LED Wiring

[terrynham]

I was busy changing my A/C Controls to White LEDs. But in order to make the Demister and A/C buttons white, i had to do some custom wiring of my own ....

long story short, i accidently short circuited the demister switch....I got a new switch and it works......but the LED on that always burns out after about 30mins of being on, I already burnt out 2 LEDs (i checked and there is nothing wrong with my wiring).
I am guessing i must have damaged something else along the line with that short circuit before

so in order to illumate that switch, my idea is to add some extra wires the go into the switch to power the LED, from the A/C Panel lights....
currently the a/c panel is being illumated by a 74 LED (totally seperate from the demister switch light), is there a way i could double up on that wire and make it power 2 bulbs/leds, without any problems? if so, anybody know how a noob can simply wire it? or should i get a pro to do it?

thanks.

[Dawgz]

get resistors, too much amperage into the led's burns them out,

[terrynham]

these are LED Bulbs ive got, they already got resistors inside them......i think.....

they are 12volt LEDs so shouldnt they technically work fine? because the original bulb for the demister switch is also 12volt ....

by accidently short circuiting the demister switch, what else other than the switch, could i have damaged or broken?

[userlain]

An ampiere is the quantity of power, not the quality of power(like a volt).

A car battery is 12volts at 80 ampiers. You need to get some resistors.

[terrynham]

i was thinking i would need resistors, BUT....what confuses me is that.....I also did the LED conversion to the A/C Button, which i assume has the same amp and voltage.....and that hasnt burnt out .....
Also, I know these LED Bulbs have resistors built in....

so i still reckon i busted something on the Demister Switch when i shorted it out before

so i have another possible alternative i have devised :


sorry about the drawing, i whipped it up in like 5mins

since the problem is with the demister switch, am i able to forget about that....and run the extra LED off the wires from the A/C Control Panel? and then put the extra LED inside the Demister switch (which i can do).

[terrynham]

*bump*

anybody know if i can do this? and if there are an possible problems i have to keep in mind?

[88 LE]

Originally posted by terrynham
anybody know if i can do this? and if there are an possible problems i have to keep in mind?

I don't see any problems with what you want to do.

It'll just draw more current, but then again leds draw very little current (about 20mA (.020 amps) each).

[iamquand]

Ok, i have a question for ya. I have a 92 camry and am having problems doing the same thing you did. I can get everything apart except for this little rod that connect the switch to accept air from the outside or not. You can see the rod im talking about it the picture below. How do I disconnect that?

[terrynham]

i didnt disconnect it
i just worked on the controls while it was still attached

with the wiring i was taking about above, i gave up with that idea
I just made the demister switch orange and made the a/c switch a dark green

[iamquand]

How did you work on the controls while it was attached? You can't pull that piece out at all.

Did you take off the faceplate and work from the front?

[terrynham]

i just left that cable that you specified attached...
the cable is flexible so i just unscrewed everything and moved the whole panel out sideways, therefore i could reach the things at the back