Fun fixing heater control lights (long)

KAdams4458 · 02-14-2003, 12:42 PM

Okay, so I just got back inside from attempting to work on my car. The two light bulbs that illuminate the heater control panel decided to quit working, and that makes it kind of hard to know what I'm doing in the dark. So, I set out to replace them. What better time to work on dash lights than the middle of the night when you can see them light up the best?

So, removing the bezel was easy. It just popped right off. I did find that one of the friction clips was missing from the back of it, so I'll have to add that to my list of junkyard odds and sodds. Now, the radio removal was something of a challenge. The previous owner installed a Pioneer head unit which of course requires the use of a dash adapter kit. The factory mounts for the radio consist of two screws as many of you may know. These guys apparently didn't like that, so they added two more screws at the bottom. Now, this may have seemed like a good idea to them at the time, but it caused me a great deal of trouble. The two extra scrwws that they put through the bottom of the bracket are only accessible from the DIN sized mount within the adapter. Of course, there was a radio in that hole. Guess what? It takes two of those little sheet metal tools that you place on either side of the radio to slide it out of the metal bracket it fits in to. Guess what else? I DON"T HAVE THEM!

And I thought it was bad that it took me a week to figure out how to set the damn clock.

I eventually ended up using a hacksaw to cut through the middle of these two screws. Talk about a pain. Now I have to re-engineer the mounts.

Once I could finally get to the climate control assembly, I find two burnt out light bulbs. Not normal bulbs, mind you. These weird little funky things mounted at the end of long grey plastid bases. What the hell are these things called? I've never seen them before in my life. I sure hope that NAPA knows what these bulbs are.

Man... This new/used car is being a pain in the ass. Everything that goes wrong with it is just stupid little stuff like light bulbs and missing friction fittings. What the hell is up with that? Do all of these things do this when they're ten years old or something?

minivankiller · 02-14-2003, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

Once I could finally get to the climate control assembly, I find two burnt out light bulbs. Not normal bulbs, mind you. These weird little funky things mounted at the end of long grey plastid bases. What the hell are these things called? I've never seen them before in my life. I sure hope that NAPA knows what these bulbs are.

Well, you better be glad it's just little **** for a 92! lol Those bulbs are like the size of a tic-tac, right? NAPA or PepBoys should have them for a couple bucks. They are the same ones for all the little dash illumination and button lights. Good luck.

KAdams4458 · 02-14-2003, 01:14 PM

Hmm. Well, I have at least 5 bulbs that need to be changed as it stands. And if I change that many, I may as well change them all. It's a pain to open up the dash just to replace bulbs. They look kind of expensive, somehow. Tic-Tac lights... I think I shall call them that from now on.

monkeyracing · 02-14-2003, 03:25 PM

Aren't those the type of bulb that's permanently attached to the circuit board?

Jim

Matt · 02-14-2003, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyracing

Aren't those the type of bulb that's permanently attached to the circuit board?

Jim

That's what I though, once they burnt out you have to get a different HVAC control unit. They're burnt out on my brothers 92 SC also, he just put some led lights pionting at his pannel and called it good enough.

Spiral · 02-14-2003, 03:41 PM

permanent? No such thing, its called a SMD station, solder station and time. I had to remove the surface mount LED's in my pioneer cd player and replace them with white ones becaue the blue that illuminated at night distracted me too much.

KAdams4458 · 02-15-2003, 06:45 AM

Nope, these ones are definitely not permanently attached. They twist and lock in to place.

It turns out that nobody around here has them in stock. So, if i want them it will be special order. They're also nearly 6 bucks a pop. Heh. I'm going to do a little experimentation with other bulb setups and LEDs.

monkeyracing · 02-15-2003, 08:04 AM

If you can dig up a part number for them I've got some really good sources for hard to find crap. Lemme know what you know, and I'll find out what I can and let you know what you know I'll know when I know. I'm confused.

Jim

KAdams4458 · 02-15-2003, 08:10 AM

Hell, I'm confused now, too.

I'll check in with Saturn tomorrow morning and see if I can get a part number. I do like the idea of using LEDs, though. Oh, well. i'll figure something out.

KAdams4458 · 02-16-2003, 06:57 AM

Okay, I got it taken care of. I happened ot finally find some bulbs at the local radio Shack that sort of work. I had to trim the stranded wire leads off of them and solder on solid leads near the base of the bulb. Tricky work, I might add. Thank God I'm a soldering guru.

The stuff now lights up the way it is supposed to. I can finally see! Yay! I did notice one thing that irritates me, though. The little sliding knobs are still impossible to see in the dark. Perhaps I can mount some LEDs under the stereo somewhere to shine down on the controls.

More experimentation to come!