[Greymalken]

Has anyone disassembled the gear selector to see if it's possible to change the red-selector to blue? I think it would look good to make it match the rest of the car's highlights.

 

[I'mElectric]

Has anyone disassembled the gear selector to see if it's possible to change the red-selector to blue? I think it would look good to make it match the rest of the car's highlights.

Are you talking about the selector or the indicator? My selector is already blue.

 

[Greymalken]

Are you talking about the selector or the indicator? My selector is already blue.

Right next to the gear selector. It highlights the selected gear in red. The rest of the accents in my Volt are blue. I don't know what it is, or if it can be changed, to make them match a little better. If it's a bulb or piece of colored plastic or something?

 

[Henry_FL]

It is that color so it stands out, you don't want for safety reasons to "match" the other colors

 

[Greymalken]

It is that color so it stands out, you don't want for safety reasons to "match" the other colors

You might not but I do.

 

[quirkySquirt]

I dunno about taking it apart, but since the surrounding color is mostly black, have you considered applying a tranparent, colored film over the area so that the selector appears blue?

 

[Greymalken]

I dunno about taking it apart, but since the surrounding color is mostly black, have you considered applying a tranparent, colored film over the area so that the selector appears blue?

That might work. I managed to pop the center console off but couldn't take it all the way off to see what's what because the shift knob was in the way. I'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

 

[express_wagon]

Older cars, this selector bulb is just a colored condom. Could very well be the same with this. Good luck.

 

[I'mElectric]

Older cars, this selector bulb is just a colored condom. Could very well be the same with this. Good luck.

I changed this bulb in my last car from white to blue. I liked the results other than it made it harder to see at night. I'll look into it at some point on this car as well.

 

[Greymalken]

Welp, I took the console apart and removed the light housing for the gear selector. It's basically a series of 5 leds on a special circuit board. I don't think there's gonna be any changing the colors. Unless someone makes an aftermarket board somewhere...

 

[quirkySquirt]

Depending on the LED surface, perhaps you can just use a blue sharpie and color them? When you want to return to normal, just soak a cotton swap with rubbing alcohol and 99% of the sharpie ink should be gone. No one would be the wiser. You will lose some intensity similar to the film idea.

 

[Greymalken]

Depending on the LED surface, perhaps you can just use a blue sharpie and color them? When you want to return to normal, just soak a cotton swap with rubbing alcohol and 99% of the sharpie ink should be gone. No one would be the wiser. You will lose some intensity similar to the film idea.

I couldn't find an exact pic but they basically look like this:

They're aren't the bulb kind, so I dunno how well coloring them will do. Might be worth a shot.

 

[quirkySquirt]

SMD LEDs, I think. They come in a variety of types including packages specifically for line graphs (google SMD LED bar graph for examples). There's probably a specific naming for that type since I've seen SMD packages that look different. It's a pretty safe bet to color them in and use rubbing alcohol later to undo 99% of the coloring. It will always leave a slight residue, you can see how much by taking an old CDR that you labeled with a Sharpie and rub out the writing with some isopropyl alcohol. I don't imagine these are very hot LEDs like in flashlights, light arrays, or accent lighting so no worries about "cooking" the sharpie ink.

Of course, I'm Just A Random Stranger On The Internet™. To avoid going to the effort and disassembling then hating the look, maybe try on some cheaper sacrificial electric doodad you have laying around and see if the filtering effect of the Sharpie is pleasing. I'd be worried more about the blending of the red LEDs with blue sharpie ink. The RED light combined with a blue blocking light, I'm not sure how they will mix.

More I think about it, the more I'm not liking the idea. If you can, test on something easier to disassemble first.

You may want to google "SMD LED bar graphs" and see if any of those pictures match 99% of what you saw. If it's a bar graph, you can certainly sharpie those and I have in in the past cause single-color bar graphs are only $0.90 while multi-color bar graphs cost $1.50. That extra $0.60 saved meant I could eat lunch that day. An orange-yellow bar graph can have red and green segments added easily with a sharpie with almost no noticeable loss in intensity. Just have to color uniformly and avoid going over the same path multiple times. You end up glopping the ink and swirls will develop where smooth color used to be.