Car Dashboard LED Change ( Golf Mk4 )

I am going to show you how we dissasembled a car dashboard and changed all the LEDs to another color

Make sure to check if you can safetly remove your dashboard, some cars may lock up or become useless after you remove your dash and even not work once you put it back in, in our case on Golf Mk4 once we removed the dash we should not try to ignite the engine, we did try and the airbag LED started glowing and now the car has to go to work shop and be repaired with OBD cable and a preety expensive software...

Please check before disconecting your dashboard

Do this at your own risk

These are the tools you are going to need:

- You can use cheap bit set like in the picture, you should use the appropriate screwdriver bit so you dont strip the screws

- Sildering iron, nothing special, any solderin iron with small pointi bit will do

- Desoldering pump for removeing the old LEDs, and some solder for the new ones

- Multimeter for testing the polarity

Thats about it, at least for our cars dash

You can check this picture and compare with your original LEDs so you can buy the same size only diferent color, we used diferent type of LEDs because we couldnt find any in our local stores and we didnt want to order online and wait for them for two weeks, so we took some leds from a cheap workshop lamp.

I would definitely recommend buying original LEDs because of the size difference, other types may not fit.

Google how to remove your dashboard, if you own a Golf Mk4 check out this video for a detailed explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unb4Sweqwu4

Once you removed the dash, expose the leds and prepare for desoldering

You can mark the ones you want to change, we replaced all the blue ones but we kept the red ones

Desolder one LED and solder the new one, use your multimeter to test the polarity of the original one and solder the new one with the same polarity.

You can also plug your dash in your card and turn on the lights to test your progress, since the LEDs are connected in series of four, if you mess one up you wont know whitch one you messed up, so check every led after soldering it.

When you finish your soldering, check again if every led works with your multimeter, then check again in your car by connecting your dash and turning the lights on, if every thing works, you can assemble your dashboard

Thank you for reading, this is my first instructable so i hope i didnt make alot of mistakes, i made the video half a year ago, and i thought it could still help someone if it was easier to find

Thank you and see you in the next one :)