I finally decided to do something about all the burned out bulbs in my HVAC controls, only one was working and you couldn't read any of the buttons at night. Had to get to the back of the head unit to install an Aux jack, so was already in there anyways. Tore the thing apart and found some tiny twist style bulb holders, which turned out to be Neo3 size. I decided to go with green LED, against my better judgement. Years ago I did something similar to a car I owned and discovered why cheap LEDs are so cheap-- because you have to get in there twice a year to replace dead/flickering ones. Made an attempt this time to buy quality, and largely ignored price; read tons of reviews before I pulled the trigger on a set.
Replaced the instrument panel bulbs at the same time, those were standard 194/168 wedge bulbs. The process was pretty easy on this car (no speedo cable to unhook, yay!). Nissan had openings in the back of the climate control panel for easy access to the bulbs, without taking anything apart. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome, the green bulbs match fairly exact (in these photos, the instrument panel bulbs look a lighter shade green than they really are), and my Pioneer head unit has mostly green lights in it already. I was worried about hotspots which is a common issue with switching incandescent to LED, but the only bulb I encountered that on was the transmission selector, you can clearly see the middle is brighter, but it's not awful. Leaving the dimmer on max is far too bright, half way is a comfortable setting; hopefully this will contribute to long LED life. The color is a huge improvement-- No OEM color is worse than the standard white this car originally had. The bulbs used a blue cover to make the light appear whiter, but it was still pretty awful.
Replaced the instrument panel bulbs at the same time, those were standard 194/168 wedge bulbs. The process was pretty easy on this car (no speedo cable to unhook, yay!). Nissan had openings in the back of the climate control panel for easy access to the bulbs, without taking anything apart. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome, the green bulbs match fairly exact (in these photos, the instrument panel bulbs look a lighter shade green than they really are), and my Pioneer head unit has mostly green lights in it already. I was worried about hotspots which is a common issue with switching incandescent to LED, but the only bulb I encountered that on was the transmission selector, you can clearly see the middle is brighter, but it's not awful. Leaving the dimmer on max is far too bright, half way is a comfortable setting; hopefully this will contribute to long LED life. The color is a huge improvement-- No OEM color is worse than the standard white this car originally had. The bulbs used a blue cover to make the light appear whiter, but it was still pretty awful.
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