need some help from the electrical gurus...

[iwillnc]

Umm Smith let me tell you from personal experience from vehicles that use this very very cheap and shortlasting crap, such as my 80's GM S-blazer

At this point it is impossible to find a lot of parts, sure companies come out that are willing to supply a lot of stuff, but not all of it remains avaliable, for example, I can't get a new rear window actuator so the button on my dash is pointless, I also can't get a replacement passenger seatbelt setup, which internals fell apart (top belt doesn't stop when pulled hard, only bottom belt does anything, think head to dash)
Factory does NOT do everything correct, try and find a door panel for a 03-07 H2? Well go straight to the 07 search because you won't find anything under 03-06. And have fun with that $800 price.

And to make this all relate to this thread even more the, 4x4 controls, those light burn out very often and given probably 5 years you'll be hard pressed to find a new one, so doing the method mentioned above is your only option.

Modern vehicles are so disposable that there is going to be hell to pay on those of us that want to keep the vehicle for decades.
Improvision is your only friend.

[iwillnc]

Also a new owner would easily be able to replace the part, all the OP is doing is altering the light on the actual item, he isn't altering the wiring.

[LoJac963]

wow just saw these posts....

FYR we definitely should meet up sometime. I am far west valley in Surprise, where abouts are you?

As far as the customization I've already started it and will copy my posts from another forum here but to address the comment above. I do plan on keeping this truck for an eternity and like the others have said good luck in finding replacement parts.

The main reason I wanted to start this project is because I have multiple bulbs burned out. If I'm ripping thing apart why not customize it a little bit and get rid of the yellow lighting everywhere?

Anyways here is my post about the process so far. Granted I've done a lot to vehicles over the years but this is a first for me...

Ok gents here we go. LED's came in today....well now yesterday ugh. I've been working on this for probably about 7 hours so far.

Some issues here and there, definitely not as easy as I thought and may be in a little over my head with all this.

So here's some pics of whats done so far. The colors are much darker in person, dark blue and dark red.

Driver Door controls:



Passenger seat heater controls:



Steering wheel buttons:



Headlight, rear washer controls:



Now here is the circuit board from the radio. I didn't mind ripping it all apart because I needed to replace 2 buttons with white showing through that were there when I bought the truck:



As you can see there are a total of 17 bulbs including the 2 inside the dials on the left (which I have no clue how I will access those.) The LED's I'm using to replace the bulbs are rated for 12-14 volts so they should just be a direct replacement. However I now have 9 of the bulbs swapped to LED. On everything else I did one bulb at a time, for the radio I figured I'd do a row at a time since there are so many. Everything was going great until I hit the 9th bulb. Soldered in the LED and now that LED and 2 from the top row will not light. These circuit boards have contacts on both sides so the back and the contacts under each LED have to be resoldered which I've been doing. I just don't get it.

Now I don't know whether to scrap the idea and rush a bulk order of the old school bulbs and just change everything back or keep trying to figure this out.

Oh and now my two steering wheel controls on the top are doing crazy things to the radio-I don't know if its because the radio is torn apart or what so now that has me worried. I mean to potentially have to replace a full set of wheel controls and a radio we're talking a few hundred bucks....

God I wish the wife would talk me out of these projects from time to time lol......any thoughts at all? I can't recall seeing anyone venture this far into this type of project on any of the boards.

Also the pic of the radio board was before I started swapping the LED's in.

Just to make a point. I don't believe anyone on the 4 boards I follow has gone this far into an LED swap that I know of so yes there will be complications and issues are why these boards are around for fellow enthusiasts to help others. I appreciate the concerns Smith but we all customize our vehicles, some more than others.

[guruerror]

Dude...you got way further along that I thought you would. While I'm not a fan of the blue, your end products thus far look really good.

I wish I could offer assistance, guidance, or any kind of meaningful input to help you with the radio bit...but I can't. LOL...so I'll just say, "Good luck." And you're absolutely correct...this kinda sh!t is one of the main reasons why these forums exist.

[iwillnc]

That's extremely cool, but this begs the question, have you cut open a side marker lamp and replaced those bulbs and resealed the lamp?

[LoJac963]

I have not but I do know the side markers are just 2 SMD LED's so really it should be extremely easy to replace those if one was to go out.

[fyr145]

Originally Posted by LoJac963

wow just saw these posts....

FYR we definitely should meet up sometime. I am far west valley in Surprise, where abouts are you?

I'm in the far north valley by the Loop 101 & I-17 area.

Great job on the LED change out!!! This would be a project that I'd definitely be interested in looking into.

fyr145

[LoJac963]

thanks. I actually went back to crisp white on everything. The blue was just too overdone with all the buttons these things have. Odd part of it is the 4x4 and trailer/TC2 buttons have a blue lens in the button packs so even with the white LED's they have a tint of blue to them. Good thing is they match the escalade gauge face I put in perfectly-also threw white LED's on the cluster board since I had it apart.

I should copy my build thread from the other forum I'm a member of over here..

[fyr145]

Yes definately!!

I'd enjoy looking at how you did this project. I would need a list of the LED's needed and where you got them at.

Again, awesome job there.


(pick a time and date someday when you would like to meet at say a restaurant between the both of us and lets compare rigs. This could give us some more ideas on future projects as well.

better yet, maybe we should consider a Arizona H2 meeting somplace so we all can meet up and see all the other H2's in town !........you thoughts?)

[LoJac963]

oh ordering them is no big deal. Everything other than the door controls all use 12 volt LED's as stock everything has mini bulbs. For the doors all you need is 3.-4 volt LED's. Also I recommend diffused lenses for everything to scatter the light more.

We should meet up sometime. I work weekends so that limits me quite a bit since most people work opposite of me. I think an AZ H2 meet would be a good time. I only regularly see a couple other H2's out here in Surprise. A lot of H3's but no H2's.