Hi.

Well...I've got the blue LED bug in the interior lights. I'm down to one...the air bag off light....and the main dash lights, but i know how to do that. I've not looked into changing it yet, meaning no bolts undone yet....so is it possible? How do I do it, i mean i know how to do the led mod, but how to get to the bulb is the question. I'm thinking of matching it blue....or go with something different...like red.

Any help would greatly help.

Thanks!!

Shane

 

The wiring manual shows an LED there from the factory. Whatever you do, it needs to mimic the same resistance as the factory indicator. The Restraints Control Module monitors the voltage drop across the LED and will display flash code 27 if it is out of spec.

 

I read on rps someone did it.


If it doesnt work just swap it back.

make sure you unplug the battery for atleast 60 seconds before you work on the SRS stuff

You can do the theft led for sure tho.

 

Thanks guys.

 

there is no LED in the deactivation switch, i've already had to replace mine because the lamp burned out

 

Maybe not but the factory Ford Wiring Manual says there is.

 

I'm being devils advocate....Bob, maybe there was a difference between the 01-03 years?? I'll be pulling mine apart this weekend to check it out. Both mine and my brothers look the exact same, both 01's too.

 

I took that from the 2001 factory Ranger Wiring Manual. It shows the electrical symbol for an LED in the PAD switch. An LED is also shown there in the 97, 00, 02, 03 and 04 Ranger wiring manuals.

LED symbol:


Incandescent bulb symbol:



It doesn't seem likely but I suppose it's possible that this could be an error in all of those years of Ranger Wiring Manuals. On the other hand, the 2002 F150 manual shows an incandescent bulb in its PAD diagram.

I've never had a reason to disassemble a PAD switch so I don't know any more than what the books are telling me. After you take yours apart, you can let us all know which it has.

 

i had my old PAD switch apart, and it appeared to be an incandesent bulb, and it acted like one.......... i thought LED's were suppost to last 10 years, and mine burned out in less than 3 years

 

I have an LED Brake Light in My topper. I have had the topper for a little over a year and have been though three lights, because of one or two LED's that stopped working. I also look around and see the same thing in a bunch of toppers that are around today. When one goes out you have to replace the whole lamp. It has a lifetime warranty on the light so if it continues I will just keep going in till the problem's fixed. But LED's do burn out, Quite freqently in my experiance.

~HJ

 

Bob....I will let ya'll know in this thread this week end when i disassemble it.

LEDs DO in fact burn out. Ever go down the freeway and those big trucks have led lights in their trailers and tractors....just about every other one i see during the day has at least 1 burnt out led. 1 out of 44-60 LEDs burnt out...doesn't looks too good.

 

I was working on a mod near the PAD switch today so I took it apart to see what the story is on the light. Although it looked similar to a 5mm LED at first, it turned out to be circuit board mounted filament bulb.

The good news is that the bulb is clear and the color comes from a yellow "condom" slipped over it. This should open up some options for color change. I guess one option would be to remove the yellow cover and add a piece of colored plastic behind the lens. Maybe you could color the bulb itself but I don't know how that would affect its life. Unfortunately, if it fails, it is soldered in and not easily replaceable, even you could find an equivalent. Ford sells a complete switch assembly only.

So the Ford Wiring Manuals turned out to be wrong about it being an LED. Off to change all the diagrams....

 

bob....yo uare absolutely correct. I pulled it apart today. It is a regular old bulb that looked like a skinny 5mm led. I peeled off the yellow condom. I threw around some ideas:

1. color the bulb
2. color the clear plastic circle
3. pick up an extra one from a junk yard and convert to led to see what it'll do.

I painted the bulb with blue glass stain paint(rattle-can). I sprayed 3 coats. It turns out to be different, but ugly. It's got a green look to it compaired to my LED'd lights. Then I tried to take some more of that stained glass paint(this time the brush on), and brushed on a piece of transparency film to peel off later. I then put the peeled off stuff on top of the clear plastic round piece to see the color. Blue looked blue, but not a bold/bright blue. The red you couldn't see with the painted bulb.

So for now I'll leave it that greenish"blue" color and deal with until I get a junk yard unit and try the red LED. I'm gonna go with red this time. With some playing around, I'll figure it out.

I've got pics of ya'll wanna see them.

 

lets see it

 

Loading them up to the comp right now.

 

I bought and installed a red LED bulb from radio shack. I had to solder it in, but looks great and works fine. Red wasnt my choice of color, but it was that or white.

 

Okay...here's some pics.

Here's what it looks like once the top is uncapped off the main "body"


I pulled off the yellow condom and masked all the electronics and sprayed the bulb with blue stained glass rattle can. It ended up being more of a green than being blue. Next, i'll go ahead and hit the local new car junk yard and pick up 2 more of these switches....one to led....one to leave the bulb un-condom'd and paint the clear thing in front of the bulb. Here's the after:

 

Do you have any pics of the after??? How did you get the LED in there?? Did you un-soldier the stock bulb and then put in the LED w/ resister??

Red is the color i'd like to do....pics please...pics please.

Thanks

Shane

 

I did have to un-solder the old bulb. It is very easy to do. I cant remember the exact bulb specs but Im sure thats easy to find. It is much easier than you think to do. If you dont have a soldering gun, you can get one cheap. Let it heat up then just touch one connection at a time on back of plate for the bulb. It will slide out easy. Then heat the solder and slide on side of new bulb in at a time.