needadvice

what bulbs do I use to replace the burnt out ones?

Also, how do I get the old bulbs off? Do I then solder the new bulbs on?

Thanks.

1sick'98WS6

iTrader: (19)

take old ones out go to radio shack find the ones that match, I dont know a part number but try a search. And yes they must be soldered in, its fairly easy to do.

needadvice

do I just bend the bulb back and forth until it breaks free?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

No!!! Check out this write-up. Its excellent:

http://www.stevendbrown.com/Steering...oControls.html

Depending on the "vintage" of your car, the circuit boards may look different - but the procedure is the same. You need to de-solder the bulbs and re-solder the new ones in.

needadvice

Damn, could you be a little more helpful Thats friggin sweet, thanks a lot man

I got all the way to the circuit boards part. I was wondering if that was a little nut on the circuit board. I guess Home Depot has the small driver.

needadvice

I got the bulbs from Radio Shack. But the stems on the bulbs do not fit into the little holes on the circuit board. They are a little bit larger than the original ones. So, so you just solder them in place and not actually have the stems go into the circuit board????

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Can you post a picture or do yours look like the ones in the post above? Depending on which model you have, the answer will change. (The buttons on my '99 are very different from the ones in the post.)

Not sure about the "little nut" you mentioned above. I don't recall any hardware being on mine. The board just notched in to the plastic casing around the buttons.

If the stems are larger than the holes, you will need to ream them out with a drill bit so the stems will go all the way through. There should be a round disk of metal around the hole. You need to use the smallest drill bit possible and preserve as much of this solder base as you can. The solder sticks to the stems and this round disk to make the bond. Then you can trim off the excess stems once you have a good connection. (Before you cut the stems, you should probably attach the board to the car - without the buttons - to make sure it works well.)

needadvice

Here's a pic of the bulb sitting on the board next to the 2 little holes where they should go into. The stems are a lot bigger than the factory ones that came off.



The little nut I was talking about is the 1/8" screw you were talking about. I got that off with a pair of needle nose plyers.

I guess what I could do is clip the stems down to a good length, then dip them into hot solder, then just stand them up on top of the holes. If its strong enough it should be good. I'd hate to ruin the circuit board by drilling the holes bigger.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

BTW - The post I gave you was someone elses'. Looks like your board matches up to his. If you have any questions for him, his email is on the web site I gave you the link to.

Sometimes when you de-solder boards, the solder solidifies in the hole. (Looks like what happened to you?) The "best" way to do this would be to use a de-soldering bulb or de-soldering ribbon to re-heat and suck out that solder. That way, you will re-apply the bulb with fresh solder, which has flux in it, which will give you a better connection.

If you aren't comfortable drilling the holes out, you'll have to push the bulb through the holes while you have a hot iron on the left over solder. (And then apply a little extra fresh solder afterwards.) The stuff will cool too quickly if you try a heat & dip The heat left in the leads also won't be enough to melt the old solder. Of course, doing things this way requires 3 hands....

needadvice

Alright, I'll see what I can do.

Thanks, I'll let ya know what happens.

needadvice

wssix99,

SUCCESS!!!!!

I put the little tip of the soldering iron on each hole while taking a small safety pin and jamming ti into the holes in the circuit board. Once the safety pin was in I could reem the holes out some. The light bulb stems went right in and I soldered them from the back side. Both lights work now. I plugged them in and tried them before putting the modules back together.

The bitch is going to be clipping the connectors back into the modules after they've been put back together because they don't have any slack at all. I'm gonna go try to put them in right now.

Thanks for the help

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Ahhh - there's a fix for that too:

1) Disconnect the battery
2) Remove the airbag. (Keeping your face away from it.) Its attached by two Torx screws from the backside of the steering wheel. The electrical connector has a positive locking defice that you need to remove and then it comes straight out from the bag.
3) With the airbag removed, you can disconnect the steering wheel control wires at the center of the steering wheel. This will give you slack and allow you to pull additional wire through the steering whell spokes.
4) As you push the switches back in, pull the slack in the wire back out.
5) Reverse the process to re-connect the wires and the airbag.

needadvice

DAM!!!! For some reason the left module no longer works, none of the buttons. The new light works though. I am able to plug them in with just the circuit board alone...but when I put the module together there's no way there's enough slack on the wires to plug it in. The right side module works fine. No idea why the left one is dead.

Thanks for the steering wheel removal directions. I'll try that tomorrow, maybe I pulled them loose on the left side or something.

I'll let ya know.