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SolaraGuy.com • View topic - Complete lighting guide for Gen1/1.5 (Interior and Exterior)
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Complete lighting guide for Gen1/1.5 (Interior and Exterior)

Complete lighting guide for Gen1/1.5 (Interior and Exterior)

Postby Jon11582 » Thu Jul 22, 2004 1:55 pm

Complete Lighting guide for Gen1 and Gen1.5.

Intro

This started as a guide on how I got the look I have, but due to my long work hours at my new job and lack of actual work to do in my first few days of training, I decided utilize my time and make it a complete lighting guide. This is for Steve (Solaradude) who, all the way from Seattle, kept me on the phone for many hours every day for about a week to figure out how to get my look, Mihn (DvsOne) who wanted some info on some of the bulbs, and Thai (Fenix) who came up for a meet and requested some pointers after takin a ride in my car around Jersey.

Also props to the infamous "new dash" thread that got me started on all this.

I have pics of my setup a few months ago in my WWW, but a few things have changed since then (Most notably, shiftgate and ignition, and also an updated headunit). I will update the pics when I get a chance.

Alot of this is from memory, so if anythings incorrect, please let me know.

Read First

All bulbs and LEDs are purchaseable from www.autolumination.com, I prefer Sylvania bulbs from my local Autozone/Pepboys/Advanced Auto Parts for 900x bulbs. My reverse glow gauges are from procarparts.com. CF gauge bezel, which was from procarparts through ebay (Its cheaper that way), but can be gotten directly as well.

A few things to keep in mind

1) LEDs will also give a narrower beam than Bulbs, but generally give off a richer color. Even LEDs with special lens for light dispersement will always give off a narrower beam than bulbs. As for the richness in color, for example, white LEDs will be much whiter than even hyperwhite/superwhite bulbs. Blue Bulbs are worthless as they come out a very weird sea green color, but Blue LEDs are a very nice rich blue in color. Ive also found that red for both bulbs and LEDs is similar, but the LED red is slightly deeper.

2) Remember, LEDs unlike bulbs are polarized. Bulbs can be plugged in either way and work, as they are unpolarized. LEDs only work in sockets one way. If an LED doesnt turn on, flip it around and it should work.

3) When replacing 900x bulbs (Headlights, foglights) DO NOT touch the bulb. Use a towel or try to hold it by the base. Residual oils from your hand that are left in the bulb can cause those parts of the bulb to heat up over specifications and blow out prematurely.

Disconnect your battery if installing the reverse glows. For anything bulb swapping, you should also disconnect your battery as a precaution, but I dont find it necessary all the time. Just make sure that bulb isnt "on" while your plugging and unplugging. Just remove the negative battery terminal from the post with a 10mm ratchet to disconnect the battery. Also bulbs will be physically hot if they were recently lit. Use a towel to grab them or wait til they cool down if you want to remove a bulb that was recently lit. Additionally, because of LEDs more effecient design and lower power usage, they dont get warm.

Interior Lights

Before I start, let me go through whats not replacable:

- The clock - You can only change this by modifying the red plastic piece on the center console, either by removing it and making it a teal color, or sticking red cellophane to the back of the plastic piece to make it red. Not sure if other colors work.

- Buttons on the manual climate control (A/C and defrost on all Gen1 and 1.5. Also the Recirculate button on all but the '99) - Only way to mod them is sharpie. These are not standard bulbs and cannot be replaced.

- Cig lighter light - Also not standard. There is a green rubber piece you can remove to make it the normal clear bulb color. For any other color, sharpies the only way.

- Vanity lights - These arent standard either to my knowledge. They look like fuses.

Things I need to find out about:

- Door lights - When I have some time I gotta take off my door panel again and see if they are standard bulbs.

- Glove box - Havent messed around in there yet.

Gauge cluster - Totally, you need Reverse indiglos from Procarparts.com (Third one if you look up guages for 2000 Camry. Also needs a solder iron for installation), CF gauge bezel, Red #194 Bulbs x4, 8x Blue #74 LEDs, 1x White #74 LED, and a few Red #74 LEDs if theres any other indicator lights you want to make a deeper red. You can use any colors you want or any parts you want, but this is what I used.

Reverse glows - For the reverse glows, you need to first loosen the black surround for the guages. This is held on two screws on the top, and then only by 4 clips, although very tough ones. Loosen the screws first. Then go for the clips. You need to apply alot of pressure the first time to get them out, but it pulls right out towards where the driver would sit. Inside are 4 screws that need to be loosened. After that, the guage cluster will be removable. Just take out the 3 wire plugs in the back.

To install the gauges, you need to first lay them on the existing gauges. Take off the clear plastic and the black plastic. Take out the screws in the center of each of the four gauges. The speedometer and the tachometer are easy to overlay since they only have one needle. The fuel/temp is a bit tougher. My best advice is to be very careful with the brittle needles, and after getting one on, bend the other half into a hump to get it over the edge of the other needle. DONT try and bend the needles, but bend the glow gauge instead since thier flexible.

After overlaying them, you need to locate the rightmost large bulb (Nearest the tach's redline) and remove the bulb and its twist-in socket from the back. Route the connectors through this hole, and connect them to the plugs that connect to the inverter and fuse.

This will give you two more connectors, a red wire and a black wire with a ring terminal. The ring terminal should be screwed on under the bolt that you see in the middle of where the guage cluster fits in. (this grounds it). The red needs to be soldered on locate the green wire with silver striping on the brown plug coming from the car. Thats the wire it needs to be spliced into. Carefully cut the plastic sheath around the wire to expose the metal wire, and loop an exposed strand from the red wire that came with the reverse glows around it. With both metal wires in contact with eachother, solder it. Then tape it up with electrical tape to prevent inadvertent loosening. Take the color changer dial thing that came with the guages, and the power box, and put it somewhere inside the dash (I used velcro to affix them so they wouldnt move around. Replace everything, and your done.

CF Gauge Bezel - Sticks right to the black bezel piece surrounding the guages. Do your best to align the holes for the guages and turn signals, but pretty straight forward otherwise.

Gauge Bulbs - The 4x red #194s are for the backlight of the guage cluster, which also lights up the odometer and the needles. You want bulbs, not LEDs for this, since they disperse light better. There are acutally 5, but one was removed to route the wires for the reverse glow gauges.

You can use any colors you want for the shiftgate indicator, but I used five of the blue #74 LEDs for P,N,D,2,L and the white #74 LED is for Reverse. You need to get a small plastic piece with the default green and orange colors out before you change the shift indicator color, which you can do when you install the reverse glow gauges.

Two of the blue #74 leds are for the turn indicators, . You need to pop out the little black circles from where the turn signals. This is for two reasons. First is, theyre acutally tinted green, which is what makes your turn signals green. Secondly, now that you have whiteface gauges, whiteface signals complement it better. So how do you get whiteface signals? Use a material thats white and see-through, so that the blinker light can shine through. Where you gunna find that? Regular paper. (Trust me it doesnt look ghetto). Rip a piece of paper out, wrap it around the columns, and secure it with rubberbands around the column where the turn signals are. It also complements the whiteface gauge look very well.

The last Blue LED is for the cruise control light, which is the only green light on the indicator bar, and just looks weird with the red/blue theme. Just remove the twist-in cap from the back and replace the bulb with the Blue LED. All the indicator lights are #74s, so anyones you want to be redder, just replace with a Red #74 LED. Anyone that starts off red or orange cannot be changed to anything but red since the red and orange is actually a tint on the blackface of the gauges that come on the Solara. (i.e. if you put a white bulb in there, itll still shine through the blackface guage and turn out red/orange. Red bulbs or LEDs will deepen the color though)

Iginition - 1x #74 bulb, any color, LED or bulb. (The ring does the light dispersement, so LEDs work fine here. I used a white LED)

Pop off the plastic dash-colored surround with a flathead screwdriver, and then unscrew the one screw in there. This will allow the two parts of the ring, the black piece and the clear piece to come out. Replace the bulb in there with the new bulb/LED and replace.

Center console - 3x #74s, 1 for the cig tray, 2 for the climate control. (Passenger Seatbelt indicator is also #74 if you want to make that a deeper red)

Cig Tray - For auto, Pop off the little cover that covers a button near the shifter. Press that button and shift it into L (make sure the E-brake is on before you do that.) Take out the Cig tray. Take off the center Bezel. It snaps on by about 8 clips all around and doesnt require any tools but force. Loosen the bulbs for the cig tray and the cig lighter. Unplug the lighter. Unplug the hazard light switch and the clock and it should be removable. Now either on the Cig tray should be a small green lens. You need to pop that out to get it any color besides green. I just used a screwdriver and broke it out. (I dont think you can remove it w/o breaking it, so this is a one way deal, although I doubt a white cig tray light will annoy you in the long run, or decrease resale value) Then just remove the bulb in the cig tray light socket and replace with the new bulb.

Manual Climate Control - 2x #74s. Before I start, I want to clarify that NO WIRES need to be removed from the acutal climate control to get to the bulbs. These bulbs illuminate the dials and the labels for the dials. The bulbs are located between each of the three dials, so using LEDs will not light the far left (where off and low are on the fan control) or the far right (where defrost is) well. Using bulbs will light it all up better. Use LEDs if you choose to use different colors, since the bulbs light eats into the other bulb's light since they disperse so well. (ie, a red bulb on one side and a white bulb on the other will give you a pinkish color all around). I choose to use a Blue LED for the cold side, and a red LED for the hot side.

With the center console off with the instructions under Cig Tray, turn all knobs to thier leftmost positions and remove the 3 dials holding in the climate control by just pulling them out. You will see two screws under two of the knobs. Remove them. Then remove the 4 bolts holding in the climate control on the side (10mm ratchet). Then pulling it out a little bit, reach around the top of the climate control and feel around for two clips holding the black front piece to the white inner piece. You need only to lift the black pieces holding the clips in to remove it from the white piece. The two bulbs will then be visible.

Auto Shiftgate - 1x #194 bulb or LED. Ok heres the toughest one. Bulb is recommended, since the bulb is under the "D" and a LED will only illuminate N,D, and L well. If you do get LED, get the "Matrix" LED with 5 LEDs and 270 degrees of light, which will light up the far ends of the shiftgate much better than a regular LED. Since I wanted blue, and blue bulbs are worthless, I chose to go with a blue Matrix LED.

First the center console needs to be removed for easier access. Then unplug the lower 12v cig lighter and remove the piece around the shiftgate, which is held in only by clips. Unscrew the one screw thats revealed. Heres the hard part. With the shifter at P, PULL up the back end near the L either with your hand or with a screwdriver. You need to yank it really really hard, as if your trying to pull it out of the car. Its one clip on each side. After that, youll be able to reach the bulb, which is located under the D with a really short wire. Replace the bulb, and replace parts. I kept it out of the clips for future access, as the one screw holds it down pretty well already.

Trunk - 1x #194. Again, use a Matrix LED if your going to use a LED, since a regular LED only lights up whats right below it. I used a white Matrix LED.

I recommend doing this one in daylight with the battery disconnected. As the whenever the trunks open, the bulb will be lit. Open the trunk. Youll be able to see the bulb. You need to take the plastic "cage" out of the metal chassis, and then open the cage when its dangling by the wire and just replace the bulb.

Third brake light - 1x #921. Models W/o factory spoilers only. This ones easy. Pull out the housing up and away from the back window and the small plastic clips will release. Youll see the bulb in the housing. No reason to change this unless it burns out.

I think thats all of them. I also replaced my dome and reading lights with superwhite. These are festoon bulbs. I dont remember what size they are though, so just measure thier length and match the size when ordering. (ill update if anyone knows what size they are.) LEDs really suck for dome lights because of their direct beams.

Exterior Lights

Liscence plate light. - 2x #194. I recommend bulbs only, as it gives the best lighting to the plate due to the angle. I used two superwhite bulbs. At the top of the back liscence plate area are two areas where the lights come from. Just unclip them and youll see the bulb.

Taillights - 4x #3157, 2x #921. Reverse is #921 (If you want to use #194 you can too...#194 has the same base as #921, but is a smaller bulb) Turning is 2x #3157 and brake is 2x #3157. For each side, First take off the two black plastic caps on the plastic panel in the trunk. I think this will release the entire black panel, which you can either bend out of the way or take out completely. Itll reveal four nuts. Use a 10mm ratchet to get these out. Take em out and then gently wiggle out the taillight from the outside. The bulbs are in simple twist in sockets,which you can untwist and replace.

Front corners - 2x #1157. Pop the hood and look for a single screw holding in the corner lights. Unscrew it and wiggle out the corner light from the outside. Bulb is in a simple twist in socket.

Headlights - 2x 9003/H4 (Gen1), or 2x 9005 and 2x 9006 (Gen1.5). Ive only done this with a Gen1, so ill only give instrucions for that. Do the passenger side light first if replacing both, since its easier. First pop the hood. You will see a round rubber piece near the lightbulb. You need to remove this and then twist out the lightbulb holder. Its plug and play from here. Driver side is harder because of the placement of the battery, but it is not necessary to remove the battery to remove the driver side lightbulb.

Foglights - 2x 9006. Get under the car (no jack necessary if your not lowered, probably need one you need one if you are.) and remove the splashguard. I think its held on by 5x 10mm bolts. You only need to remove three or 4 to actually bend it out of the way enough for access. You will see the bulb sticking out of the foglight housing. Just twist and remove the bulb socket, and replace the bulb.
Last edited by Jon11582 on Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby TRD_solaRa » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:29 pm

This is definitely one extensive DIY research job . . . thanks Jon! Good job. I found out that all the bulb part numbers are listed on sylvania.com website too. Lataz.
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Postby bassthrive » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:39 pm

Well done. Comprehensive and well-informed.
Thats a textbook tutorial right there!

Thought I would note:

Instead of sharpie, which will fade with time, get your hands on some nail polish. It comes in basically every color imaginable, looks great and holds up to heat.

For the cluster removal, though this is pretty self-explanatory, you may want to add that the two philips head screws at the top of the black surround need to be removed before you can pull the panel out.

Nice use of paper for turn signal covers! I used two layers of some old window tint over red signal bulbs.

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- Paul

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Postby WortownSolara » Thu Jul 22, 2004 3:21 pm

excellent job jon, but i need it woul dbe when i saw that you were posting this. THANKS!!!!!!!

NEW PROJECT! well after the headlight projector project is finished, since i have an extra from the accident.!
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Postby Jon11582 » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:00 pm

bassthrive wrote:Well done. Comprehensive and well-informed.
Thats a textbook tutorial right there!

Thought I would note:

Instead of sharpie, which will fade with time, get your hands on some nail polish. It comes in basically every color imaginable, looks great and holds up to heat.

For the cluster removal, though this is pretty self-explanatory, you may want to add that the two philips head screws at the top of the black surround need to be removed before you can pull the panel out.

Nice use of paper for turn signal covers! I used two layers of some old window tint over red signal bulbs.

- Paul


Yep, I forgot about the screws. Thanks, and updated.
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Postby SolaraT » Sat Jul 24, 2004 7:07 pm

Great Job Jon!

I like the white paper idea for the turn sigs and the auto shifter indicator explination. I had no idea how to replace them dark green circles for the turn signals and I'm getting turquoise color with the blue bulb underneath. haha. Seems real simple. remove the green and orange film and replace the bulbs.

Got some good info from this and going to try it out.
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Postby AzN_DrAgoN48 » Sat Jul 24, 2004 10:12 pm

sticky it, thats a lot of good information
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Re: Complete lighting guide for Gen1/1.5 (Interior and Exter

Postby pythonjosh » Sat Jul 31, 2004 6:55 pm

Jon11582 wrote:Interior Lights
Before I start, let me go through whats not replacable:
- Buttons on the manual climate control (A/C and defrost on all Gen1 and 1.5. Also the Recirculate button on all but the '99) - Only way to mod them is sharpie. These are not standard bulbs and cannot be replaced.


I just wanted to add that I was able to change the light behind the "A/C" in the a/c button with a 5mm LED. It was very difficult, but possible. The other lights in these buttons are some of the smallest lights you'll ever see in a car. Impossible to replace with an LED.

Jon11582 wrote:- Cig lighter light - Also not standard. There is a green rubber piece you can remove to make it the normal clear bulb color. For any other color, sharpies the only way.

This one can also be replaced with an LED. But you will have to wire it in yourself, which isn't that hard really. Mine's red.

Jon11582 wrote:Things I need to find out about:
- Door lights - When I have some time I gotta take off my door panel again and see if they are standard bulbs.

Door lights? Where?

Jon11582 wrote:Iginition - 1x #74 bulb, any color, LED or bulb. (The ring does the light dispersement, so LEDs work fine here. I used a white LED)

In fact, LED's work better than a bulb!

Jon11582 wrote:Center console - 3x #74s, 1 for the cig tray, 2 for the climate control. (Passenger Seatbelt indicator is also #74 if you want to make that a deeper red)

I just wanted to add that an LED works good in the ashtray too.
Great reference Jon!
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Postby Jon11582 » Sat Jul 31, 2004 7:02 pm

Thanks for the words. The door lights is the one under the window switches thats on only when the ignition light is on I think.

I still havent gotten a chance to check that.
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Postby pythonjosh » Sat Jul 31, 2004 9:32 pm

You mean the light under the "auto" driver side window switch? That's very faintly lit in my car, be cool if it was bright red, but I don't think there's a way for me to put an LED under it. Thinking about putting a couple LED's around the switches so it's lit up around the switches. That's do-able. I just bought a hundred LED's and am trying to as creative as I can with them. I'm gonna post a pic of my newest LED mod tomorrow maybe. Later
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Postby Jon11582 » Sat Jul 31, 2004 10:33 pm

I wish I had your electrical skills, I got some ideas that I just cant do due to inexperience.

When I have some free time, Ill look over your pics and DIYs, since I know you posted some good stuff on eletrical
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Postby pythonjosh » Sun Aug 01, 2004 3:10 pm

If you want, PM me your ideas, and I'll walk you thru it.
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Postby HKSV6SLE » Fri Aug 06, 2004 12:06 am

pretty thorough. :drinking:
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Re: Complete lighting guide for Gen1/1.5 (Interior and Exter

Postby Jhonas » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:38 pm

Hey, I just installed the reverse glow gauges as you instructions explained. They work, except now I need to hit the switch that came with them every time I turn on the rest of my lights. If I don't do this, I get no lit gauges.

Anyone have a clue as to what I did wrong?
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Postby SolaraT » Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:25 am

What brand?
Might be something wrong with the relay.
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