Hi guys recently my hvac control light on the sides of the knob burned out on my 6th generation Camry. I called the dealership for the bulb which costs $12.50 each. Instead of wasting money I tried to replace the bulb and used an LED instead so here are my instructions sorry there are no pictures for the instructions I didn't think of it in time. If these instructions are confusing please feel free to let me know and I will update them.
I purchased these of amazon for $14, which comes with 10 LED.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KVXTVZ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/ame]
These don't exactly fit, but we will fix this problem later on.
1. Remove the head unit and separate the hvac controls from the unit.
2. There are 8 screws on the back of the hvac controls unscrew them and open the controls and pull out the controls themselves.
3. You will notice on the back there are 3 black circles (2 on one side and 1 on the parallel side), which look exactly like the ones on the amazon picture. Take a small flat-head screwdriver and unscrew them and pull them out.
4. Since the amazon LED replacement doesn't fit onto the motherboard good enough we need to modify the old bulb holder to hold the new LED. This is done by removing the green bulb from the holder by just simply prying the metal prongs from the holder until they are straight and pulling the bulb out. Then I took diagonal cutting pliers and cut the opening of the holder where the bulb was located until it is flat against the bottom of the hole. Now the old bulb holder is ready for the led. Just remove the led from its holder the same way as you did with the original bulb and place the led into the newly cut bulb holder. The LED prongs wont twist all the way around the holder like originally, but as long as you get it on the side touching the green motherboard you'll be fine.
5. Do step 4 for all 3 bulbs and place the new LED bulb with its holder in the motherboard. Remember to turn the LED around if it doesn't work from first try. Also the LED still wont tighten all the way, but it still is much tighter then the holder the LED came with.
6. Assemble the hvac controls and the head unit back into the car.
Here is the finished product:
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Knobs turned all the way left (they are dimmer then when turned all the way right because the bulb is located on the right side, but still good lighting)
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Knobs turned all the way right
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Knobs in the middle with ac lights on
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With map lights turned on, which are also LED thanks to this thread
