How to change the colour of the dash illumination on your factory head unit.
Tools needed:
Flat blade screwdriver
Stubby Philips driver
Trim tools (or screwdrivers but be careful)
Adjustable wrench
Parts needed:
Led/bulb caps 3mm
Time: allow an hour
So here is what you need to change the colour of the dash lighting in the stock head unit. 3mm led/bulbs caps or “condoms”
lets begin…
start by removing the gear knob, an adjustable wrench helped here, then lift the door on the centre console cubby and use a trim tool to prise up the front edge of the gear surround, and remove the surround. Its possible to leave the surround in place but easy to remove so why not.
next, pop the 2 clips in the passenger footwell, my clips were the kind that you push the centre pin slightly and the prise the clip out.
now, remove the 4x covers on the armrest section and the 4x screws that hide underneath.
next use a trim tool to pop this triangular section off.
remove the 1x screw you find underneath.
now you can pull away the lower dash trim from under the steering wheel.
while down here, remove the 2x clips shown
you can now remove the armrest section, a quick tug at the front end and lever it out of the way, unplug your ciggy lighter when you have enough room to get your hands in.
now remove the front section of the centre console, there are clips holding it in place, it has a weak point at its thinnest point at the top, so a little care is required here as not to break it.
once that’s out of the way pop this top piece of dash. This was quite a pig to remove.
look under the head unit, remove 2x screws from here (screws have been removed in picture)
then 3x screws from the top of the head unit.
the head unit will now pull forward, remove the plugs, 2x green
hazard switch wiring
and these plugs from here
the headunit should now be free.
Now remove 5 screws
1 here
2 here
and 2 here
the front panel is now held on by a series of clips, use a trim tool to lightly prise them open and the front panel can be removed leaving you with this, remove all the little screws
remove the 2 control knobs
when the circuit board is out you can access the bulbs, 11 of them in total. I have shown them with red condoms already fitted. You need to carefully remove the old green rubbers and then replace with red.
Now put everything back together. Don’t forget to plug in all your wiring and your ciggy lighter. When done you have this…
It’s the same principle to change the lighting in the aircon control unit, the VSA switch and heated mirror switch. The headlight adjust switch is NOT the same, you will need to change 2x 3528 leds in the switch to change this bit.