go to host them on

www.photobucket.com

Tools you guys all need for this light bulb swap:

Your car (duh if you dont haev this get one)
4 #194 lights bulbs (stock ones from walmart or the leds same number)
Needle nose pliers
Wire cutters
Soldering iron
Solder
7mm socket and ratchet
Flat head screw driver
Philips screw driver (only if you plan on removing the entire dash)
That should eb it up improvise if you dont have any of the tools i listed.

To get started you need the 7 mm socket and ratchet and the flat and and philips screw drivers. and remove all that is circled in red!!

step 1. On the drivers side of the car remove the fuse box cover and the rest of it around it. should look like this:

Remove the screw circled.

Now, move to the pasanger side and glove box region. If you plan on only lifting the dash up and not fully removing it skip step 2, 3, and 4 and jump to step 5

Step 2. remove the pannel with the screw driver so it looks like this.

Remove the screw circled.

step 3. Grab the philips screw drive and remove this screw in the vent by the wind shield.

remove the screw circled

step 4. pry off the vent with the flat head screw driver and remove the screw circled below.



step 5. Go to glove box and remove the screw circled


If you have not fully removed the dash you need to hold the dash up with something ... would recommend removing the dash. I would haev but my car stopped my from doing so.

step 6. be in the drivers seat up nice close and personal with the steering wheel. Unscrew the two screws holding on the radio/cluster bezel.

this is the right side of it.

the left side of it.

step 7. Pry the radio/cluster bezel off with your hand or your screw driver if needed. then remove the ciggy light clip



step 8. remove the two screws holding in your cluster.

the right side

left side

step 9. Remove the two clips attahing all of the wires to the cluster. The larger one has a button to push, the smaller one you need to work out with your flat head screw driver. I found getting the samller on out was easier to do by lifting up the clip the held in in there with the screw driver and pulling up on the clip not the wires.

step 10. pull cluster out of the car and flip upside down on a working table. Remove circles screws.

remove the shinny cardboard and this is were the fun starts.

step 11. plug in your soldering iron so it can get hot while you remove the bulbs from the sockets. to remove the sockets from the cluster fallow the arrows.


Fallow the tab numbers as we remove the bulbs from the sockets.


step 12. Hold the socket with eather your hand or another pliers as shown (it was easier with two pliers and a better pliers then that silver one. that was used only for picture taking) and another pliers to pull the tabs out. Pull tab out out first.


step 13. Rotate the socket in pliers to pill tab 2 out along with the bulb. DO NOT THROW AWAY BULB YET !!!


BAM it turns out like this.


step 14. get your new bulbs out of package I chose green to match my car exterior even tho they look blue. Bend the wire loops at the bottom out parallel with the bulb.


step 15. grab your wire cutters and ONLY cut the iner most wire on the bulbs you need to cut twice. Make sure your bulbs turn out like the picture or you need to go get new bulbs.


step 16. Bend the tabs back nito shap after cleaning off all left over wires that was left on it during the bulb removal and the bottom of it should be crimped tight to the rest of it and the top (the part with the little bump on it) can be bent later on.

step 17. insert the bulb first wires sticking streat out an at slight angles, then the tabs. Now as you are making sure the tab does not move, take the end of the wire and start to feed it inbetween the plastic socket and the metal tab. This is to insure a perfect connection.

step 18. grab your soldering iron and the solder and find something to prop the bulb and socket up. you are going to solder the bottom part of the tab and the wire to make sure it doesn't fall out. should look like this and sorry about the bad picture.


step 19. Reinstall!! fallow steps 2-11 but backwards.

finish product:


and if it doesn't work this time here is the site for the pictures:
http://photobucket.com/albums/f105/electrocav/?start=0

sorry buzz for waisting so much space.

it's oki...... at least you gotta a nice write up all in one post....... congrats and thank you...



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

thanks lol ya it only took me .. 3 times. ok now for the 00+ are the 00-02 the same as the 03-05's? im getting the junk yard the get one out for me, i only said 00-02 cavy. So if the junk yard pick it up a pace i will start on this prject tomorrow or thursday, and ill shot you an email with a few pictures in it on what i think we should do for this thing.

yes, they ar ethe same....
in any case, i have an 02, and i'm getting another cluster on thu or fri, which is an 03-05, i'll let you know if theres a difference, but i serously doubt it...




wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

Thanks a lot for that. Do you have any larger pictures? Some of them are hard to see very clearly.

hey i was just wonderin about what type of LED to use. I found this type on a web site WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb
12 VDC 5-LED Wedge Base bulb (194/168 type)
Super Wide Viewing Angle bulb uses 4 radially mounted LEDs aiming out the sides and one High Flux LED on top
Non Polarized
$ 2.79
would something like that be overkill or give it a nice bright glow?

Another question. Do you have to do anything to the needles to make them glow blue? because i noticed in the green pic that one of the needles still looks yellowish. What can u do to about them?


1998 Sunfire, 2.2L auto

i'd say, go ahead and use them, because they should distribute the light more evenly throughout the whole cluster.........
take pics and post them here when complete....




wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

would these work? or would they blow up? i think you would have to buy the resistors for them....not too familiar with soldering resistors or anything for that matter, but my roomate is. what size resistor would i need to get? just wondering if these woudl work in my cluster as a replacement?

http://www.lsdiodes.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=33


and please get back soon i want to order them. but if they wont work im going to walmart for the blue bulb replacements.

and i read all 3 pages, so just to be ABSOLUTELY SURE, i have a 96, all i need is 4 right?

Black96Cavy ------ >
go to walmart and pick up the 4 bulb replacemnets.. you don't need those led's.... not for your car at least......
forget the LED, link that you provided......




wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

buzz122 wrote:Black96Cavy ------ >
go to walmart and pick up the 4 bulb replacemnets.. you don't need those led's.... not for your car at least......
forget the LED, link that you provided......

i just want them to be ultra bright like the first pic.
but ill try the bulbs and see how they do

The guide/pictures above are for a 95-99, right? The cluster in the last pic looks just like mine (except for the color!). I thought the 95-99's were a 'screw out the green piece, pop in new bulbs' procedure. I don't know about all that cutting of bulbs and soldering them.

Would using wide-angle LEDs be better, or a colored bulb?

I have a 98 cavalier, fwiw.

instead of soldering those parts, all you have to really do is buy a set of #194 LED replacement bulbs, and plug them in the green caps..... thats it.......
rawkfist's procedure is great, and has wonderfull instructions, but for youguys to make it simple, just replace the 4 bulbs.....
As mentioned above, there are these wide angled LED bulbs that have like 3-4 led's pointing to the front, and 4 pointing to the sides, all inclusive in a bulb..... i'll find out more on those and post up some specs........
those are simple, plug and play bulbs.... very easy..... (again, thats only for the 99 and older cars)



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html

The WLED-x5 LED Wedge Base Bulbs ($2.79 each) is what I'm talking about.

Of course, that's the same site I got got my HVAC LEDs from, and I'm disappointed with their brightness, so I don't know if I'd buy from there again.

alkatmsu --------> i dunno if i would worry bout that, because, the brighness issue with your HVAC does not lie within the led bulb, nor the manufacurer, it does lie with the design of the HVAC backlight panle that GM designed. They only designed it for regular #74 bulbs, and it works fine when it's still all factory. Once you start chnag8ing things around to LED's and what have you, it slightly chnages the diffusion through the panel....
LED's can be much brighter than regular filament bulbs, only because of their design, BUT they are also more directional too. Just some thoughts for you guys to contemplate on.





wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

alkatmsu wrote:The guide/pictures above are for a 95-99, right? The cluster in the last pic looks just like mine (except for the color!). I thought the 95-99's were a 'screw out the green piece, pop in new bulbs' procedure. I don't know about all that cutting of bulbs and soldering them.

Would using wide-angle LEDs be better, or a colored bulb?

I have a 98 cavalier, fwiw.

yes it is the 99 and older ... you can do it that way now that i know that you can order new bulb sockets. they are a little pricy but yes you will need to cut and solder them, unless you want to order the new sockets . Ill get the web site when my bro comes home this weekend if you dont want to do the soldering/cutting part.

No you dont need leds my lights in the last picture are the ones from walmart.... I think the total cost was some were around 6 bucks for the 4. so not that much.

umm...rawkfist ....... i have to correct you.........

NO, you do not HAVE to solder anything.
i'm not gonna retype it, i'm just going to reference it back to the post i made at "3:22 PM"
thats (4) posts up from this one





wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

humm i must have skipped those bulbs. but for the walmart ones you do have to solder them in if you use stock sockets. If you get those sokcets that i mensioned before you can plug them in. So all in all you have to solder if you are using the stock sockets but there are other metodes.

Just to clarify this doesnt work on sunfires.we have a red film as part of our cluster


*************Yea i spell liek wrong get over it*****************
** If i write in caps its cause im @ work and i can only write in caps cause the keyboard is a retarded CAPS only keyboard.**

well then how the hell do u do it on a sunfire?


1998 Sunfire, 2.2L auto

hummm.... i might have to investigate this farther ... dont cont out it being soon tho im undergoing the proses on how to do the 00+'s then ill get to that. So if you guys can hold on for a little bit or some one else that has done this post a responce. And buzz lol i guess we found out the reason why the sunfire people like there stock lights lol.

Looks like the weather's gonna be decent this weekend, I may just stop by Walmart on the way home and do this for myself and see how it works. I'll try just one bulb first, and make sure it works, before doing them all... can't have a non-lit cluster! Of course, pictures will be posted (and larger ones at that).

yeah, that would so so suck if that is true..........

BUT, there just, just might be a way to get around that......
once i get more details, i'll let you guys know.......



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

hey guys...decided to pick up the bulbs and install them tonight since i was off of work. couldnt find the digital camera, but a few things you might want to put into your steps:

remember im showing nothing but love, just trying to make the directions more "user friendly"

when pulling the two tabs on the light socket, make sure to clarify that one tab comes out A LOT easier than the other, and that pulling with all your might could be an issue depending on how long your parts have been sitting there in your car (VERY hard for me, i have a 96). and that once you have the first one out the second one is the hardest.

once you get the stock bulbs out and are putting your *insert color here* bulbs in, the time it takes you to properly roll/angle the wires from the new bulb could determine a 30 min job from a 2+ hour job. if you dont line it up right the bulb will be a B*tch to get back out. if you do the wires correctly the two tabs you pulled out earlier will slide RIGHT back into place, just bend afterwards and your pretty much good to go. you might have to straighten the angle of the bottom of the tabs before you put them back together. (a quick squeeze with the pliers and they go in sooooo much easier)


personally, my biggest problem was worrying that i would break the tabs then search around for a 400 billion dollar GM socket so my clusters would at least still work. no matter how hard i pulled them damn things they stayed together..


and...... NO SOLDERING WAS NEEDED AT ALL!

Black96Cavy--------- > thank you, GREATLY appreciated....



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav