Roadster pods LED replacement...

So you've replaced all the instrument and button LED's, but your pods are still that lovely shade of orange.

You will need; Blue SideLED's x 11, Torx T10, T8, T6, solder, fine tip soldering iron, narrow gauge wire, some black card, and patience!

When the lighting circuit was designed for the pods, they used amber and red LED's which have a 1volt drop accross them.
When changing the colour this must be taken into account. Many people have tried to replace the LED's and failed due there not being enough voltage to drive the circuit.
In this How2 we will be using blue LED's which have a 3volt drop accross them.

Once you have removed the pods from the car, carefully pop off the rings, they are held on with clips at approx 10, 2, and 6 o'clock

Using a T8 Torx bit, unscrew the retainers on the base of the pods unit, unplug the cables and remove the gauges from the base. Using a T6 unscrew the 2 small retaining screws on the front of the gauges, and remove the covers.

Remove the pin by pulling straight out, and then turn the gauge face down to remove the face. The PCB will now be revealed, and this needs to be removed from the pod casing.

Starting with the boost gauge, remove all LED's from the PCB by gently heating the tabs at the base of the LED's. If you want to keep a red needle, then leave LED 4 in place.
Using a small length of tinned wire, uninsulated, short out pads numbered 1,2,6,and 8.

Solder 3,4,5,and 7 as they were originally. I find it easiest to tin the contacts of the new LED, and tin the pads, then position the LED and gently apply the iron. If you switch sides quickly enough, the solder will remain soft and the LED will settle into place and make a good contact.

When soldering 3 into place, feather some narrow gauge wire and sandwich between the pad and the LED, this is where we will take our feed for the remaining diodes.

Turn the new LED for 8 over, and solder the cables from 3, ensuring that they attach with the same polarity, we want the remaining LED's to be wired in parallel so that the voltage remains high enough to power them effectively.

From 8, go to 1, from 1 to 2, and finally from 2 to 6

 

 

During the testing phase I used a small ball of blu tak to hold the LED's in place on the circuit board, once complete I replaced this with some padded double sided tape.

I chose that sequence of wiring because between 3 and six o'clock there is plenty of space for the extra parallel wires. Be careful not to foul the needle area with the new wiring.

When complete your boost gauge should look similar to the pic above, re-assemble and go and test it in the car, you do not need to plug the temperature gauge in, or secure the pod to the base for testing.

If all connections are made well then all LED's will light and your finished gauge should look something like this;

You may want to experiment with positioning the LED's to get the best end result.

The temperature gauge is much more simple to do.

Again, de-solder the LED's from the PCB, leaving LED2 if you want to keep a red needle. DO NOT de-solder LED 6, this is the redline illumination.

 

Short pads 1 and 5, and feather in some wire between pad 4 and the LED. Then parallel from 4 to 5 and from 5 to 1.

If we were to stop there, the redline illumination would 'leak' into your new colour, so we need to mask the area off.

Take the black card and cut a strip, leave a tab that can be folded at 90 degrees to the strip for securing to the back of the dial face, secure with some double sided tape.

 

If all connections are made well then all LED's will light and your finished gauge should look something like this;

Again, you may want to experiment with positioning the LED's to get the best end result.