Dashboard bulbs

[turbosteve33]

just a quick one to let you all know that i decided to tackle the heater control bulbs today, it was quite easy to get them out, aswell as those 3 i have also removed the bulb for the info dial and the bulb for the headlight switch, i took them down to my local main dealer to order replacements and after hearing all the nightmares on how much these things cost i braced myself when he totalled up the cost but surprisingly they were only about £2.80 each, i cant remember the exact price but when i pick them up tomorrow morning i'll put the exact breakdown on here( I think the info dial bulb was about £1.50). As i said it was quite straight foward to do and only took about 35mins. I know this has been covered on here before but if anyone wants to know how i done it please let me know and i'll be more than happy to put it on here, hope this is of some use to someone. Cheers, Steve.
Oh, 98 v40 T4 by the way....D'0H.

[DWM]

I'm about to do my info centre switch light. I'm fairly confident that I should be able to manage with the guidance already posted but I for one would be very grateful if you could do a quick summary. Everyone seems to have slightly different experiences of these slightly fiddly things and the different descriptions always seem to add to the sum of useful advice.

[stuartpratlett]

I also changed my bulbs (no more fumbling in the dark!), everthing is now illuminated except for the child lock switch, where is the bulb for that located?

[turbosteve33]

Right then chaps, picked up the new bulbs today but i'm missing 2 of the heater control bulbs cos they sent him the wrong ones, still he let me take the others without paying until the rest come..lovely chap. I fitted the new headlight switch bulb and it still doesnt seem to be illuminating except the little green light, mind you when i took the old one out it was a bit brown and crispy so maybe shorted something. Anyway the removal...bearing in mind this is how i do it, obviously others have their own methods.
Take a flat bladed screwdriver and insert it between the plastic dial sorround and the dash (i did it from the left) and gently prise it off. It should pop off quite effortlessly, you do not need to remove the dials.
Undo the black retaining screws, one each side, these screws hold the heater control module and the stereo in place.
Push the control module back into the dash slightly (u'll have to wiggle it around a bit)as this will make it easier to disconnect the multipin connectors attached to the stereo console, there are 2 directly on top, one for the child lock and one for the info dial, and there are 2 more at the bottom for the stereo itself and the aerial jack.
With the stereo console removed just look into the back of the info dial and the bulb is staring right at you jst twist it and pull, and out it pops. I used a pair of long nose pliers as its in too deep fo your fingers.
To get to the bulbs in the heater control disconnect the multipin connector at the back and remove from the dash as i said its a bit fiddley you need to tilt it left to right to get it out.
There are a number of small silver screws holding the front and the rear of the module together remove these and gently prise apart all the tabs around the module and gently seperate the 2 halves careful not to damage the 3 ribbon cables. inside the front half you will see the rear of the 3 bulb carriers behind each dial just simply twist each one and remove. Then just put it all back together! Mine is all still apart until my new bulbs arrive but there we go. lol! I do hope this has been of some use. Steve.

[DWM]

Very very helpful description - just what I wanted - thank you so much.

I have now ordered my new info centre bulb from Rufe (and what a fantastically nice and helpful person he is), so once that arrives I'll be getting busy... watch this space for an account of how much of a mess I make of it, cack-handed idiot that I am...

[turbosteve33]

Glad i could help, let me know how you get on, if its only the info bulb your changing its pretty straight foward. Just a couple of things, firstly i think theres 4 black screws instead of 2 (cant quite remember it was a couple of days ago now) and also theres a pipe running off the bottom corner of the heater module but again this disconnects very easily i think its for the climate control sensor.

[DWM]

Noted, thank you. Just waiting for the bulb now. Probably a job for Friday evening if the post works well.

[DWM]

As promised, here's my experience of replacing the info centre switch bulb, which I did today.

1. Remove big old stereo. Hurrah - done this before - no problem.

2. Remove heater control faceplate. Well, my heater control faceplate didn't pop out easily AT ALL. I tried your thing with the screwdriver down the left-hand side. I tried the Haynes-recommended method of removing the knobs and putting fingers inside and pulling. No dice. (I got quite a lot of thorns in my fingertips from gardening at the weekend, so it hurt like b*****y and I couldn't pull as hard as I might otherwise have done. Maybe I should have tried with gardening gloves on...) Eventually screwdrivers alternately down left and right sides prised the thing out, with much squeaking and groaning (and not just from the faceplate). I kept thinking I was sure to break it but came out in one piece in the end. Mine's got bits of felt stuck to the edges (presumably to make it a tight fit and prevent rattling), which perhaps partly explain the struggle.

3. I reckon I must have a different heater control from yours, since I can't match my experience to your description of the heater control bulbs. (Mine's the manual one, not the electronic.) On mine, when the faceplate comes off it brings with it a circuit board that is attached to the back of it, which in turn has four pins that plug into a socket in the main unit behind. At the back of the circuit board are two bulb-holders for the bulbs which light the control knobs. So they look easy enough to replace if necessary (in my case, that's a yes - see below): no taking the unit apart, no ribbon cables etc to worry about.

4. Unscrew the three screws (two at the top, one in the middle at the bottom) that hold the stereo console/surround in place. Pull it a little away from the dash and disconnect the connectors to the info centre switch and the central locking/panic button (and child lock switch if you have it). A lot easier said than done (central locking button connector was a beast on mine, apparently requiring at least three tiny and nimble but strong hands) but not impossible. Pull the stereo surround out (which brings the info centre switch with it) and as you say the bulb is sitting happily at the back of the info centre switch. I couldn't see any way in which a normal human being could get to the info centre switch bulb without removing the whole switch unit so that you can see into the back of it, though maybe with experience it could be done somehow with a mirror (or maybe smoke and mirrors?) So that's why I took out the whole stereo surround. You can if you wish leave the stereo surround in place and get the info centre switch unit out of it by itself. Snag is that the switch is held in by four little plastic tabs that need to be squeezed more or less simultaneously to release it - and I'm not an octopus. Easier to take the whole surround out.

5. Spend 20 mins looking for something long enough to poke in and get a grip on the bulb, and twist and remove as you say. Replace with new bulb.

6. Seize the opportunity to replace the rest of the bulbs inside the stereo, if yours (like mine) seem to be dying one by one. (You get quite fast at these fiddly bulbs by the time you do the last one - whereupon your newly-acquired skill becomes completely useless to you for another ten years or so. Such is life.)

7. I also got the bulb out from behind the cigarette lighter, as this too had failed. Simple enough: undo two screws just above the unit to remove the whole ashtray unit. The bulb is hiding in the back. It's a bulb fixed in a holder which has a little blade that slots into the connector, so I'll be getting a new one of those when I can.

8. Put it all back - reverse of removal. No probs.

9. Test time: Stereo: OK - all nice and RED all over now - hurrah! Info centre switch: all lit up!! Heater control: dark. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Ah well. The bulbs there were probably ancient anyway. Maybe I finally killed them with the snap as I popped it back, or somehow while struggling to get it out.

Final score: As of this evening, and not counting the stereo which I count as a separate project, I have gained one light and lost two. So it's Car 1, Owner nil.

BUT I know (I think) how to replace the two (always assuming it's just the bulbs, and not some more horrid damage to the heater control circuitry) . And I now have the promise of a fag lighter lamp. And next time I'll be playing at home, in that I have learned a little bit about how it all fits together.

I noticed that I seem to have have the wiring in place for heated seats... wires apparently go to the switch blanks anyhow. Now there's a project. I've seen the guide to that in here... do I dare?

Question: there are two further white electrical connectors, lurking down at the bottom left that are visible when everything is removed. Does anyone know what are they for? Is it another thing to do with the seats or what?

As ever, hope this helps someone.

[turbosteve33]

Wow, that sounded like a real quest!! do you have the same model as me? Mines a 98 t4 cd, perhaps i'm just lucky my heater control faceplate popped out real easy, i picked up my bulbs today and put it all back together, everythings all lit up again now but now you come to mention it i forgot all about the ciggarette lighter bulb...bugger. Oh well, a job for another day.

[T4S]

You would think it'd be easier to replace them. Finding them is just as hard, I'm having to order my headlight switch bulbs (£1.99 for 2) from West Virginia in the old US of A. Granted they are LED and complete requiring no soldering but still its madness complete madness.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2pcs-T3-T4-T5-...#ht_2043wt_907