Replaced dash/center stack lights with LED - 96 Maxima

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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.

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Glad it worked out . On my 97 civic I had a similar issue. Had to buy the led bulbs that have a printed circuit board type connector. Those appear to make better connections which don't flicker.
 
my maxima was the same. I did something similar 10 years ago. I bought 50 white LED and a pack of resistors (from radioshack, lol)

Did the job, no issues and then one by one started to crap out. I was able to do the Hazard and rear window defroster, i noticed you were missing those by the clock. Thats a nice and even amount of light from the LED. I would do the job again but my 4th gen is rusting to pieces.
 
Originally Posted by bowlofturtle
Did the job, no issues and then one by one started to crap out. I was able to do the Hazard and rear window defroster, i noticed you were missing those by the clock. Thats a nice and even amount of light from the LED. I would do the job again but my 4th gen is rusting to pieces.


Heck, I didn't even know those were supposed to be lit as they never have since I owned the thing! Do you know if those are the same Neo3 twist bulbs as the HVAC? At least that portion of the center stack (vents and clock panel) is super easy to pop out. I'll definitely replace them when I figure out what bulb type it is.

Side note-- after doing this I'm super curious why Nissan used a LED bulb (biggest LED I've ever seen, must be 1996 technology
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) for the "air bag" idiot light, but all others had an incandescent bulb. Had you noticed that when you did yours? Makes no sense to me.
 
Can you link to the LEDs you used? I'm Getting tired of the flickering LED light show going on in my HVAC control- I was gonna say screw it and just go back to grain-of-wheat incandescent bulbs, but you've reinvigorated my quest to find a reliable LED replacement.
 
Originally Posted by ofelas
Got the green LEDs from Superbrightled.com ?


Bingo. Have had good luck with these guys. The HVAC controls are their T3 Neo / Neo3 size.
 
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