Ninty-two-se

I don't know if this has been asked recently... and I couldn't really find anything on Craig B's page...But can some one tell me how to get the cilmate controls out so that I can change the light bulbs in the back? I can get as far as getting the gauges out, the radio out and the stuff under it but I cant figure out how to get the damn climate controls out once you back out the 4 screws. I guess I could try to pull the whole dash out but I would really appriciate it if somebody could explain what the minimum amount of things I have to remove to get this thing so I can change the light bulbs. BTW what bulbs does it take?

kringle03

bulbs should be 3mm LEDs as to how to get to them... well i'll find out as soon as my LEDs come in...

kringle03

well here's craig's led page for starters...
http://www.geocities.com/cbmaxima/ma...EDwriteup.html

Ninty-two-se

The page is down now for some reason... Now if I don't want to convert to LEDs, just want to go with the old school bulbs, what am I looking at 194's like the gauges?

Michael

iTrader: (21)

thats mine...Craig is hosting. Craig is not as ricey as me and would never put LEDs in his buttons like that

kringle03

oops... sorry michael... I guess I skipped over the fine print... sorry man...

stevesmax

Ive had to remove my auto climate control recently so ill try to explain as much as i can. I left the stereo in place. When i removed the four screws i pushed the (my car is right hand drive so i have to remember everything is mirror image) right side in as far as it would go and pulled the left side out at the same time. The cable for the manual fresh air control does not have a lot of give so this is the problem. You should be able to pull the climate control out far enough to undo 2 small screws (a very short thin phillips screwdriver is needed) that hold the fresh air lever to the side of the unit. It also (maybe) has a cable tie that holds the wiring for the lighting of the faceplate for fresh air, which will have to be removed. Once the screws are removed the fresh air lever should slide back out of it holder. This should give the unit a bit more slack and it should come out as far as the main wiring will let it. Unplug the main wiring from the back and it should come straight out. Once you have it out the bulbs are accessable. Installation is reversal of removal. This is for the Auto Climate control that has a separate lever for outside fresh air, but if yours is the push button type it should be very similar.

Wiking

With manual box:
... theres two exotic miniature bulbs on top, under cover. The stickies or craig page has the radio shack numbers.

No need to dissassemble whole dash. I had to bend the right hand plastic support to pull the assy out. The temp adj wire clip has to be pulled off, wire connectors off.

Did not have those bulbs, soldered some small ones in to extra wire ends and into the pcb, left them hanging inside with rubber tape, glue.

maximapitko

I think I can help you out here. I decided to convert to leds some time ago(BIG mistake!!!) so I had to remove the climate control unit(89 SE). Do not bend any plastics!!! The trick is to remove the center console(I mean the center piece that runs between the seats). After you do that you'll have to remove the plastic that's in the middle of the dash(the one that supports the radio, ashtray and so on and BLOCKS the climate control unit from getting out). To remove these two pieces all you have to do is unscrew like 8 bolts and it takes extra 5 min. Do not forget that there two hidden bolts under the hand brake(there is a cover there, just remove it and you'll see what I am talking about). Now, the climate unit will be hanging there and all you have to do is unhook the harnes in the back as well as the cables for the heat and the air mix.

Are you trying to convert to leds or just changing a burned bulb? If you want to put leds in there simply DON'T cause it will not work!! You have a single led for every button. You'll have to take the whole unit apart and that's not easy at all(assuming you managed to remove the wires for the heat and air mix which sucks big time). But before you take the unit apart, you'll have to remove the buttons which is actually pretty easy-simply pop out the buttons by using a flat head screw driver(be gentle of course). After that take the damn thing apart. Behind every button you'll see a square green led(this is actually the lights that indicates that the button is pressed). This led is welded to the mother board and trust me, you can unweld it and change it. What i did is this-I broke it by using a "skinny nose" pliers tothe point where i had only the anode and catode remaining(sorry for the poor english here). After that I used a 3mm round led and welded onto these. You di that with every single one. So, by now you've converted the button's green into blue or whatevr you're using. The factory leds that are behind the **** for the heat temp and fan speed just pop out(pull them out). What I did for those was just slide in the new leds-the space is pretty tide and no welding is required. Now you can put back togather the whole unit. On top of it, you'll see the two regular bulbs that are not colored. Change them with 5 mm leds but you'll have to make the two holes a little bigger in order to slide in the leds. You'll also have to buy a wide angle leds(inverted cones or whatever). After you change that too, don't forget to put a resistor on the white/yellow wire(not sure about that one 100%-it's the same color like the wire behind the buttons behind the steering wheel). Actually this resistor affect only the 5mm leds. The 3mm ones are already "resisted" and take their power from a different source. You are ready now to put everything back togather(good luck with the cables for the heat and air mix ).

The result?
The little lights that come on when you press a button are MEGA bright and irritating. The color of the buttons themselves is MEGA dim so all you see is these two Super bright lights and that's it. The color of the heat and fan speed buttons is extremmely dim and virtually non-existent. When I had enough blinding while driving at night, i decided to cut the wire with the resistor on it so this hell stops forever. But when I did cut it, I realized that anoying little light have their own power source. So, my advice to you guys is to not even bother. May be I screwed up something, I don't know. I am simply sharing my experience with you. If somebody knows how to convert correctly with good results, please share it with me. Thanks

kringle03

you probably should have put resistors inbetween your PS and your LEDs that would have reduced the "brightness" of them so that they are not so blinding at night

maximapitko

that would be impossible with the space there and the way they are designed...

kringle03

hrm... okey dokey... I haven't ripped that apart yet so I was unaware of the space factor in there...

ProPhotog

I'm glad someone posted this question, I started to replace the bulbs in my climate control a while back when I replaced the head unit, and it seemed like a ***** to try to pull it out of the dash without removing more than I wanted to remove at the time.

Ninty-two-se

Thanks for the replys... now I just have to find the bulbs... would the $tealership have them?

Michael

iTrader: (21)

yeah but it will be kind of expensive...like someone else already posted in this thread you can get the micro bulbs form radio shack. The part number is in the stickies or on craigs page one. I usually have it but cant find my bulb package since I am moving my office once again.