well, my missing dashboard button's backlights problem wasnt related to the illumination module after all, just burnt bulbs or bad contacts.... about three started working again after jiggling, but not the rest

 

now then, before jumping into the thankless job of replacing them all, are there any LED based solutions for them that are straight fit?

 

would like to make the mess of disassembling the dashboard only once

 

Grazie mille

 

TG

or in other words, why couldnt these work?

 

guess that you can tell i am good at mechanics, not electronics

What model and year of car do you have?

I know on the 2nd gen legacy it's really easy...

it is indeed a 2nd gen 95' with the little plastic bases...

 

the switches under the clocks are actually extremely easy to reach, what's going to be nasty is the bulbs in the A/C area

 

or "isnt really easy" in another sense?

I never said it isn't really easy, I said it is really easy.

 

For the AC control ones. You just pull out the cup holder and its two screws, pull off the plastic trim. It just pulls off, take out the four screws holding in the AC controls. And on the back I think there are three bulbs. You can get them at the dealer. I suppose you could replace them with LEDs if you wanted, but that might not work very well just using the ones you can buy.

 

The way those work in there need the 360 degree angle of light out of an incandescent. The bulbs seat down into a plastic thing that takes light off all sides to distribute it to the different buttons in there. I've done custom LEDs for that, but not the plug and play type.

 

For the buttons behind the steering wheel (rear defrost, cruise, fog lights, etc). Just pull out the four screws holding in the trim around the gauge cluster, pull that plastic trim off. It holds the buttons, just take off the connectors and pop the buttons out.

There are two bulbs per button, one to light up the picture, and one for the red light when it's on.

oops sorry... was kind of late, misread isn't...

 

will have a bteer look at AC as i dont have a cup holder at all

 

Tnxs!

 

TG