe than sorry.
That is all there is to the replacement. There is no fastener to deal with.
Now the moment of truth:
Please excuse the quality. The camera's auto-focus sensor doesn't like shiny LEDs.
For illustration purposes, a stack of paper has been placed against the windshield.
What a difference!
The brightness is obvious, but notice the effect from "frosting" and "flattening" of the LED.
This is exactly what I am looking for.
