Update of Re: BTDT and need advice.

[Todd Young <tyoung@wamnet.com>]

First, thanks to Chris, Elliot and all the rest. I've got it right now. Plus
all my dash lights work, crap I shouldn't have said that, now something else
will go wrong.


> > This weekend I removed the instrument cluster, the goal was to replace
> > the bulb that lights up the outside temp readout. Yeah, right. I was
> > going to just tilt it out some and replace a bulb and put it back. Ended
> > up pulling the entire cluster completely out of the car and taking it
> > inside.
>
> BTDT...there's not nearly enough room to do this without totally removing
> the panel.

VERY TRUE, after the second time diving in, it's better to just pull the
whole thing.

> > Turns out the temp readout has an internal bulb, lucky for me
> > [us] it's the same 12Volt, 60mAmp bulb available at Radio Shack [for us
> > USA guys]. So I soldered in the replacement, and figured while I'm at it
> > I'll do a continuity check on all the bulbs in the dash.
>
> ??? You mean you bought bulbs and put them in the old sockets, right? I'm
> not sure how one would solder these in unless the new bulbs had pigtail
> leads
> on them.  The bulbs pull right out of the sockets.

I have a digital outside temp display in the bottom center of my gage
cluster, this sensor does not have the twist/pull replacement bulbs. Like the
seat heater and defroster switches, you have to tear it apart and solder in a
new bulb. Yes, I've done all three. If you need help, let me know.

> > I've got some orange,
> > some black, some green, and some blue. The blue ones seem to be the
> > brightest and are used in the turn signals and the Hi-Beam indicator.
> > The orange ones are for illumination the gages. and the black and green
> > ones are for warning lights.
>
> Don't recall black ones...I've got green ones for the warning lights,
> orange
> ones for the instruments/guages, and blue ones for turn signals/hi beam
> indicator.
> I could be mistaken, though.......

The black and green ones are probably interchangable.

> > I took pictures of the front and back of
> > the instrument cluster and made note of what each bulb does and what
> > color it should be [at least how it was in my car]. So this info will be
> > available once the film gets developed.

I'm going to make a neater drawing of the bulb placement, if anyone would
like a copy, let me know and I can fax it over [obviously you would need to
include a fax number, USA only please, maybe someone could get it and post it
on a web site.]

> The light with it's own separate wires is the airbag light, it's the one in
>
> in the middle (to the right of the battery light).  It should stay on for
> 8 seconds or something and then go out.  I don't know exactly what will
> happen
> if you put a bulb in the actual bulb spot for the airbag light, but it
> could
> be the cause of the weirdness with the coolant light.
> ***BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THE AIRBAG LIGHT!!!***  If the black socket
> with
> this bulb breaks or the bulb breaks, you're SOL.  The bulb is 1.2w,
> non-removeable
> as far as I know.  The bulb/socket/wiring combo isn't even a dealer
> part...no
> one can find it, and it has no part number.
>
> So anyway, switch the airbag and battery bulbs and see what happens.

I switched them last night, viola!, it works right. The air bag light socket
didn't have any type of connectors on the twist/lock portion, so it didn't
short anything out, and yes it would be easy to break the socket if you're
not careful. My dash had four multi-pin plugs plus the air bag light.I'm
going from memory, orange and white connectors on the left side, disconnect
these first, on the right side I pulled the blue connector and then managed
to pull the cluster out between the dash and the steering wheel, then I could
pull the yellow connector[temp display] and the air bag light.

--
Todd Young              WAM!NET Inc.
tyoung@wamnet.com       6100 West 110th Street
612-886-5051            Bloomington, MN 55438-2664
800-585-1133 ext.5051   http://www.wamnet.com/