cruise control lights

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David Brewer

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Does anyone know how to access and replace the bulb(s) / lighting for the on/off swith on he steering wheel for the criuse control? Thanks for any help.
 
There's a bolt on either side of the steering wheel under a plastic cap. Disconnect the battery for at least 30 minutes, remove the caps, remove the bolts. The airbag will come right out in your hand. There are 2 phillips head screws in each pod, one at the top and one at the bottom. Remove the screws and then unplug the pod. The pod will then come off. You have to very carefully pry up the rubber buttons. There's a tiny bulb with a vinyl cover in the circuit board. It's removable, but good luck finding a new one. I converted mine to LED.



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Could do what dingo said, But buy the switches from ford, Remove the steering wheel and replace the switches...



Todd Z
 
I never knew the cruise control buttons were supposed to light up....I guess my bulbs have been out for a while now!:blink:
 
Not all of them are designed to light up.

On some, the words are just silkscreened on the buttons and there are no bulbs on the circuit boards.



Anyone that has the bulbs out and wants 'em done...



I can convert them to LED where they'll match the factory color, but be quite a bit brighter. Anyone that's interested, feel free to email me.



I can also do the headlight switch, since it's always the first to burn out (It's on any time the truck is on, day or night).
 
I have a complete steering wheel I took off that I could take the buttons out of if some one wanted them for LED conversion or replacement buttons...



Todd Z
 
maybe someone could do a project write up, if wanted to try to do this ourselves? i'd be interested in learning how to convert everything in the dash department over to LED
 
Jesus. It's complicated. To do the cruise control buttons, you need a dremel, a hair-thin drill bit, an LED, pliers, a soldering iron, a resistor, and INCREDIBLY steady hands.



The headlight switch just takes an LED, a resistor, some creativity.

Same with the 4x4 switch.



The foglight switch (And if you have a regular Explorer, the rear defrost) takes all of the same as the cruise, minus the dremel and drill bit.



The door switches are an evil bitch, and the gauges just simply can't be done with LEDs and get uniform lighting without fiber optics/a light pipe.



Changing the color of the gauges (and HVAC) involves partially destroying your stock controls/gauges and painting.



Y'all really want write-ups? I've already done it all, so I can't take pics, but I can guide someone else through it if they want to do the write-up.
 
Come on now it isn't that complicated.



The hardest part on the CC switch is figuring out the + and - pin on the switch.



The HL and 4x4 switch take a #74 LED with the base shortened (nail clipper) thin wires and a soldering iron, and maybe shortening the pedestal the lamp sits on.



Haven't done the fogs or the doors, but then again, I haven't had to yet.



The dash gauges and AC just require some side firing #194 5-LED bulbs (1 straight, 4 side firing). Maybe a dollop of semi-perm glue to hold the sockets in place, since it's the damn Ford sockets that twist loose on the dash gauges.



Changing the color involves sanding off the green tint, and using a colored LED of your new color choice.



 
Good approach. Mine was slightly different in a couple of ways... HL switch gets a normal 5mm LED, cut the front recessed area off of the pedestal, run the leads all the way through, bend the neg back up to the right place, solder in the resistor, and then run the other resistor lead back to the + pole on the pedestal.



Fogs take a 3mm LED, filed at about a 30 degree angle on the end, soldered in the side of the switch itself, and the - lead run along the side of the switch to the back, tied to the resistor, and then back up and soldered to the light bulb base.



Dash gauges and AC... I just put PIAA Xtreme White Plus 168s in place of the 194s. To change the color, you sand off the factory color and use transparent window paint to paint the backs, then reinstall accordingly.



Why do I get the feeling nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about?
 
I have an '03 and it doesn't appear that they were designed to light up as Dingo mentioned above. Is it possible to swap in the lighted switches or is there more to it than that for them to work?
 
It's easy to do... But you won't know if yours are supposed to light up or not just by looking. You'll only know by either knowing they lit up at some point and don't now, or by taking them apart.



Here's one I already converted to LED, but where the LED is, is where you'd have a bulb. If you have the unlit ones, you'd just have a hole there with no bulb.



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