I never noticed this until lastnight.....but both of my subs do not light up in the heater & ac control area. The buttons have a little light that lights up but the whole panel is pitch black at night time. I checked the fuse panel and fuses are ok so since both cars have the same issue I figured they just simply didnt light this area up?? Im probably wrong but curious if anyone elses 96 outback or older has the same issue?? If it is suppose to light up, what should I check?

 

Thanks

I think there are small bulbs in the buttons that burn out rather quickly. Some folks have put LED's in place of the bulbs. Here is a link you can use to read up on this.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2498&highlight=climate+control+backlight

I've got just the little green dots. I don't think the icons are illuminated. Grab the dome light.

 

 

ALso our '00 Legacy has illuminated AT position indicators on the dash, but not the console gate, alles wondered 'bout that one.

They are supposed to be illuminated, in fact I just replaced those tiny bulbs in the climate control assembly this past weekend. I used the instructions posted to the board and they work great! It took me about an hour to do it because as I took it apart I cleaned it...dust, dirt etc. build-up in the vents. It took be about 20 min.s to install the bulbs and put it all back together. I reommend you replace those bulbs... it's easier than you think.

I used these instructions ( http://www.med.uc.edu/pstp/students/fortner/rulights.htm )because the pics to the other set of instructions had errors.

 

good luck

I've got just the little green dots. I don't think the icons are illuminated. Grab the dome light.

I had just the dots also....til I read the responses today, stopped by radio shack, spent 8 bucks and an hour of time......Now I have all sorts of dash lights. Its like Christmas inside the sub:banana: and you can see what buttons your pushing......THANKS A TON FOR THE INPUT. Even the hazard button lights up now....wooohooo

I hear ya,

 

It's great to have all those lights working again. And it was funny because the bulbs went out one at a time within a week of each other for about a month, so it was almost unnoticable when they were all out. My wife asked if we ever had those lights before...she didn't believe me, like I put the lights there myself. As an afterthought I want to remove the green sleeves from the bulbs and see what it would look like with just white bulbs. brighter?

It is a bit brighter without the green sleeves... and also less "green". I didn't put them on the climate control bulbs the last time since the 7219 bulb is quite a bit smaller than the Subaru bulb I had in there. It would have just fell off.

 

Commuter

Mine stopped working the other day so I smacked the dash and they came back on and have worked ever since. I put the fear of me into them.....works on the engine too.