Dash bulbs

cliveyp

LCR Abuser
Jan 11, 2006
219
0
Worcester
Has anyone tried changing the dash bulb colours in their Leon? I was thinking of either blue with red needles (a la VW) or white with red needles (Audi did this for a bit i believe). I've found a place that is likely to do the parts, just wondering if anyone has attempted it already?

Also looking at reversing at least the climate display to give me a black face with red digits.:D
 
Nov 27, 2006
1,204
1
www.cardomain.com
The illumination behind the clocks is all via LEDs (and tiny ones at that) soldered onto a printed circuit board.


It's probably do-able, but it's a job not be underestimated
 

RobM

Back from the dead...
Sep 27, 2006
4,982
3
Southampton
I did this with my Celica. De-Soldered all the LED's and Re-Soldered new ones in and changed the LCD colour :)

You'll find you have two problems...

Firstly, the illumination isn't just done by the bulbs, it's the dials as well. So if you want to change the colour you'll need to change the dials too.
Secondly, you need to be very careful when soldering as the LED's will be tiny, the amount of solder needed is small and the damage that can be done by heating other parts of the circuit board is big.

HOWEVER! Don't let that put you off. If you take your time it's not a bad job (at least, it wasn't on the Celica and I can't see the Leon being any different).

You'll need to work out what bulbs do what first, as some of them will need to stay a certain colour to highlight warning lights correctly. The best thing to do is take the dash and instrument cluster apart, and then plug the PCB back into the wiring and turn the lights on. This will show you where the LED's are and you can then match them to the dials to see what goes where. Work out what needs to be changed, make a note of it and off you go.

The other thing to bear in mind is resetting the needles on the dials. This is a damn tricky job as it's not just as easy as popping them on and off, as the moment you take a needle off, the pin it attaches to moves out of position. Get it wrong and your speedo, tachometer, fuel gauge and temperature gauge will be worthless.

I'm sure somebody else has done it to a Golf or A3 though, so a search through other forums might chuck up some useful information :)
 

EddyH

Full Member
Aug 9, 2002
263
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Pontefract
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I changed my Octavia to VW blue by using Golf clocks in the octavia casing and matching the immobiliser using vagcom.

I wouldn't fancy swapping the LED's as they're all the surface mount type so very tricky to do without the right equipment.

As the Leon is based on the same platform as the Golf and Octavia I expect it can be done in a similar way.
 

RobM

Back from the dead...
Sep 27, 2006
4,982
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Southampton
You could always scour eBay and scrap yards for a spare instrument cluster and have a play? Use it to get a feel for what's involved and you may decide it's worth doing.
 

willbatch

Full Member
Jul 19, 2006
394
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Build a golf leon hybrid, should be straight forward, although once you start you then have to change every switch in the car!
 

RobM

Back from the dead...
Sep 27, 2006
4,982
3
Southampton
Not really, as the Golf dash lights are all red just like the Leon. It's just the dials that are blue with red stalks. So you could go down the Golf route by just changing the dials and illumination alone if that's what you wanted :)
 

geesus69

Guest
sorry to dredge this up from the depths of hell :rolleyes:

but can someone confirm that the leon 'bulbs' are SMD's, does that include every bif of other red illumination in the car, or are different bulbs used for different places??

i had SMD's in my 106 dash and i succesfully de-soldered the old ones off the circuit board and re-soldered my new ones on (although if i messed up we are only talking £40 ish for a whole new dial setup! so doing it on a leon might be a bit more nail biting :blink: )

cheers for any info on this guys, as if they are SMD's i may be getting my hands on a second hand dash and getting the soldering iron out :D
 
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Phoenix27

RIP Project Blueshift
Jan 17, 2010
838
0
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
sorry to dredge this up from the depths of hell :rolleyes:

but can someone confirm that the leon 'bulbs' are SMD's, does that include every bif of other red illumination in the car, or are different bulbs used for different places??

i had SMD's in my 106 dash and i succesfully de-soldered the old ones off the circuit board and re-soldered my new ones on (although if i messed up we are only talking £40 ish for a whole new dial setup! so doing it on a leon might be a bit more nail biting :blink: )

cheers for any info on this guys, as if they are SMD's i may be getting my hands on a second hand dash and getting the soldering iron out :D

Ah a fellow 106 owner!

I'm seriously considering doing this too, where did you find your dash if you got it?

They are indeed SMD's as i've been reliably informed, if you've done this/are planning to do this let me know how you get on. It's in the pipeline for me! :)