DIY: Lighted Window Switches

GoldenCoupe · 02-10-04, 03:24 AM

DIY: Lighted Passenger Window Switches by: GoldenCoupe

Materials:
· 2 spools of 18 gauge electrical wire (I chose black and red)
· Male and female quick disconnects (3 pairs blue for neg., 3 pairs red for pos., 1 extra male red, and 1 extra male blue
· 2 t-taps
· Super glue
· 3 3mm LED’s (I chose green because they were the closest match to OEM controls)
· 3 470 Ohm resistors
· Wire ties
· Preferably busted master window switch
· Shrink wrap for exposed resistor

Tools:
· Drill w/ small bit (to make holes for LED prongs)
· Solder iron and solder
· A few beers
· Very skinny eye glass repair screwdriver
· 9 volt battery for testing
· Wire splicers

Synopsis:
Tearing your car apart to install lighted passenger window switches like the ones the new Civics have

!!

To begin:
I will just start off by saying that my car was already gutted out because I was in the process of doing my interior swap. With that noted, here’s what I think you will need to remove: lower dash cover, door panel(s), door rails (lower), rear side panels (coupes), and rear seat (coupe & sedan I would assume). Now you can either decide to do the easy stuff first or the hard, whichever floats your boat.

“Easy” stuff:
After removing the door panel(s), and or rear side panels, localize the switches and remove them. With all 3 switches in your hand begin to remove the “sticker” rear seal. It is merely glued on so don’t be scared. After this is done you will notice that these switches were practically made to be lighted.

Get your busted master switch and remove the window buttons from it. They snap off, just be careful! The buttons on the passenger switches remove the same way. Now let’s make the master buttons clear: (you can leave this step out if you can find a way to replicate the OEM light color with it’s diffuser). Get your eyeglass repair screwdriver and push it into the “window” from the exterior of the button. This will make the window and the diffuser pop out from the inside of the button. Some of the buttons have the diffuser built into the window and others are just laid on top of one another. If they’re built in, get your screwdriver and merely scrape the green color off of it. After that is complete insert the now cleared windows back into the buttons the way they came out. Put the now cleared buttons onto the passenger switches. This is when you’ll want to kill Honda for not doing this when they made our cars; so obvious it slaps you in the face!

Now get the “stickers” and position the LED prongs directly in the middle, the prongs will leave a “dent” in the adhesive. Use this as your guide and drill two holes large enough to accommodate the LED prongs. Make sure there is still a small piece of plastic in-between the two prong holes to keep the LED in place. Now get that super glue and put a tiny dab on the bottom (flat part) of the LED and insert the prongs into place. Make sure the LED is resting on the adhesive part of the “sticker”. This is for added security in the LED not moving or falling out.

Note: I learned that filing the “round” or globe of the LED to flat more evenly distributes the light. Do this next!

Now wire that mother up…You will notice in an LED there are two “filaments”, the small one is your positive, so solder the resistor to this prong. Add about 3 inches of wire to each prong (compensate on the neg. terminal to make up for the resistors space). Now before you add your quick disconnects, test on a 9v battery to make sure it works! Sit back, take a breath, and admire your craftsmanship!

Now put some shrink-wrap to cover your solder points and resistors. Now bend the wires to lay flat against the body of the switch and secure them to the male part of the window switch with a wire tie pulled very tight!

You’re almost done!! Get your trusty super glue and seal up that sticker since that old adhesive doesn’t work very well anymore. That sums up the “easy” part!

Hard part:
In case you haven’t already figured it out, the hard part is yanking your car to pieces. Now this process will be harder for sedans since you all have 3 doors to fight with. We will be making one circuit for all 3 lights. So technically there will be one long wire running through the car coupling at each LED, hence the reason for 3 resistors. I toyed with the idea of one resistor for all three lights but I didn’t like the end result. The lights will be very dim since they will be sharing an already low power supply. Deciding where to splice power from: since I have an LS, I have the courtesy lights control/Fogs/TCS switch, which gives me a source for the dash lights. T-tap into the source you decide. Red (pos.) goes into red/blk., and black (neg.) goes into red.

This setup is pretty typical in any switch/light source you tap into. I chose what I did because it was closest to the main car harness, which takes me to the rear of the car.

As I said, it will be harder for sedans because you will have to run 4 wires in through the doors wire channels. Secure the wires to the main harness every twelve inches or so beneath the carpet. When you get to a connection point, cut the wire and strip both black wires and both red wires and crimp them to a designated female coupler thus continuing the line. Secure this to a main harness, preferably the harness with the window controls. Continue to run out of the door the way you entered and run the wires beneath the carpet under the rear seat, securing the same as before. This same process goes for coupes, only it’s 300 times easier

! Continue this along the passenger side of the car never breaking the circuit. Now, you can choose if really anal to install a fuse at the beginning of the circuit. I decided to leave it out just because I was being lazy.

Finishing:
Now reinstall everything you removed and plug in your now wired switches. Turn on the parking lights and watch those babies glow. Now dim your dash lights and watch them dim as well.

morbo · 02-10-04, 03:31 AM

Nice, I woulda gone with blue though

lDneGeL · 02-10-04, 03:50 AM

looks good.. ima do this when i get my hands on a busted master switch.

KeithQNguyen · 02-10-04, 03:56 AM

Damn, the demand is gonnna go up now hehe, Hey GoldenCoupe, were those terminal contacts live? You mentioned that the switches were practicly made to be lit, I was just wondering if those contacts in there were live becaus the easiest route would just to get the small bulbs from the dealer and put them in. thanks for your help. --=Keith

GoldenCoupe · 02-10-04, 04:10 AM

You know I should've tested them to see if they were indeed. Now that I think about it...they might be. There are like 5 wires going into the switches. So I guess there is a chance. Soemeone test it out!! I'm gonna be severly pissed if it's that easy!!!

Volk Racing · 02-10-04, 04:36 AM

Whao nice... this will be great to complete with the rest of my LED buttons =D

KeithQNguyen · 02-10-04, 07:08 AM

damn that means all you need it s led with a resistor. =P

*stevieray* · 02-10-04, 11:15 AM

Great stuff! Mods, this is a sticky if there ever was one.

Volk Racing · 02-10-04, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KeithQNguyen
damn that means all you need it s led with a resistor. =P

Haha.. actually, 3 led and 3 resistors. I have 3 doors to do it on.

KeithQNguyen · 02-11-04, 01:55 AM

Well yea, per door, damn the search for a master switch, i don't feel like going out and buying one just for this mod. Decisions decisions.... --=Keith

Volk Racing · 02-11-04, 02:09 AM

I think the master switch should complete for 3 doors right? The master switch has 3 switches to use, so finding 1 should complete the rest of the doors.. well if it came from a sedan master switch.

It does seem like a bit of a hassle for a 1mm X 8 mm light, lol

KeithQNguyen · 02-11-04, 02:51 AM

Yea looks like all you need are the resistors, leds and one master switch. Hurry, do it and test the contacts ont he switch to see if they'r live, if they are i'm doing this ASAP. hehe Still need to swap out the leather on my door panels and was thinking of doing this at the same time. --=Keith

GoldenCoupe · 02-11-04, 08:57 PM

A light will fit in that OEM space...but according to my ETM, it will not turn on. There are no light signals in any of those wires. The only thing I can think is that if you put a light in that space, it might turn on when you use the switch, but that's about it. I have to remove my rear panels soon to finish up some stuff, so if no one's done it by then, I'll let you all know!!

KeithQNguyen · 02-13-04, 09:25 AM

I was working on my leather panels yesteday and your right, there are two wires missing fromt he harness and i checked for voltage any way and no go. but the good news is you can do an even cleaner install if you Pop the leds into the base and put it ont he switch, run the wires into the harness and have the resistor in between the wires that go fromt he source to the switch. I'm just picky about clean installs --=Keith

lDneGeL · 02-19-04, 06:23 PM

well i am doing this mod and all u really need is the bulb and the holder and it works fine.

02-10-04, 03:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
GoldenCoupe Legendary Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 509 Car 1: 1993 Cashmere Silver LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	DIY: Lighted Window Switches DIY: Lighted Passenger Window Switches by: GoldenCoupe Materials: · 2 spools of 18 gauge electrical wire (I chose black and red) · Male and female quick disconnects (3 pairs blue for neg., 3 pairs red for pos., 1 extra male red, and 1 extra male blue · 2 t-taps · Super glue · 3 3mm LED’s (I chose green because they were the closest match to OEM controls) · 3 470 Ohm resistors · Wire ties · Preferably busted master window switch · Shrink wrap for exposed resistor Tools: · Drill w/ small bit (to make holes for LED prongs) · Solder iron and solder · A few beers · Very skinny eye glass repair screwdriver · 9 volt battery for testing · Wire splicers Synopsis: Tearing your car apart to install lighted passenger window switches like the ones the new Civics have !! To begin: I will just start off by saying that my car was already gutted out because I was in the process of doing my interior swap. With that noted, here’s what I think you will need to remove: lower dash cover, door panel(s), door rails (lower), rear side panels (coupes), and rear seat (coupe & sedan I would assume). Now you can either decide to do the easy stuff first or the hard, whichever floats your boat. “Easy” stuff: After removing the door panel(s), and or rear side panels, localize the switches and remove them. With all 3 switches in your hand begin to remove the “sticker” rear seal. It is merely glued on so don’t be scared. After this is done you will notice that these switches were practically made to be lighted. Get your busted master switch and remove the window buttons from it. They snap off, just be careful! The buttons on the passenger switches remove the same way. Now let’s make the master buttons clear: (you can leave this step out if you can find a way to replicate the OEM light color with it’s diffuser). Get your eyeglass repair screwdriver and push it into the “window” from the exterior of the button. This will make the window and the diffuser pop out from the inside of the button. Some of the buttons have the diffuser built into the window and others are just laid on top of one another. If they’re built in, get your screwdriver and merely scrape the green color off of it. After that is complete insert the now cleared windows back into the buttons the way they came out. Put the now cleared buttons onto the passenger switches. This is when you’ll want to kill Honda for not doing this when they made our cars; so obvious it slaps you in the face! Now get the “stickers” and position the LED prongs directly in the middle, the prongs will leave a “dent” in the adhesive. Use this as your guide and drill two holes large enough to accommodate the LED prongs. Make sure there is still a small piece of plastic in-between the two prong holes to keep the LED in place. Now get that super glue and put a tiny dab on the bottom (flat part) of the LED and insert the prongs into place. Make sure the LED is resting on the adhesive part of the “sticker”. This is for added security in the LED not moving or falling out. Note: I learned that filing the “round” or globe of the LED to flat more evenly distributes the light. Do this next! Now wire that mother up…You will notice in an LED there are two “filaments”, the small one is your positive, so solder the resistor to this prong. Add about 3 inches of wire to each prong (compensate on the neg. terminal to make up for the resistors space). Now before you add your quick disconnects, test on a 9v battery to make sure it works! Sit back, take a breath, and admire your craftsmanship! Now put some shrink-wrap to cover your solder points and resistors. Now bend the wires to lay flat against the body of the switch and secure them to the male part of the window switch with a wire tie pulled very tight! You’re almost done!! Get your trusty super glue and seal up that sticker since that old adhesive doesn’t work very well anymore. That sums up the “easy” part! Hard part: In case you haven’t already figured it out, the hard part is yanking your car to pieces. Now this process will be harder for sedans since you all have 3 doors to fight with. We will be making one circuit for all 3 lights. So technically there will be one long wire running through the car coupling at each LED, hence the reason for 3 resistors. I toyed with the idea of one resistor for all three lights but I didn’t like the end result. The lights will be very dim since they will be sharing an already low power supply. Deciding where to splice power from: since I have an LS, I have the courtesy lights control/Fogs/TCS switch, which gives me a source for the dash lights. T-tap into the source you decide. Red (pos.) goes into red/blk., and black (neg.) goes into red. This setup is pretty typical in any switch/light source you tap into. I chose what I did because it was closest to the main car harness, which takes me to the rear of the car. As I said, it will be harder for sedans because you will have to run 4 wires in through the doors wire channels. Secure the wires to the main harness every twelve inches or so beneath the carpet. When you get to a connection point, cut the wire and strip both black wires and both red wires and crimp them to a designated female coupler thus continuing the line. Secure this to a main harness, preferably the harness with the window controls. Continue to run out of the door the way you entered and run the wires beneath the carpet under the rear seat, securing the same as before. This same process goes for coupes, only it’s 300 times easier ! Continue this along the passenger side of the car never breaking the circuit. Now, you can choose if really anal to install a fuse at the beginning of the circuit. I decided to leave it out just because I was being lazy. Finishing: Now reinstall everything you removed and plug in your now wired switches. Turn on the parking lights and watch those babies glow. Now dim your dash lights and watch them dim as well. __________________ 93 Cashmere Silver LS Coupe My Legend's sad

02-10-04, 03:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
morbo Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Earth Posts: 2,825 Car 1: I35 Sedan Car 2: 2004 Lincoln LS iTrader: (0)	Nice, I woulda gone with blue though __________________ Keepin it real fo the SA The Internet wasn't designed for ridicule. It was invented so researchers could share common data sets at University. It was I tell you.........it was. --Homer Simpson

02-10-04, 03:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
lDneGeL 1ofAknd Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: san jose,CA Posts: 1,837 Car 1: 92 CGM Legend L sedan iTrader: (0)	looks good.. ima do this when i get my hands on a busted master switch. __________________ http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/...dnegel/sig.jpg

02-10-04, 03:56 AM	#4 (permalink)
KeithQNguyen Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 1,915 Car 1: 1995 Black on Black 6 speed LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	Damn, the demand is gonnna go up now hehe, Hey GoldenCoupe, were those terminal contacts live? You mentioned that the switches were practicly made to be lit, I was just wondering if those contacts in there were live becaus the easiest route would just to get the small bulbs from the dealer and put them in. thanks for your help. --=Keith __________________ Some of the most beautiful things in nature have been shaped by the wind - The Acura Legend Coupe

02-10-04, 04:36 AM	#6 (permalink)
Volk Racing Moderator Join Date: May 2003 Location: here Posts: 2,855 Car 1: Legend GS Car 2: Yamaha YZF iTrader: (2)	Whao nice... this will be great to complete with the rest of my LED buttons =D __________________ 1994 GS (18 X 8.0, 18 X 9.0) B===D~(\|)

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02-10-04, 04:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
GoldenCoupe Legendary Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 509 Car 1: 1993 Cashmere Silver LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	You know I should've tested them to see if they were indeed. Now that I think about it...they might be. There are like 5 wires going into the switches. So I guess there is a chance. Soemeone test it out!! I'm gonna be severly pissed if it's that easy!!!

02-10-04, 07:08 AM	#7 (permalink)
KeithQNguyen Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 1,915 Car 1: 1995 Black on Black 6 speed LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	damn that means all you need it s led with a resistor. =P __________________ Some of the most beautiful things in nature have been shaped by the wind - The Acura Legend Coupe

02-10-04, 11:15 AM	#8 (permalink)
stevieray Swollen Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Franklin, TN Posts: 7,545 Car 1: '95 LS Coupe Car 2: '91 LS Coupe Car 3: '89 Prelude Si iTrader: (13)	Great stuff! Mods, this is a sticky if there ever was one. __________________ *"King of Kleen"* "Know this. Being able to purchase a Legend and being able to afford a Legend are two separate things. Realize nothing post-purchase is cheap." - LegendGS

02-11-04, 01:55 AM	#10 (permalink)
KeithQNguyen Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 1,915 Car 1: 1995 Black on Black 6 speed LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	Well yea, per door, damn the search for a master switch, i don't feel like going out and buying one just for this mod. Decisions decisions.... --=Keith __________________ Some of the most beautiful things in nature have been shaped by the wind - The Acura Legend Coupe

02-11-04, 02:09 AM	#11 (permalink)
Volk Racing Moderator Join Date: May 2003 Location: here Posts: 2,855 Car 1: Legend GS Car 2: Yamaha YZF iTrader: (2)	I think the master switch should complete for 3 doors right? The master switch has 3 switches to use, so finding 1 should complete the rest of the doors.. well if it came from a sedan master switch. It does seem like a bit of a hassle for a 1mm X 8 mm light, lol __________________ 1994 GS (18 X 8.0, 18 X 9.0) B===D~(\|)

02-11-04, 02:51 AM	#12 (permalink)
KeithQNguyen Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 1,915 Car 1: 1995 Black on Black 6 speed LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	Yea looks like all you need are the resistors, leds and one master switch. Hurry, do it and test the contacts ont he switch to see if they'r live, if they are i'm doing this ASAP. hehe Still need to swap out the leather on my door panels and was thinking of doing this at the same time. --=Keith __________________ Some of the most beautiful things in nature have been shaped by the wind - The Acura Legend Coupe

02-11-04, 08:57 PM	#13 (permalink)
GoldenCoupe Legendary Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 509 Car 1: 1993 Cashmere Silver LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	A light will fit in that OEM space...but according to my ETM, it will not turn on. There are no light signals in any of those wires. The only thing I can think is that if you put a light in that space, it might turn on when you use the switch, but that's about it. I have to remove my rear panels soon to finish up some stuff, so if no one's done it by then, I'll let you all know!! __________________ 93 Cashmere Silver LS Coupe My Legend's sad

02-13-04, 09:25 AM	#14 (permalink)
KeithQNguyen Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 1,915 Car 1: 1995 Black on Black 6 speed LS Coupe iTrader: (0)	I was working on my leather panels yesteday and your right, there are two wires missing fromt he harness and i checked for voltage any way and no go. but the good news is you can do an even cleaner install if you Pop the leds into the base and put it ont he switch, run the wires into the harness and have the resistor in between the wires that go fromt he source to the switch. I'm just picky about clean installs --=Keith __________________ Some of the most beautiful things in nature have been shaped by the wind - The Acura Legend Coupe

02-19-04, 06:23 PM	#15 (permalink)
lDneGeL 1ofAknd Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: san jose,CA Posts: 1,837 Car 1: 92 CGM Legend L sedan iTrader: (0)	well i am doing this mod and all u really need is the bulb and the holder and it works fine. __________________ http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/...dnegel/sig.jpg

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