Instrument panel illumination

[Euroboy]

Originally Posted by Phil Russell

We have had car since new, demonstrator so the only shady person is me. Neither of the two panel illumination bulbs have gone before. The user's manual shows a picture of a bulb designated as w2.1x9.5d and it is a wedge (?) type 12v 3w that pushes in and pulls out of a holder. But the illumination light is a 12v 3w B10D for a pcb. I can only assume that the first bulb was for an instrument cluster that had a mechanical, cable driven, speedo. Ours is the electronic version. By smaller bulbs, I think you are referring to the panel warning lights that appear at the lower edge of the cluster? These are like a slightly smaller version of my panel illumination lights that are integral with the holder and are removed by a quarter turn. And the rating is 1.2w, not the 3w of the illumination light.
Bulbs should be with me mid next week.
Cheers, Phil

I have an electronic driven speedo. Yeah I was mentioning the panel warnings. The illumination bulbs holders looks like them but bigger, and yeah, the bulb is of the push/pull type. Weird that you have this soldered bulb...
Iv'e used Osram GDB151 bulbs - W3W 12 V and they worked great ! The shape doesnt really matters, ive taken appart a cluster to scavenge the tach for my car and I recovered the bulb from it - it didn't worked with my cluster... The best you can do is check what kind of bulb is the one that works and order the same + try to find a bulb holder...

Volvo electrics be like ahah

[Bugjam1999]

So from this thread:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=283706

Which lists main cluster illumination at 2x ‘t10’, I looked on eBay and found some leds listed. They fitted into the original holders after the bulbs were simply pulled out- ie not soldered in like yours are.

Ignoring leds for a moment, t10 base holders were a little harder to find but I found these:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F183755790795

Which appear to be the right thing, but the delivery time of them is quite long as the seller is in Hong Kong.

Otherwise you might have some luck in a local motor parts supplier.

Cheers

[Phil Russell]

Hopefully all is well now. I ordered two spare bulbs via ebay from a1carshopwhitehorse .. type 12v 3w B10D brown base R64122. Cost was £3 each plus £1 p/p. If I remember correctly they were also available from autobulbs direct. I think the base colour, brown, is important as there are different base colours and they could link to different bulb powers or base sizes.
Fitting was straightforward. I got the old one out by simply releasing the instrument panel (4 screws after removing the side trims), lifting it forward and twisting the duff bulb holder out. Putting new one in was a bit more fiddly and I ended up removing the cluster completely, only to find that the new bulb would not twist into the lock position because the contacts on the sides of the holder were too close together. A little tweak with small needle nose pliers and I opened them out a bit and the new bulb twisted nicely into place. All done. But beware when putting the cluster back ... the top rh screw was a fiddle to get seated and fell down inside the under dash carpet. I secured it to the srewdriver with masking tape to prevent it happening again.
Now ... If I can find the bulb spec I may well try and find a new bulb to fit in the old holder ... 12v 3w to fit a B10D brown base. Most likely never need it but just in case ...
Cheers, Phil