GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have become inspired to make modifications to my vibe, mainly due to some inspiration from this forum. I haven't done anything to any of my cars before, so I decided to start by just seeing how things in the dash are put together. Anyways, one thing led to another, and before long I was taking apart the radio LCD display to see if it could be changed from red to blue (I'm getting tired of the "disappearing" display trick). In the process of doing this I must have broken a few of the led lights that are behind the radio controls. (See pictures). I got a got them replaced by a friend, He assumed the radio used 12V leds, unfortunately it doesn't because the new lights only light up dimly. I'm curious if anyone knows what voltage the rado leds do use, or if there's a schematic out there somewhere for the radio...

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im just throwing it out, but 5v. im sure someone here who has done more led modding knows though.

Those look like LEDs...are they reversed? (I thought LEDs were polarized).I like northvibe's guess; could be 5V instead.

1) The radio buttons are not lit up by LEDs, but by small incandescent bulbs.EDITOn second glance, I see that you have the 6CD changer. I believe that all lamps should always be on on this unit. What I wrote below applies to the single-CD2) Be sure that they really are broken. Remember that the "numbers" on the buttons light up when you are listening to the radio, and the "control symbols" light up when you are listening to a CD. Therefore, it is normal that some lights are always off.3) The LCD is backlit by red surface-mount LEDs, but it also has a red filter integrated into the LCD glass. Therefore, you wouldn't be able to completely change the color by changing the LEDs.-PS it might be possible to get a blue LCD unit from a similar Delco/Delphi unit such as the Aztech or Montana 6CDs...

Quote, originally posted by GMJAP »1) The radio buttons are not lit up by LEDs, but by small incandescent bulbs.I can believe that. I know that the spot on my 1 CD unit between the volume and adjustment knobs gets pretty hot, an LED doesn't get hot like that

My mistake, you're all quite right. The LCD display has a little board with red leds in it (I counted 14 on mine) and the rest are little incandescent bulbs. Sorry bout that. Thanks to every one for the quick answer to my problem

SatelliteJonny-I'm curious - what do you mean by "disappearing" display trick? I meant to ask before but forgot......thanks.

i took it to mean the way the display disappears when sunlight hits it.

joatmon got it just right. I can't stand it when the sunlight comes in just right and makes everything, radio display, speedometer, etc just ...disappear!

Were the bulbs soldered on? A number of mine have burnt out and I was wondering what was involved in replacing them as the dealer has no part numbers on them.

Yes the bulbs were all soldered on, according to people on the forum you need 5V bulbs if you need to replace them (there like 1.00 - 1.50 CDN, pretty cheap). I had someone I know solder in some 12V to replace broken ones on my radio, they work, their just dim, gonna have him change them to 5V when I get the chance.