OK, WAY too much time on my hands.
Took the idea of diff colored LEDs and soldered a few into some test switches.
Here's what I found:
The red and green LED's are too dim (the matte or fog inside the potting dulls the brightness through the switch diffuser.
If the switches have all the window logo rubbed off so there's just a round white thing, it's a little brighter.
Best I found was a clear LED that is bright red with 12v.
Here's a pic of the test switch assy:
Here's a pic with just the red LED illuminating an all-white diffuser:
Here's a pic with the red LED under a rocker with the window logo still intact on its diffuser and the stock LED under an all-white diffuser for comparison:
Here's a pic of the same setup, except a little ambient light to see what's going on:
What I think I'll do is change out the passengers rear switches to the bright LEDs with all-white diffusers and leave the console ones as-is. After all the LED merry-go-round, I think the soft amber color of the stock switches works well.
Green looks too much like most American cars (not that that's a bad thing, it's just nice to be different). Red is too "weird" for window switches.
There is one thing that came to mind though. Ripoff Shack now sells LED's that have a potted-in resistor so you can hook them up to 12v directly. That may be an answer to the front instrument lights. Just replace those little bulbs with 12v LEDs and NEVER have to replace them again.
Could also wire some up inside the instrument panel (run the wires where the two reflectors are) and direct the LEDs down toward the face of the instruments?
They don't get hot and they last forever.
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