Written by
Addiction2bass
Edited by
yo****hemonk
Sorry for not having all of the pictures, but I already did the install before I was asked to do a DIY for this. I have a few pictures, but be warned – you definitely want to wear some gloves or something because the metal under the dash is very sharp. I have cuts all around my hands, but then again I had them in and out several time. It’s really easy to do but a pain in the butt at the same time, to make easier you can remove the passenger seat.
Tools needed: Philips screw driver, soldering gun and solder, LEDs, cold cathodes, or lights of your choice.
1: Remove lower center dash trim panel, 2 screws in the middle going up and one on each side of the panel lower down. Then the trim piece/ cigarette lighter will come off. Now there is a small wire harness, simply push the release button on it and pull the plugs apart and then lay the trim piece to the side. Now here is one thing that depends on your car – the radio. Mine has an aftermarket radio in it with a metal cage. So you have to remove your radio and if it uses a steel mounting cage you have to remove it, it can be annoying, especially depending on how many tabs are in place.
After you have the radio removed the easier parts come, but they’re very tedious. The A/C controls have several wiring harnesses on it, there’s a large plug that goes down behind the trim panel, it’s tied to a metal frame. I personally just took a razor blade and freed the harness. If you follow the large harness you’ll see another small plug that sits level about half way up, unplug it the same way. Now I believe all the wire harnesses are unplugged from the controls, look inside the dash again and follow the A/C controls to see the slide rod that controls the temperature flapper. Look at how it runs through the inside of the dash. I didn’t and when I put it back in I binded the slide cable. Look at the picture below for a reference on how the black cable slide is ran through the dash. Simply push down the tab and pull the cable out.
Now that all of the wires and cables are disconnected, you have three Philip screws to remove. I don’t have a picture of them but below is a picture of where the screws go – two on the right, next to the outside, and one that’s a little towards the rear. The rear one is easy to get to, but the other two are a pain in the butt.
Now that those three screws are removed just slowly pull out the climate controls.
Part 2: Modifying your climate controls
Here is a picture of those two wire harness plugs I mentioned first
Now that the controls are out of the desk, remove the fan switch unit. There are two plastic prongs that hold it in, simply push them in and pull the control unit out the back. First disconnect the green wire harness and then the rest will come off.
Now there is a round plastic clip that holds on the other metal control rod. This plastic clip is tough to get off, just work at it and turn it so it slides over and lifts off. Then just pull the rod out of the pivot point.
Now there’s that black metal part that runs over the unit. There are two screws on both sides and I think there was one in the middle as well, remove those and pull the black metal part off and set it to the side.
Now start pulling these little snaps to pull the face off. There are two on top and one on each side. Now that the face is off, take off the rear casing, three snaps on top. I think there’s a screw in there, but it’s also a clip, be sure to pull it back as well, it’s in the middle.
With those popped over a little the case should slide out, but they will be a little tight.
Now you have the board.
Pull the lights straight out and snip the wires off. And now you start adding your lighting, if you flip the controls over where the wires are soldered on the back of the board this what the wires are –
Solder your positive and negative wires from your lighting source to those terminals. I used dual 4 inch cathodes. To use cold cathodes you want to remove the bulb from their casing. Simply power them up for a few minutes then slightly pull on the end where the wires go in, the head of the lights being on should warm the flue enough and the bulbs just slide out.
Now I used some hot glue to glue the bulbs in to the climate control housing. BE VERY CAREFULL WITH THE BULBS! Make sure the bare wires don’t touch each other.
Run the wires through the bulb opening
Now the easy plugs those wire in to the cold cathodes transformer and snap it all together.
After snapping the unit back together and such I only reinstalled the rear mounting screw on the controls because those front 2 angled screws were a pain to remove and I didn’t want to reinstall them.
Part 3: If you removed you’re A/C system
You can modify the wires and use some relays to wire in your own toys, lights, security, etc.
[IMG]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/94civic%20proje
92-95 LED Climate Control Mod
