Funny, the BF wagaon we have at work exhibits the bubbling, yet my GT-P is perfectly fine.

I've seen that bubbling on quite a few taxi-cabs around the place. Even on the actual gear shifter itself. Pretty poor build quality in my opinion.

Quite a few people have been PM'ing me about how to change the PRND globe to blue without removing the driver's seat and handbrake, so I thought I'd add instructions here for everyone.

1) Remove the square fascia around the PRND plate (just flicks off, you can use your hands for this.)

2) There are 4 large, metal bolts and 2 screws holding down the PRND plate. Remove all these.

3) Remove the tissuebox holder (2 screws on either side, 4 in total, unplug the cigarette lighter also).

4) There are also 4 screws (2 on either side of the PRND plate) holding the top layer of the console down. Remove these.

5) Remove the cup holder also (just yank it out, no screws are present, although don't yank too hard or you might bust the plastic clips).

6) Remove all 6 screws from under the console lid. When you do this, the console lid will simply detach with the rear vents on it.

7) You should now be able to gently lift the entire console top layer upwards about an inch. This is sufficient for our purposes.

Now...

Lift the console up as much as you can (as I say, about an inch) and wedge something inside the side of the console to keep the top layer there without you having to hold it (you need both your hands free). Or, get someone to hold it up for you.

There should be about half an inch clearance between the PRND plate and the top layer of the console. That's all you need.

There's nothing actually holding the PRND plate in per se, other than the screws which have already been removed. At this point, it's simply "clicked" onto the transmission frame. Although I will admit, it is clicked in very deeply. Using your thumb and index finger, go to each corner of the PRND plate and pull upwards as hard as you can. You should feel the PRND plate starting to give slightly on each corner. Keep doing this, and the plate will loosen.

The top left and bottom right corners of the PRND plate are the hardest to loosen (these are the corners where the screws were originally). The top right and bottom left should be fairly easy.

You will get a little frustrated with the top left and bottom right corners, and you may feel like you are about to break something, but trust me that there's NOTHING holding in the plate once the screws have been removed. You just need to keep tugging at it and it will budge eventually.

As the plate gets higher and higher, it is essentially getting looser and looser out of its socket. It should get very wobbly by the time you use all the inch clearance between the top layer of the console and the plate itself. At this point, change the gear into D (this moves the black shifting plastic down) then tilt the plate downwards and up to get it out.

The globe is just a T5, nothing fancy. You can get a blue one from ebay or most auto shops.

Once you change the globe over, reverse the above steps and you're done.

Looks great, well done how did you loosen off the console?

Disregard last post, always good to scroll down, I was gobsmacked with the pix! :

that looks mad, i wouldnt mind doing that myself.

can you do this to the light behind the speedo? and if so is there a thread somewhere with pictures to show what it would look like??

Speedo and tacho are already blue in an XR. It is green in the XTs.

All LEDs in the BA cluster are surface mount LEDs, so if you want to change any LEDs over, get your soldering iron out. Refer to the picture below.

 

 

Attachments:

File comment: A BA cluster with needles and faces removed showing the surface mount LEDs underneath. IMG_2120.JPG [ 141.68 KiB | Viewed 3793 times ]

Love you work on this one looks fantastic might do this myself if i ever get around to it....

was going to start aother thread but didnt see the point when this one is already on the topic of LED lights. changing my PRND light in a few days and was wondering if I could change the lights that light up everything behind the dash (not the cluster im going to buy an XR cluster to make thar blue) so everything like the heater controls, CD player and all that stuff. can they be changed like the gear selector

No, they're like the cluster - all surface mount LEDs.

And unless you can find the right colour blue, most blue LEDs you'll buy WON'T match the XR/FPV blue.

WHAT NUTS AND BOLTS DID YOU REMOVE BESIDES ALL THE ONES AT THE TISSUE BOX AND UNDER THE AUTO HOUSING?
just the ones in the centre console?
cheers andrew

finaly got around to doing this today.

Very happy with how it turned out

I have an 03 BA xt. I'm currently sitting in my car with everything out like u said but I can only get the bit around the PRND to lift like a cm. Any help would b greatly apprecited. It's giving me the s**t haha

Alright I have now gotten tithe stage were I have unclipped the PRND piece but how do u get it out from under the black bit? Hope u guys can help. I'm gettin so over it

You need a to lift up the centre console surround as high as you, can just move the silver piece around a bit. Its not a simple lift and pull, you'll need to truy and shift it as far forward as possible so that the back little clip bits (silver) can just get under the edge and then it will just pop out... sounds complicated, but you'll know what i mean as you're doing it.

Cheers