Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 22:50:25 +0000 From: brad <bradnopsamam.brad3.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: Dash in Total Darkness???
In article <3C2F515D.66F655B1nopsamathome16.freeserve.co.uk>, MBeest <MBeestnopsamathome16.freeserve.co.uk> writes >unscrewing and screwing in the bulbs does work - but only up to a point. >After a while it wears out the flexible PCB that carries the electric power to >the bulbs (you can see this when you remove the grille in the dashboard - >it's flexible blue plastic with copper strips in it). >Once that happens, the PCB needs replacing. That's an expensive part >and since the dashboard must be dismantled and reassembled it's costly in >labour too (I know - it happened to me and hurt my wallet!). > >One thing I found though was that the heat of the bulbs had warped (but not >quite melted) the plastic and so the electric contacts weren't very good. If you > >can make do without the lights on absolute full brightness it might help here. > >MB. <SNIP> I have suffered from this for ages on my 89 900i16. I think I have just fixed it over the Christmas holiday... I also have a plastic panel warped by the heat of the bulbs and a worn pcb meaning I lost all illumination. After years (literally) of slapping the dash and twiddling the lamp holders through the speaker grille I sorted a permanent fix after it became impossible to keep the lights on for more than a couple of bumps in the road: I removed both bulbs and holders and soldered wires to the exposed metal contact on either side of the holders (with a narrow tipped soldering iron) to allow me to wire them in parallel to a supply I located in the dash which is +12V with the ignition. On mine it's actually on the lighting circuit but supplies the radio - which therefore goes off when the rheostat is turned down! - a legacy of a previous owner's tinkering. You should be able to locate a suitable supply off your radio (the +12V ignition line) which will make the dash lights shine whenever the car is running. That is how my always was - if you have a later model where the dash lights come on with the headlights, you may be able to test with a meter to find a supply which will still do that. The exposed solder connections were taped over to prevent any shorts, and the floppy pcb sections serving the bulbs gently moved out of the way. These were then wrapped in insulating tape to make sure that they cannot short against the new wiring. I fitted an in line fuse holder with a 750mA fuse in the new wiring to the bulbs, just in case (3W bulbs should pull 250mA on 12V). What I have done is entirely reversible (should anything turn out to be wrong with it). The lights won't dim (but I never wanted them to anyway - even if it wouldn't have shut the radio off), but I can now see the speedo in the dark again! If the problem is with the contact on the bulb holders, I think it's a good fix - just take care to avoid shorting anything out. Sorry to go on a bit - I hope this helps. :-) -- brad
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