Red to White Interior Illuminated Buttons/Controls

[NaiveTurtle]

So I was never a fan of the interior buttons/MMI being red at night and recently I got the chance to ride in a B9 SQ5 at night which has white illuminated buttons. I was sold. Being somewhat handy with a soldering iron, I ordered up some SMD LEDs and went to work swapping over all the LEDs on my interior. I think it makes the car much more modern.

Given that my car is wrapped purple I also found some purple PLCC2 LEDs which I used for the MMI knobs and the on indicators on the buttons.

I was also able to swap the HVAC LCD from red to white as well thanks to a post on A5OC (cost me $7). The LCD looks very blue in the picture but in reality it is much darker and close to black.


Before:



After:

[RVJ]

Nice.

You’d think for a few more bucks Audi in the higher end cars would just use true RGB LED’s and allow you to customize via the MMI.


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[cam101]

I like that. Very nice

[Cloudg8]

Looks awesome how long did that all take you.


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[papadelogan]

Any chance you took pics to do a walk-through on this project? I love the look of it, but do have concerns about my soldering skill level.

[NaiveTurtle]

Looks awesome how long did that all take you.


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I originally found the MMI swap thread on Audi Enthusiasts and bought all the LEDs (PLCC2) for the MMI thinking all the LEDs we're the same throughout but I was wrong. So it took some time finding the right ones and waiting for shipping. But actual swapping only took me like a total of 12 hours spread over a few days. The soldering goes quick but I was plugging everything in to make sure the new LEDs worked.

Any chance you took pics to do a walk-through on this project? I love the look of it, but do have concerns about my soldering skill level.

Here is where I got my idea from. He walks through the process. I would definitely say a quality soldering and the right soldering tip is key. I have a Hakko FX888D soldering iron but a quality adjustable Weller will work just fine. Also, I bought the super fine conical bent soldering tip for the super small LEDs, it was critical.

https://www.audienthusiasts.com/Project_MMILED.html

Also, PLCC2 Mini LEDs are the vast majority of the LEDs in the car. Mouser has them, it was the only place I could find that had the in cool white.

[NPuter]

Excellent work! I bet pulling everything apart was most of the battle.

[NaiveTurtle]

Excellent work! I bet pulling everything apart was most of the battle.

Honestly, pulling everything apart and disassembling the components wasn't too bad. Toughest part was dealing with the PLLC2 Mini LEDs. They're only 1.4mm x2.2mm, so getting an iron in there and. Ot ruining the new one was a challenge at first. After I found the bent fine cone soldering tip it was a lot easier.

[misterdray]

I'm glad I found someone who did this already. I am doing the same thing essentially but you beat me to it. Im having an issue with the mmi console. I swapped all the red LEDs out, every single one but it won't light up and the center knob doesn't turn. So I went and got another board at the junkyard verified it worked since I thought I maybe messed it up. Swapped all the red LEDs to white and same thing. So I swapped back all the red LEDs and boom it works just fine. My question is, did you have to replace some resistors as well since the red LEDs are 1.9v and not 3.0v?