Well after faffing about for 3 weeks or so (mostly ordering and then waiting for deliveries) I've swapped my heater dials over to the Evo versions and also changed the LEDs in the dash to white...

Here's a few photos, let me know your thoughts.

Looks good! Is the silver facia a separate part then? The evo heater dial unit doesn’t come with that... How complex a job was it?

Looks sweet man, seriously thinkin bout changin my LEDs now, looks so much better. How long it take?

TJ07 said:

Looks good! Is the silver facia a separate part then? The evo heater dial unit doesn’t come with that... How complex a job was it?

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The silver facia is the original one, I took both units apart and swapped the knobs themselves, with a bit of dremeling it wasn't too hard really.

Gr3g said:

Looks sweet man, seriously thinkin bout changin my LEDs now, looks so much better. How long it take?

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It depends which you want to do to be honest, the dashboard speedo dials are probably the easiest of them all, theres only 6 to do so probably 30-40min including removal and refitting as its a bit of effort getting the hands back on in the right place... the hardest ones are the steering wheel controls as they're so tiny.

You definately need a variable temperature soldering iron as most smd's can't deal with temps over 250deg (even then I fried at least a quarter of the ones i soldered). You also need some small bits, a 3mm flat and a 0.5mm are the ones I used.

The soldering itself can probably be done in a day if your had everything ready, and didn't get bored/lose patience! I did it over several weeks as pretty much every set of leds are a different size, so I had to order some more and wait.

they look awesome! do you have a link or just a website name where you got the LED's from please? Thanks!

Gavin, any chances you could post a short guide on how to disassemble the speedometer unit in order to replace the LEDs behind?
Any pictures of the procedure?

ben0101 said:

they look awesome! do you have a link or just a website name where you got the LED's from please? Thanks!

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Sorry for the late reply, most of the LEDs I got from ebay.
These are the ones I used http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-pcs-Whi...D-/110631387572?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123 - you only need 6 for the dial backgrounds, not 100!
They seem to be sold singularly here: http://www.lightec-autostyle.co.uk/plcc2-leds-surface-mount-green-blue-white-pink-p-133.html But I'm sure theres more places that'd sell them too, providing you get "1210" (also called PLCC-2) they'll be the right size for the speedos.

gi_viper said:

Gavin, any chances you could post a short guide on how to disassemble the speedometer unit in order to replace the LEDs behind?
Any pictures of the procedure?

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I don't have any guide or photos of the disassemble, its fairly straight forward though, 4 screws to get the thing out of the dash, unclip and unplug the cable and then more screws to separate the rear casing from the front and a few clips to remove the "motherboard" from the rear casing. The most difficult bit is getting the dial hands back on in the right places (they just pull off the actuator when given some force).

GavinAshford said:

Sorry for the late reply, most of the LEDs I got from ebay.
These are the ones I used http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-pcs-White-POWER-TOP-PLCC-2-1210-3528-SMD-SMT-LED-/110631387572?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123 - you only need 6 for the dial backgrounds, not 100!
They seem to be sold singularly here: http://www.lightec-autostyle.co.uk/plcc2-leds-surface-mount-green-blue-white-pink-p-133.html But I'm sure theres more places that'd sell them too, providing you get "1210" (also called PLCC-2) they'll be the right size for the speedos.

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You know the led to white thing, can you buy the slightly more expensive led with the holder and just swap them in without soldering cos I just cant be doing that to my abarth dash??

Did you find it hard to do ? We tried it on my mates corsa and messed it up badly lol

Ckem247 said:

Did you find it hard to do ? We tried it on my mates corsa and messed it up badly lol

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no its not hard but if your no good with a soldering iron.. give it a miss. you run the risk of frying the board and that's game over.


I've done 4 sets of GP dials now

Reuuk said:

no its not hard but if your no good with a soldering iron.. give it a miss. you run the risk of frying the board and that's game over.


I've done 4 sets of GP dials now

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So you have to unsolder/solder them? There's no ones that you can buy that just plug in without soldering?

OCZedd said:

So you have to unsolder/solder them? There's no ones that you can buy that just plug in without soldering?

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that is correct. there is a company that makes those 'plug and play' style ones but they still require some basic wire connection skills, I don't know any that do them for the GP's though.


example..


https://moman.pl/fiat,25,0.html

No I don't mean a whole dash kit but just some leds that can be fitted without soldering, maybe like these but I don't really know:

http://www.lightec-autostyle.co.uk/ready-leds-509t-twist-lock-c-8_19.html

http://www.lightec-autostyle.co.uk/ready-leds-push-c-8_40.html

Anyway if its not possible they do sell glue wire that conducts and you don't need to solder the leds then, but I don't know if this is possible or do you still need to un-solder the original leds? Also is there actually a chance that you could fry the whole board with a solderer not just the leds?