Illumination on 115V switch & cigarette lighter, window switch

[wmassdino]

Hey Guys, I love my vibe but have 1 pet peeve. The Illumination on the 115V switch & cigarette lighter, window switch (auto) are green they dont match the orange/red... they look strange. Anyone know if the Matrix ones are red/orange. I would want to switch them out if they are.Thanks Dino

[Mavrik]

I would imagine they are also green... since their interior lighting is pretty much identical. I've gotten used to the green, doesn't bother me any though now I am curious if the Trix has something different.

[SGT]

I am pretty sure that they are green in the Matrix as well. Those are 'left-over' parts from the Toyota parts bin and most Toyotas have that green illumination. I got in my Mom's Camry and the power window switches and lighter were exactly the same (same lighting too) as in my Vibe.

[bus driver]

Just the window switches on mine are green, Dash is completly orange (2004 Vibe)

[blake31]

Quote, originally posted by bus driver »Just the window switches on mine are green, Dash is completly orange (2004 Vibe)i've got a 2004, and the ring around my lighter and the 115v switch are green.

[wmassdino]

Thanks Guys!

[Raven]

Mine are green also on my Ontario '04 base Vibe.

[tnpartsguy]

Cigerette lighter and 115 V switch green?88972571 Bulbs .9 watt RED, versus the original 1.2 watt Green.I'll be putting mine in in the next few days....yes, it will be less bright, but it will be red, and match everything else!BTW, my window switches are all red.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »BTW, my window switches are all red.How'd ya manage that? Your window switches light up and they're red? Wish mine lit up! That's always been a major gripe of mine.

[tnpartsguy]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »Cigerette lighter and 115 V switch green?88972571 Bulbs .9 watt RED, versus the original 1.2 watt Green.I'll be putting mine in in the next few days....yes, it will be less bright, but it will be red, and match everything else!BTW, my window switches are all red. I'm so dumb, the only light on the window switch is the "AUTO" light on the drivers switch on the drivers door, and it lights up green...I could have sworn it was red....Pontiac shows it lighing up in RED on the website for '05, but the bulb is not replaceable (I'm sure it is, I just didn't want to take a change tearing up the PW switch unless I had another one handy)BUT, I did replace the cigarette lighter ring and the 115V indicator bulbs today....the 115V is a bit dim, but the cigarette lighter ring is perfect, matches the other interior lights in brightness perfectly and RED (btw, the bulb part # above won't work on the cigarette lighter bulb, but the bulb condom from it will!!! ) The bulb part # above will work on the 115V & Indicator just fine....

[ColonelPanic]

That's good stuff to know! I thought about getting the cigarette lighter ring to illuminate red - my original idea was a heck of a lot more complex than your solution! IIRC, that's a green LED there - I was about ready to desolder that sucker and slap a red one in there. As for the inverter switch, that's good info too - I assumed that there was no replacing that light. (Kinda like how the dealer had to replace my whole A/C / recirc. switch due to the backlighting not working.)I'd say that it was a good idea straying away from the power window switch. From what I gather, that has to be an LED in there. If you look close enough, you'll see that the AUTO is lit all the time, whether the lights are off and on - it's switched with the ignition. Doubt they used an incandescent for something that's gonna be lit that much. Not sure if you've got a manual or an automatic... I'm not liking the green backlighting for the gear position indicator that much, I would love figuring out a way to get it red. The condom idea will work well for that, I imagine.Thanks for the update, and this sounds like a good project to tackle!

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Not sure if you've got a manual or an automatic... I'm not liking the green backlighting for the gear position indicator that much, I would love figuring out a way to get it red. The condom idea will work well for that, I imagine.Thanks for the update, and this sounds like a good project to tackle!The auto tranny uses colored plastic to dictate the color of each gear position...It's traditional yellow incandescent bulbs behind there...so you'd have to somehow make yourself a new piece of plastic...

[ColonelPanic]

Yep, I found that out when I knocked the little plate for the indicator out of the shifter. And you're right, definitely is a standard incandescent, and the panel itself is clear plastic. The black and the stuff for the characters are sprayed on or whatever. I had to touch up a place on the underside of that piece because some of the black was scraped off during the incident, giving a long white line in the black area. Sharpie did well to touch it up.. So, we're definitely not able to get the thing to light up red red, like the rest of the stuff. I wonder what color one would get when changing the bulb color to red? Some sort of orange or brown, I'm thinking. Still may give it a try some day.

[ragingfish]

Can you scratch the green off and the red-sharpie the letters back in? i've never looked at it quite that closely...

[ColonelPanic]

Sadly, I don't think you can... The green actually seems to be mixed in with the white paint for the characters. How they take something that looks white and make it light up green, I'll never know.Uh oh, ding ding ding... Here's a what if! If you take the lens and scan it for reference, then scrape all of the stuff off of it, making it clear... You know the clear plastic sheets you can run through an inkjet printer for transparencies for an overhead projector? What if you went into whatever graphics program of your choice, make an image sized properly, with a black background (or maybe even just use the image scanned of the original piece and work with that one.) Put white characters in the font of your choice for the PRND2L (i'm thinking an italic font similar to that on the '03s gauges!,) make white openings for the orange dots to show through, and print that sucker! That will give you a piece of black plastic with clear characters. Stick that to the inside of the shifter lens... Slap a red bulb condom on the light... If one had enough talent and a decent printer, that may actually work. Now, the black needs to be BLACK, so I'm not sure depending on the printer, if you'd get light bleeding through. Mabye if things lined up just so, you could run it through the printer twice? Ooh, or maybe, make the background a dark red kinda like the Delphi radio display?If I could get the part number for the lens itself, I wouldn't mind trying this out. I'm not too keen on ruining the current piece that's in there, but if I had an extra, I'd be willing to give it a shot! Of course, my printer kinda sucks, so I'd have to hang out somewhere where somebody has a kickin' printer.

[ColonelPanic]

As I roamed the aisles of the mighty WAL*MART, I realized my plan is flawed! Some of the problems mentioned above would be uh, the characters won't be visible during the day!!! And the light won't be distrubted evenly with the clear characters. So I would need some sort filter that's a translucent white, which would allow light to be distributed evenly and make the PRND2L visible during the dayI bought some of the transparency film and also found some static cling plastic that you can print stickers with and stick to glass and stuff.. And a new inkjet cartridge. So, time to fire up The GIMP and go to town!

[ragingfish]

when you perfect your system, you might consider going to staples and having them color laser print your "insert" onto transparency film...would look cleaner than an inkjet printout...

[ragingfish]

pontiac font is a nice touch...hey man, if you pull this off, i might pay you to make me one too!

[ColonelPanic]

Sounds like a plan to me! I may just see if I can find a thin piece of plastic and not screw with my original lens...

[ragingfish]

There's something in my parts list called "Bezel, Shift Indicator"I think that might be what you're looking for, but I'm unsure...It's part #88971011

[ColonelPanic]

Schweet! And the part is $17.something at GMPartsDirect... I may check that out and see if that is what I need. Here's another idea I had, if the red would have enough contrast during daylight hours. At night, I think this one would look pretty sharp.

[tnpartsguy]

I'll verify your Part # Monday.

[ragingfish]

I like that new one, but don't forget the recess is oval shaped, so the "Pontiac" at the top might get covered on each end of the word...maybe "vibe" in the vibe font (impact i think?) would work better?

[ColonelPanic]

Probably so!I printed off a few of 'em last night, but I'm not sure how well this is going to work. The stuff needs to be daaaark! So, I definitely need something better than my printer to make this stuff look somewhat decent. lol

[tnpartsguy]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »There's something in my parts list called "Bezel, Shift Indicator"I think that might be what you're looking for, but I'm unsure...It's part #88971011It's called a Dial, and that IS the correct part #.....I still thing you could put a RED bulb in, but the "R" for Reverse is already Red, so it would be hard to find.....

[ColonelPanic]

I've got the little piece out now... I may try to find something red to put over the bulb to see what happens. My little project probably isn't going to go anywhere, don't have the equipment, time, or creativity to make it happen. One thing I am going to try is to print out various shades of different colors on the transparencies, and tape the stuff to the bottom side of the lens. We'll see how that turns out.

[ychartra]

Scan your file and go see a sign maker. He can have vinyl cut that you could apply. It would be more opaque than an inkjet over tranny material. You could also get a virgin piece of plastic, cut and shape to the one from the vibe and apply the vinyl lettering to it.Shouldn't cost too much

[silverbullet]

ok hopefully someone can help me with this too. i got the cigarette lighter out and i got it apart and got to the bulb. i think for that im gonna go to autozone and look for a red condom. but for the 115v switch how can i open it up or take it apart and get to the light?

[silverbullet]

also for the cig lighter ring. i have red leds i know would look nice in there but would it work with the wiring thats there now if i just swapped it with the bulb? or is there a big difference in how they operate or how much power they would use?

[Wolfman213]

swapping to a led will be perfectly fine. The only issue is the polarity. You will need to make sure you have the led plugged into it correctly before you put everything back together. the difference in power is big, but for the better. that one led will use a fraction of the power that the standard bulb would use

[silverbullet]

I looked into it some and I think I will have to use a resistor or it won't work. I will have to go to radio shack and get an led to fit and then figure out what size resistor I need.

[Wolfman213]

Check this link out. Somewhere closer to the bottom i've listed the bulb types that you can get on SuperBright that work for the instrument panel. I'm sure that one of those bulbs would prob fit it. Although I'm not sure as I don't have the cig lighter.