The light in my climate control panel has gone out - anyone know how to replace the bulb ? Is the bulb/ bulbs accessed from the front when you remove the ***** and face plate ? or Do you have to remove the entire center dash because it is a LR and access the bulbs from the rear ? Know what bulb it takes ?

 

Bulbs are installed in little holders that 1/4 turn onto the pcb. Some of the tiny dash bulbs are smaller than what I found at the big auto parts stores and do not fit well into the holders, but they can be found on line. Pay close attention to diameters and watts. Maybe measure diameters of existing bulbs. The workshop manual has a list of bulb wattages, but the list might not cover everything. So use the bulb code number if you can read it, or you might need to make a best guess.

 

Yes it is accessed from the front, and there is only one bulb for the whole panel if I recall. I just swapped mine to a warm white LED so I hopefully never have to mess with it for a long long time.

Pull all three ***** off and the small **** for the fan speed slider. Careful with that one that you don’t pinch it too hard bc I’ve had one crumble to pieces on me. If the round ***** give you trouble I’ve found gentle use of some pliers with the jaws wrapped in tape or a rag to avoid gouging the **** surface has helped. Then just two Philips screws in the **** hole, each end. The faceplate should slide out and the bulb will be in the center area.

 

Thank you guys ! Got the bulb out (very easy 2 min job) but for the life of me cannot tell for sure on the markings what bulb that is - looks like it is stamped with "4 W 02" ?

Anyone know for sure ?

 

Go to Superbriteled's and get yourself a size 74 white LED bulb. I did my entire gauge cluster with those and some Sylvania Zevo 194 Bulbs. No more dim gauges on my D1's! Just DO NOT push those bulbs down to where the contacts touch above where they're supposed to it'll pop em (lesson I learned by mistake on my first gauge cluster job many years ago).

74 LED Bulb

 

Thank you sir

 

Instead of the white bulbs, get the green ones. Used them on my D1 clock and dash, it looks much better.

 

"Just DO NOT push those bulbs down to where the contacts touch above where they're supposed to it'll pop em"...

Best,
Can you elaborate on this so I don't screw something up. Mine are all original and I really don't want to start a fire or break anything. Thanks

 

When you install the LED bulb into the bulb holder DO NOT push it past the area I circled in RED or the bulb will short out as you're basically shorting out the small diode.

 

FYI. Some of the bulbs in the instrument cluster are actually about 0.9mm smaller diameter than the 74 code bulbs. They can be forced into the holders, but tend to be pushed out by the fat bulb. I found smaller bulbs online (LumaPro) 1.2W, T 1 1/2, Wedge W2 x 4.6d, #2721. The bulb on these is 4.6mm diameter vs. 5.5mm for Sylvania 74 bulbs.