illuminated air-vent wheels

K

Keith

Member
I noticed on YouTube a 1.2TDI shows it to have illuminated dasboard air vent thumbwheels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J9YAO1fSI8&feature=related

From new, my A2 1.4 has never had this feature, but due to the effort involved of moulding translucent markings into each wheel, I always thought they should illuminate.

Assuming there wasnt a fault, I guessed the air-vent controls were off a higher model, & this feature was never activated on the "lowly" A2 to save cost. I noticed a 2002 thread on this forum that concludes it wasnt a feature.

However this video shows it must be possible to illuminate them?

Has anyone done this, or knows how much is involved?
 
Last edited:
erstens

It would be great if you could post some instructions in English on this site about how to do this modification.

Many thanks
 
It's relatively simple.
- if you can't solder - forget it.
- if you don't have a dremel / proxxon / whatever, get one. get a 5mm round bit at the same time.
- you'll need 3 x 5mm or so (or 3 x 3mm or 3 x SMD) per vent
- also cable and appropriate resistors.

- dismantle the vents. Careful, they are fragile.
- from the white section behind the part to be lit, remove as consistently as possible the space for the LEDs. don't go all the way through! You'll need to go around 1mm below the black outside section.
Wire your LEDs in place, cut the leads as appropriate and test.

That's pretty much it.

work as neatly as possible, use hotglue to glue them in place and wire them to another switch that's lit (like the ASR one).

The pics erstens posted show most of the detail.

Bret
 
bretti_kivi said:
It's relatively simple.
- if you can't solder - forget it.
- if you don't have a dremel / proxxon / whatever, get one. get a 5mm round bit at the same time.
- you'll need 3 x 5mm or so (or 3 x 3mm or 3 x SMD) per vent
- also cable and appropriate resistors.

- dismantle the vents. Careful, they are fragile.
- from the white section behind the part to be lit, remove as consistently as possible the space for the LEDs. don't go all the way through! You'll need to go around 1mm below the black outside section.
Wire your LEDs in place, cut the leads as appropriate and test.

That's pretty much it.

work as neatly as possible, use hotglue to glue them in place and wire them to another switch that's lit (like the ASR one).

The pics erstens posted show most of the detail.

Bret
Click to expand...
Bret hello,
i was going thru "The definitive Mods List" and found "Illuminated vents", for which is really a shame not to be fitted by Audi when car was produced. I used to have A3s and A4s previously, and they all have this vents illuminated. The car looks much nicer and illuminated vents give the final touch to the whole interior. I recently have Interior ambient led light installed (again as a nostalgia from other cars), and now decided to go and get the vents illuminated as well. Checked how-to in this thread from you and Mutze, and i think I can manage this.

Please allow me a couple of additional questions.
1. Do you maybe have the exact info on what LEDs and resistors do we need to do this upgrade.
I checked for SMD leds, and found quite a lot.
I know they have to be 12V, dimension from 3x3mm to 3x5mm. What about LED current (mA), Wavelenght (nm) and luminosity (lm).?
2. Resistors. Should i just ask in the shop, what resistors are needed for the type of LED i am buying, or else... (W?, axial, carbon...)
3. i saw SMD Led bends. I haven't found any that are narrower than 5mm, and I'm also not sure that the distance between the individual LEDs is adequate to fit the markings on the ventilation button/knob. What do you think, can it work just getting this band.

Hope you (or anyone else) can help me with this. Thank you in advance. Take care, Andrej
 
Morning all,

This modification is definitely on my things to do list whilst off work over the festive period. Fingers crossed I find time.

At night I think the dashboard looks quite bland above the head unit and to my eyes, is missing this very enhancement, which should be quite an easy task. There is plenty of information available. I wish I felt this strongly about it 12 months ago when I had the dashboards out of both dailies.

I’m sure many more will add to this thread over the coming weeks as it’s a great modification to take on yourself.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Tottaly agree with you Tom,
I will get a red led band tomorrow. My friend has some left. It is a kind of band that each LED may be de-solded and use elsewhere. Hope it will work. Will update pictures tomorrow. Otherwise will order correct 3x3 SMD leds from web. And they are very cheap.
Will write to Santa that illuminated vents are what I want for Christmas.
Cheers, A
P.S. no need to remove the whole dashboard. Just ventilators. Center one are easy, side onces to. Just glove box off, and the same on drivers side. easypeasy.
 
kiklop123 said:
Tottaly agree with you Tom,
I will get a red led band tomorrow. My friend has some left. It is a kind of band that each LED may be de-solded and use elsewhere. Hope it will work. Will update pictures tomorrow. Otherwise will order correct 3x3 SMD leds from web. And they are very cheap.
Will write to Santa that illuminated vents are what I want for Christmas.
Cheers, A
P.S. no need to remove the whole dashboard. Just ventilators. Center one are easy, side onces to. Just glove box off, and the same on drivers side. easypeasy.
Click to expand...
Thanks Andrej,

Yes this looks like a nice easy installation should I find the time. Would have preferred to do it with the dashboard off to route and secure the new looms in place but pretty certain I’ll make it look good.

I do have a few spare red LEDs from various points in the A2 which I’m hoping to reuse for this modification, failing that I’ll just go purchase the SMDs.

Good luck and looking forward to the pictures.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
I remove the central vents, just to see if the LED strip will fit. It is a bit to wide, however i managed to cut sides with scissors, and make it narrow enough to fit.
It is 1M of LED strip, 60 LEDs/m, you can cut it on every 3cm, 12V, and it cost me nothing. Generally you can get that type of strip for bellow 10EUR.
It was a bit tricky separating the front fascia and the rest of the ventilation unit. Here is where i listend to Bretti_Kivi's warning, that the parts are very fragile. Have no problem with that, having his advice in mind. Know the vent knobs are out, tomorrow plans are to cut and place the LED strip in, and hot glue it.
I think i am few steps from realization of this project. getting anxious to see the final product. Pictures follows. Bye, take care, Andrej

IMG_20221215_161114 copy.jpg
IMG_20221215_164135 copy.jpg
 
Last edited:
Good evening,
been busy today, however still manage to find time for my project with illuminated vents.
With Biax (Dremel) and diamant bur, i cut the ventilator knob and place the prepared LED strip in the gap. Check the picture.
IMG_20221216_170616.jpg

The problem was, that LEDs were to bright, so I paint over the LEDs with black marker pen (alchocolic), and than wipe off to get sufficient brightnes. When i was happy, place back in the gap and put a couple of drops of hotglue.
IMG_20221216_170602.jpg

Until now i just make two ventilator knobs on the center console. In next days will finish the side ones.
It was a very fun project and not very complicated. Like Breti-kivvi said, all you need is right tools, material and voila....
IMG_20221216_195218.jpg
IMG_20221216_195239.jpg
IMG_20221216_195314.jpg

Cheers, Andrej
 
Great work Andrej,

The final look is spot on and exactly what I’m hoping to achieve when I’m ready to go.

Thanks for the very helpful pictures.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Final work was made today. All four vents were modified with LEDs. Recommending this mod to everyone.
Cheers, Andrej
 

Attachments

  • 4 vent.jpg
    4 vent.jpg
    437 KB · Views: 84
Excellent work Andrej,

To me, this is one of the little finishing touches which are missing from the A2. So glad they are easily added.

This is something I’ll be doing over the next week or 2 now the temperatures are looking to rise a little.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
i took the feed from radio (chorus 2). I used the negativ wire (brown, can be found on black plug for radio unit) and wire for illumination (orange)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top