Hello guys and gals!
Foremost I must say, this post is going to be a little different. Since there are a lot of bulbs inside the car, and I am a very pretentious guy, I will leave this post open, and continue to add pictures and stories as I progress with the conversion.
If you would like a recap to where I am currently with the conversion (well, before this post), you can recheck this
post.
So, as you may recall, I wrote in the last
post the types of LEDs I acquired. Therefore I had 2 jobs to do: first change the H1 bulbs from the fog lights and then, changing the bulbs in the DIM with the T5 LEDs that were waiting for me to start already.
Alright, the fog lamps were almost easy to do. Of course, it is much easier if you have access to a lift like I did.
Here is a pic of the original H1 bulb
And another pic of the replacement LED
As you can see the original bulb gives a bit more light. If the weather will require, I will go back to original, however the LEDs give out a pretty good amount of light during the night. So I'll wait for the foggy season to start to decide if I'll keep them or not.
Here is the finished look. Please note that I haven't turned the Xenon short beam on, it's only the daylights that are on and the fog lights.
On a funny note, after me and my brother in law finished fiddling with the lights, my car's battery was dead. Luckily he had a spare battery laying around so we hooked it to my car's to jump start it. What followed was a short test drive just "to test the
recently cleaned MAF" and not to charge the dead battery :)) ;).
Second job was the DIM partial conversion. You'll see soon why I say partial and not total:
First step was to take the DIM out of the car. You can
follow this post to see how. Afterwards, I made a small sketch of all the bulbs I had in the DIM:
Using this sketch, I decided I wanted to switch to LEDs the following bulbs: numbers 1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. I didn't wanted to change the color of the side markers or any other engine failure markers. But after counting the LEDs I had and realising I had 11 pieces, I decided I'll do the side markers as well as a test. So numbers 3 and 4 were added to the list.
There are 3 types of bulbs in your DIM if you have the same model year I have. If you have a newer Volvo S60, you may already have LEDs soldered in your DIM.
Here is the black socket one
Here is the grey socket one
Here is the black and greys
The side markers are of a different kind, they have a blue socket but the bulbs in those sockets are similar in size to the grey ones.
Here we have the bulb removed from the black socket
... and LED installed in it's place
All the sockets with the bulbs come out of the DIM by rotating the counter clockwise gently.
So, the bulbs in the black sockets came out relatively easy, the bulbs from the grey and blue sockets however, were a pain. You can not possibly grab them properly, the bulb has a much more smaller glass area for me or my brother in law to grab and pull. And since the only member of my family with smaller hands, my
wife, was sick with the flu and in bed, I had to resort to a trickery. I used a long pin (that was originally used during my wedding to hold the flowers in the bride's bouquet).
Here is the pin I used to take out the bulbs out of the grey and blue sockets.
I used this pin to gently push out of the socket the small bulbs. I can not show you the process, but I can tell you that the bulb has a small, tiny curve right above the socket which I used to pull the pin head into and then I used the pin as a miniature crowbar or lever if you will.
All LEDs were now in place, time to reassemble everything and see the result:
Before I close this post (for now), I must remind you that LEDs have polarity, meaning that If when you light up the DIM, they don't work, you must note on your sketch which one is defective, take it out, rotate it 180 degrees, then put it back. If they won't lit, they must be broken. You can see in my pictures that the LED that lights up the odometer is not working. After I did the procedure described above it worked.
Conclusions: I like the color. It's much more refreshing than the color I had. However I don't like that now, the light in the DIM is not evenly distributed. You can see that some spots are more lighted up than others...
Stay tuned. After I did all this, I ordered other LED which I hope will cure the uneven light distribution. I will soon post new pictures with the new LED and will show you which one I kept and the ones I changed.
Till next time, safe and happy journeys everyone!
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 26th
Hi again! So I finally got home and was able to pick up my new LEDs I have ordered. As you have read above, I wasn't quite pleased with the uneven light distribution given by the SMD T5 LEDs. I liked the color but not the result. So I ordered this babies:
White T5 triple led.
So I decided to switch all the black T5s from the black sockets (see above) with this type of LEDs.
Here you can see the SMD T5 LED in the socket I just removed from the DIM and next is this new type of LED.
However this new type of LED is a bit trickier to insert into the DIM because of it's form. They will enter the DIM eventually, you just have to be patient and insert them at an angle.
I decided not to change the grey socket ones because of the smaller than that of the black ones DIM opening, and besides, the light distribution of the grey ones was perfect already.
So, I'll let you decide if the end result was worth the effort. I think it's absolutely beautiful!
So many more buttons left to do. Soon I'll start on the CCM and HU.
You can cleary see in the middle picture below that the light was a lot more powerful around certain spots like the 100km mark or the 6000 rpm using the T5 SMD LEDs. But in the third picture, after I replaced the SMD from the black sockets with the triple LEDs everything is now even.
UPDATE: DECEMBER 24th
So, I ordered some new SMD LEDs for my light switch and CCM.
I started with the light switch
My method of dismantling the switch doesn't require tools. I simply open the side panel of the dashboard, stick my hand there...
...and push the switch from the inside out.
Lighting the switch are 3 T4 Neowedge bulbs.There is also a green connector which can be easily pulled off
You need a flathead screwdriver to turn this type of bulbs counterclockwise to be able to take them out.
After reinserting the T4 LED, I put everything back together.
And a night picture. Very disappointed of the color. They are crystal whites. Was expecting a white blueish one just like my DIM dials. Will probably change this LEDs also.
Next was the CCM (Climate Control Module)
I will make another post on how to disassemble the CCM
On the CCM we have 6 T4 bulbs, 2 green connectors and one white connector for the cigarette lighter
The CCM has other bulbs or LEDs that are in the housing, but I didn't get to them (being so cold in the car).
Will convert all the bulbs to blueish white LED later, for now I upgraded just the T4s
Here is the end result. You can see how much brighter the LEDs are compared to the old bulbs that still light the DSTC and other buttons.
SMALL UPDATE: FEBRUARY 12th
I don't know if it's just my car or this is a common fault in Volvo S60s, but I've been plagued by the a repeating burning of the side rear lights. So, after a few burned bulbs, I decided to switch them to LEDs. This was a no brainer, since those particular lights do not give a burned light warning in the dash, we are able to use any kind of LED type (SMD or normal) providing they are a replacement for the R5W bulb.
Installation is so easy and it only takes about 2 minutes, this is why, if you're plagued by the same "disease" i recommend this switch to everybody, even those who don't want a full LED conversion.
The faulty bulb in its socket
The same faulty bulb. As you can see it's a R5W
The culprit next to it's replacement. I chose a SMD white LED.
And the SMD LED back in the socket. Light output is satisfactory.
Night shot
Conclusion: time required minimal ( it took longer to take this pictures :)) ) . Economy wise exceptional considering the cost of the SMD LED equivalent to about 5 halogen bulbs but life time of the SMD will exceed the lifetime of more than 8-10 consecutive halogens.
Hope you like the results! Leave a comment if you do, or why not if you don't! Thanks! See you soon!
