Light bulbs for switches for the accord or any honda?

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Here's the thing this is for my prelude but will also pertain to my accord since I want to do this for my other switches.

Ok my power antenna switch doesn't light up like it's supposed to. I went to napa and they didn't have anything and I went to honda and they didnt list anything. I would like to replace them for my foglight switch as well.

Does anyone know where I can buy new ones?


I have an idea but I'm not 100% its right or not. I was thinking about putting leds in those spots instead of those wedge bulbs (that's what honda called them). And if I solder the led wires to the correct contacts it should be ok right?

Now I know leds operate with little voltage but do you think they would get too hot for those switches? I have 3 blue leds that I havent used yet so I would need to buy another package if I wanted to do both switches. My prelude has two light bulbs for each switch that I want to do this for.

If someone has done something else or knows that the idea will work please let me know.

-Mike

[HondaBoy]

i'd say go for the LEDs. as long as they have a resistor that makes them work on a 12 volt power source, you'll be ok. i was thinking about replacing some dash light with LEDs, just soldered onto the contacts where the original bulbs would go. another thing, LEDs dont get hot. they may get warm, but thats actually rare. i've found prewired LEDs that make it a lot easier than buying the LED and resistor seperate and trying to match up the correct resistor.

[A20A1]

I'd say test the voltage... or buy an led that can handle 12v and you'll be fine.
I remember buying IR leds instead of regular ones and I thought they were broken.

[YK86]

Honda has them but with the diagram being so crappy, half the time they have to pull out all the bulbs listed to figure out what you need. Maybe the counter guy didn't want to do that for you?? I usually go to the wrecker and grab a handful. Those bulbs aren't cheap brand new.

BTW, did the Prelude have a power antenna switch? I didn't see it in the 92 I worked on. Where is it located?

Anyways, LED might be a better option. It'll look better than the OEM green.

[HostileJava]

I'd say test the voltage... or buy an led that can handle 12v and you'll be fine.
I remember buying IR leds instead of regular ones and I thought they were broken.

Haha, your blinding some alien out there Mike. 12v LED's will work fine. I just pulled bulbs from the junkyard to replace mine.

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Well I have never seen a 4th gen lude in the junkyard so thats out of the question.

The power antenna and foglights are optional equipment for any 4th gen. I just happen to get mine from japan though. But they were offered here in North America.

The leds I have do have the wires and resistor already wired to the leds so I will just buy another pack of ricers bliss ;) Hehehe I always feel like I'm ricing it out when I buy stuff from autozone. Those leds I bought were $9 a pack but it helps that everything is already wired up and ready to go.

Thanks for your guy's input. I will let you know how it goes and take some pics if it works of the pretty blue buttons after I get my car back. It's almost been a month that it's been in the shop. :( But I only get a couple hours each day to work on it and when I did the brakes I had a lot of special order parts from honda so it took forever and a day to get all the stuff to do the job right. And I still need to drop the trans and put in my clutch and flywheel package. And I have also been doing other things to the lude as well. Wiring in more speakers, the antenna, the foglights, and various other things that will make it look nicer inside.


-Mike

[HostileJava]

Jesus $9 for how many? Just grab some off ebay.

[Mike's89AccordLX]

$9 for 3 blue ones.

[EricW]

when you buy the ones from the auto parts stores their usually already wired for 12v but if you want to save a little money and do more work you can just buy the leds seperately and use ohms law to figgure out what rating of resistor you need and then buy the resistors. I just bought 500 blue leds for $12 and now i have to go buy some resistors. I don't have anny clue what I'm going to do with all of them but I 'm sure I'll use them eventally.

Oh yeah if anyone else is intersested ohm's law is
Ohm's = ( Source Voltage - LED Voltage Drop ) / Amps

[kilgorq]

when you buy the ones from the auto parts stores their usually already wired for 12v but if you want to save a little money and do more work you can just buy the leds seperately and use ohms law to figgure out what rating of resistor you need and then buy the resistors. I just bought 500 blue leds for $12 and now i have to go buy some resistors. I don't have anny clue what I'm going to do with all of them but I 'm sure I'll use them eventally.

Oh yeah if anyone else is intersested ohm's law is
Ohm's = ( Source Voltage - LED Voltage Drop ) / Amps

resistance = 12 - .6 (Average) / 30 miliamps (Approximately)
R = 11.4/.030
R = 380 Ohms
I recommend experimenting with sizes between 270 Ohm and 1K Ohm to get the brightness you want. Rat Shack (AKA Radio Shack) has assortments for very cheap. Start big and work your way down. The lower the value the brighter it will be.

And resistors are color coded Like this

Black 0
Brown 1
Red 2
Orange 3
Yellow 4
Green 5
Blue 6
Violet 7
Gray 8
White 9

You normally have 4 bands The first 2 bands are the number and the third is the multiplier. So if you have Orange Orange Black you have a 3.3 Ohm But Orange Orange Brown Woulde b a 33 and Orange Orange Red would be a 330 and of course a Orange Orange Orange would be a 3.3 K or 3300 so on and so forth. The forth band is the tolerance which you really dont care about in this application. But it will probably be Red meaning 10%

[HostileJava]

Haha here's a little code that my teacher gave me back in school:

0 Black -- Bad
1 Brown -- Boys
2 Red ---- Rape
3 Orange - Our
4 Yellow - Young
5 Green -- Girls
6 Blue --- But
7 Violet - Violet
8 Grey --- Gives
9 White -- Willingly