I see there there is many people who want to know who to do this so here ya go!
Ok this is long but simple easy to do steps! The parts you need are:
Needle Nose Pliers
Wire cutters
Rag
4 194 light bulbs and this counts for the led’s also!(if it’s a 99 and older)
5 194 light bulbs and this counts for the led’s also (if it is a 00+)
Soldering iron
Solder
7mm socket
Philips and flat head screwdrivers
One small nail
Hammer
A case of beer!
I will only really talk about the 99 and older but the 00+ are the same things but one more bulb I believe.
To do this the easies way and to save your fingers we’re are going to take the dash off. First, go to the driver’s side of the car. We need to take that cover off the fuse box, so do so by lifting the tap and pull. Now all that holds the rest of that piece on is clip tabs. So grab a hold and pull. Now that’s that off there is a bolt that is to the right of the fuse box or to the side closes to the steering wheel. Remove it.
Go to the passenger side of the car now. Grab the flat head screw driver, and pry that cover off. Once off there is a bolt on the left side of that opening or closest to the seats. Remove it.
Now open the glove box, and there are two bolts on the top of it, one on the left and one on the right. Remove them.
Now it doesn’t matter were you are just get in a spot were you can get at the vent by the wind shield. Grab the Philips screw driver and remove the screw that is closer to the inside of the car. Grab the flat head and pry the vent out. There is a bolt or a Philips screw on the left side of the vent opening. I can’t remember if there is one on the right side but if there is remove it as well.
This is as fare as I went because I had time against me and some one else can finish the rest of removing the dash. But anyways, go to driver’s seat; tilt the steering wheel all the way down. Lift the dash up (if you didn’t not remove it) and there are two bolts one on the left side and one on the right side of the hump of the cluster/radio bezel. Grab the flat head and ply the bezel off the car, but be careful, the connecting wires for the dimmer and the cig lighter are still attached! Once you’re done lightly pulled the bezel off disconnect the cig lighter and if you want disconnect the dimmer switch. Now you have access to the cluster.
Even though we can get at the bolts for the cluster to make removing them easier we are going to pull the wires that are connected to it. There are two of them, on if off center a little to the right, and the other one is to the fare right of the cluster, remove both. There are two bolts in the back of it witch you have to remove (this is the part were it hurts/rips your fingers up if you don’t remove the dash). Now that the whole cluster is disconnected and unscrewed, lift up on the cluster and pull free. Now you’re done in the car and you can go out and stretch your legs and drink a beer or two.
Now is the harder part, changing the bulbs. Ok, grab the cluster and your 7 mm socket and take the 7or 8 bolts out of the back of the cluster so you can get to the bulbs, Once removed throw the socket on the floor and start taking out the bulb sockets. To do so, grab the green tabs and twist to the right. They are semi hard to get twisted but they do break loose and you lift them out after you have done so. Now grab your rag and the needle nose pliers, wrap the bulbs up one by one and break the bulbs. Make sure you are breaking only the bulbs and not the sockets. Once you have just simply broken each bulb grab one of them and take the needle nose. Now look at the bulb, all of that left over glass needs to come out. So break, it scrap it, pull on it, do what ever it takes to get most of it out. You will not be able to get that little lip out of there right now. Do this to all of the sockets.
Once you have cleans most of the stuff out grab the little nail and the hammer. Flip the socket upside down (the opening/bulb opening down); find that little hole in the middle of the socket. Have nail in one hand in a position on were you can hold the nail and stop the socket from moving, and the hammer in the other hand. Place the nail (flat side) down into that hole and LIGHTLY tap the pointed end with the hammer. Now you will move it out slightly but you need to keep going until the entire thing come out. I had the bulbs come out with the tabs one half of them and the other half stayed in the socket. So for those few that come out with the bulb it’s simply break the remaining wires off of it. For those that stayed in the socket, grab the needle nose and pull. Don’t worry about the distorting of the tab it will be re formed any ways. One you have the entire bulb out, the tabs out and the tabs clean of wires, you can plug in your soldering iron.
As your iron is heating grab your 194 bulbs and get them out of the packaging. There are two wires that form a loop on the bottom of the bulb. You need to pull the wires to stick out away from the bulb. Now grab the wire cutters and cut the wire CLOSEST to the center of the bulb! Now that you have it cut, straighten the wires out all the way. Do this to all of the bulbs and you can have a break now.
Ok, so fare we have gotten the stock bulbs out and everything all set up for the new bulbs to go in. So before we can put the bulbs into the sockets lets fix those tabs. The part of the tab that has the knob/bump in it is the top. This should be slightly bent in the opposite direction of the bottom. But that’s not important you can do the stuff to this part later once you have them in the socket. Flip the tab around the bottom should be pinched closed, so grab the needle nose and pinch it.
Now we can’t install the tabs until the bulbs are in, so put the bulbs into the sockets. Simple as that but don’t put the tabs in. the knob up and out (up meaning same direction as the bulb, and out meaning to the out side of the socket). We are making them look just like they were stock. So once you have this all done grab the needle nose and grab the wire. There is a gab in between the socket and the tab on were we can place the wire. This will save us later down the road if the solder does not stick to the tabs. So once you have done that next step is to bust out the flux and the solder. So flux all the pieces well so you have a clean surface. Now grab your iron and solder and solder the wires to the tab (if you can). Hope it works out for you all. Now that you have them solders (or just simple tucked in between the socket and the tab your ready for reassembly. So grab the bulbs in the sockets and place them in the cluster. Now we go back to the car so if you want grab a beer and don’t forget to unplug the soldering iron!
Ok, back at the car and now were need to test to see if the bulbs work. Put the cluster into the area is should be and you can just set it there. Grab the bigger plug in that goes just slightly off set from the center to the right and you can just barley plug it in. If they all work GREAT, now assemble the car back together and if you can’t you need to learn to read lol. If they don’t all work like there is a dull spot in the lights then unplug and find out wants wrong (hint: it will be a problem with the soldering or the tabs if the bulbs don’t light up).
There Now you have just made an accent in your car from all of the other thousands of people that have done it. lmao!! This works for all cars!! my bro did it on his truck, i did this on my dads truck. YOU CAN DO THIS ON THE 00+ !! Oh, and don’t forget about the beer its sitting out there in the warm make sure it doesn’t go to waist!
Eitherway, pictures would greatly help your description of what to do.
