A while back I installed a spree dash kit and while all the bulbs worked fine the light didn't pass through the switches. My question is did any celicas come with switches that let light pass through or will I have to file the backs of them down?

do you mean, the back-lighting didn't come through the buttons well? or the indicators of when a button is pushed isn't changed?

if it's the ambient back-lighting: there is a piece of clear plastic on the top row that should carry the glow to the buttons reasonably well. so perhaps the led is plugged in the wrong way around.
if it's the indicators under each button, then those are separate leds that need to be de-soldered (after you draw a diagram indicating the polarity) then resolder some 3mm leds into each one.

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Unfortunatly when I had the unit apart a few days ago all the bulbs were indeed working When I took the switches off they seemed to just be painted on the backs and no light shined through unless I held a light pretty much touching the switch

so you are talking about the back-lighting then, the 3x 10mm neo-wedge bulbs?
if those bulbs are on you should be seeing something at least. are you certain they're in the correct way and getting juice? a way to test might be to take the knobs off while the unit is in the car and it's night time.

if they are getting juice and are just not powerful enough you may want to try these guys

http://autolumination.com/74.htm
search for: SMT II Neo - Wedge LED Instrument Panel Bulbs
those look like the best bet at the moment. is that what's in the spree kit? i have the single smt neo wedge in there right now and they light up alright (not the best, but plainly visible) autolumination seems to frequently get new stuff in though, so i'm holding out for some kind of 5 smt before i pull it out again.

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All the bulbs are indeed working as I twisted and untwisted the bulb while it was pugged in. It seems that my switches just dont seem to let light pass through them. I may just dremel the backs to see if Ican make them clear

wow. sorry i'm all over the place with the questions, but i've never heard of a celica not having cc illumination before, it esspecially doesn't make sense seeing as the ligths are in there?

does anything on the cc unit get illumination (the blue <-> red knob, the fan knob, the inside outside air button)?
do you think someone spray painted the backs of the buttons?

Yep the knobs get illumination but thats about it. I'll Post a picture tomorrow after work

got an email back from chris at autolumination. he said he's tried to pack more leds on the neowedge but the size of the neck doesn't let him pull it off.
so i guess you're probably best off with the: SMT II Neo - Wedge for max brightness. but it also really sounds like you got some black paint back there or something as well.

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Here's a picture of what it looks like. The backs of the switches aren't painted black but I've come to the conclusion that they're definitely not letting light through as well as they should be.

It was asked earlier and you didn't respond to the question: is the piece of clear plastic, which redistributes the light from the bulbs across the vent switches, in place? Without it you'd get dim illumination.

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My apologies. It is indeed in place

wow man, what do the 3 leds look like? are they smt (surface mounts) or do they have regular lenses? perhaps inveterted lenses?

What causes those switches to light up?

On my car (with the stock bulbs in it) those switches will sometimes come on and sometimes will not, like as if there is a short in the wire.

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They're surface mounts

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The switches are lit by a light distributer from the bulb. All the bulbs definatly work though because I managed to plug it in and look at the back of the circuit board while screwing and unscrewing the bulb in an awkward manner. The bulb definatley turns on and off. It just seems the light doesnt seem to get through the switches. I may just end up carefully shaving the backs to see it they really are the issue here.

i'd try the dual surface mount one first (at least the top one), yes it will be expensive, but it's probably worhtwhile considering all the work that goes into getting the cc unit out of (and back into) the car. i've always wondered how difficult it would be to drill out the holes for something larger like a 194...hmmm this might be a possibility.

took a spare cc unit apart somewhat and got a really horribly blurry photo.
http://sites.google.com/site/zimluuraprojects/car

the circuit board is outlined in red, the diffuser in cyan, and the bulb in purple.

the diffuser is actually a litte off to the side of the centerline of the bulb. which, when it comes to leds it probably the culprit. the 2x smt might be better, if they are at slight angles they could disperse light sideways enough. but what you might be able to do is half-way take the led and resistor out of the 10mm neo wedge socket and tilt it (by bending the legs slightly) so that it faces a little more into the clear plastic diffuser. i did this back when i used a num74 led wired into a toyota 10mm wedge base (before autolumination even had neo-wedges) and i'd hazard a guess that the dash pic in my profile came from then.

other ideas: i think a 194 might be too tall to really get in there below the diffuser. but perhaps you could take the parabolic mirror from a cheap flashlight keychain and mount it up in there to dirrect more light toward the diffuser. maybe glue it to the diffuser.

[edit] spelling

This post has been edited by Zimluura: Dec 19, 2012 - 9:16 AM

ok, just took another picture, same web page
http://sites.google.com/site/zimluuraprojects/car

this one is of a blue led (it was a higher power thc3 led from lsdiodes.com which has since ceased to be) that i modded into a keychain.
but this one with the led angled 90 degrees towards the diffuser. so i'm thinking now that it's entirely about the angle which that light beam hits the diffuser.

Man I really hope I can get it to look like that it's perfect

looks like 1 is working, the other has the wrong polarity or is blown

in that last photo there is no power to the unit (which isn't in a car, just sitting on my desk).
it's just a single led (on a keychain) pointing into the diffuser at 90 degrees off normal.
i also got favorable results with a green laser pointer, which fans out even less than an led (i once heard they fan to 3 feet on the moon), further signifying that it's all about the angle that the beam hits.

I would love to say that it was the polarity but when I gave the board power they all lit up