This DIY is for people who’s climate control lights have burnt out. Before pulling the hvac, use a multimeter and test the middle hvac harness to see if it is giving power to the lights, (the red with blue strip is the positive and the red with yellow strip is the negative) if it is getting power but your hvac isn’t lighting up, then your bulbs are blown. This is the harness i'm talking about

Another way of checking to see if it is infact only the bulbs that are burnt out is to check around for any other lights that work. For example, on my s14 the light that lights up the “driver window” button had a light in it that could be controlled by the dimmer switch. If all your lights are not lighting up, the dimmer switch has no effect or your not getting power to your hvac light wires, than your problem lies else where. Some say the dimmer switch shorts out or the TCU is burned out.

Heres a link for the TCU that seems to solve a lot of peoples problems.zerothread/158162

Ok lets get started. This is the hvac unit we all know and love. If you don’t know how to get your hvac out, I don’t suggest you even try to fix the lights yourself. First you have to take off the plate on the back of the hvac unit, there are little clips on the top and the bottom. Just pull up on both sides of the hvac and pull it out.After you take of the black plate, you'll see the brown board underneath. There will be three white clips. Use pliers to pinch them and pull the board towards you.After you get the brown board out of the way, you'll see a green board. This is the board with the lights. Two of them you can see, and the last (the fan control light) is covered by the black fan control unit.That’s the fan control light. To get to the fan control light, you'll have to pull out the fan control unit.First you have to pop off the fan control knob. Stick a screwdriver as far as it'll go and pry it off (it'll shoot off and go flying across the room so watch out )what it looks like with the knob off. To pull the fan control unit out, you'll have to pull up clips on the top and the bottom, while prying it out on the side. This is the top side.On the bottom there are two more clips, pull these up while prying the side.After you get the fan control unit out, you'll be able to pull out the bulb.That’s the fan control unit out.To get all three bulbs out, turn them counter clockwise a bit untill they get loose, and then pull them out.Go get some replacement bulbs. I got these at the SourceCC (Radioshack)These ones are 12V 60mA micro bulbs.Get the bulb out by undoing and unraveling the little wire ends of the bulb. After pulling them straight, u can pull the bulb out. (look at the way the wire is curled so you'll know how to put the new one in. you'll see what to do when u look at it.) Test them with the ultimeter to see if there is any continuity through the bulbs, just to make sure they are blown. put the new one in curl the contacts around like it was before. Put the bulbs back and turn them clockwise to tighten them. Put everything back together by doing the reverse of what you did to take them out. Put The hvac back in and pray that the lights go on. Test to see if the dimmer works with them.

Here is what they should look like when every things said and done. I took off the blue condoms on them because I don’t like the green look they give off.

Enjoy your new lights!
Modified by s14_240sx at 2:30 PM 3/24/2007

wow. this should go in the write-up / sticky section. nice job.

mega bump? haha this should really get in the articles section on 240sxtech (which really needs to be updated btw)

quick question though...

my hvac lights dont work, but im not sure if its the bulb....

when i first got the car, the only lights that worked for it was the green dot on the hot/cold slider, and the stick figures with the arrows on them

then one day, when i had my hvac trim out, and put it back in, when i turned my lights on, i noticed that the stick figure dudes went out, but the green dot was still working. I was pretty pissed cause i was like "damn, my bulbs are finally burnt out"... well a few hours later i the lights for the fan speed started working again when i first turned the lights on... wtf??

then the next time i turned the lights on for the car, they didnt work anymore, and nothings ever lighted up in that area again besides the green thing....

so does this mean my bulbs are burnt out? or is this another problem

this is also kinda off topic, but my window switch doesnt light up, and neither does the light inside my glove box... i never even knew those were supposed to light up... is this all from the same problem?

rememer, the green dot still works, the radio and cluster still work, and the ash tray, and ring around outlet still work...

that's nice and all but 2 things: you don't have to pop the knob off with a screwdriver, i'd be afraid of scarring it or cracking the surround. if you gently pull the switch assembly out from the back side the knob will come off the front and it wont go flying across the room.

Also, the stock bulbs have little blue condoms on them. The Radioshack light bulbs make the buttons a weird Salmon looking color instead of nice and white to match the gauge cluster. The original blue coated bulbs can be ordered from courtesyparts.com for cheap.

edit: i just re-read your post. blue condoms = green color? also im surprised you had the option of putting them on the bulbs you got from radioshack... I tried to peel them off of my original bulbs and they were baked on pretty good.

sketchy: two of your 3 bulbs are blown.

if they are burnt, how come the stick dudes decide to randomly start and stop working, and the fan speed started working out of nowear?

I assumed it was because the filament is bouncing around as you drive and sometimes it catches and makes continuity. that makes more sense than some mysterious wiring problem, which isnt the case anyway because the same **** happened to me. my buttons were on/off for a while, then one night they were on straight for a half hour and then never came back on again. I changed out my bulbs and it's been mint since.

hmm thats wierd

i gotta get a volt meter thing anyways to check somthing with my air mix door motor, so ill check em just in case

SketchyRollin564 wrote:hmm thats wierd

i gotta get a volt meter thing anyways to check somthing with my air mix door motor, so ill check em just in case

boca raton w00t. wtf is an air mix door motor?

i looked on courtesyparts for about 10 minutes and couldn't find those bulbs. i rneed to do this, i've been pretty lazy about it haha.

Lamp Assembly - Heater Control $3.93 ea, and you'll need 3 of them

They come already installed in new bases, but don't throw out the originals until you're completely finished. The HVAC unit has 3 bulbs, one of which is in a base that's a little taller than the other two. When I ordered my bulbs they sent me two with tall bases and one short one, so I had to transplant a bulb into one of my original short bases.

0wn3r wrote:
boca raton w00t. wtf is an air mix door motor?

i looked on courtesyparts for about 10 minutes and couldn't find those bulbs. i rneed to do this, i've been pretty lazy about it haha.

zer...35268

theres a whole thread on the air mix door problem thing ive been having.. any help apreciated? lol

you used to live in boca or somthing?

and ****, i didnt know the bulbs were that cheap. I read somewhere that they were really expensive, so to make sure you only replace the ones that need to be or somthing

s14, what kind of custom title do you want?

i dont think he even posts here anymore lol i havnt seen him in a while

i guess ill get the new bulbs, and hope thats what fixes it

they gonna give off the same greenish color, or if i take of the condoms theyl be white again? Thats what S14 said, but he used different bulbs

Also, eventually i want all my ineterior lights in redish orange, or just red. Where can i get bulb condoms for this?

Bulb condoms ............ lol

Can you not just buy different color'd lights ? Like purple.

dude you can buy those bulbs from courtesy nissan for like 2-3 bucks each and will not have to deal with pealing the color plastic off.

yeah, cant believe i missed it. oh well its in the articles section now waiting to be xferred to 240sxtech.com

so... where can you get bulb condoms

i doing my led conversion on my hvac i was wondering if 3mm 3.5volt leds would work for this project and i dont know how to solder a resistor to to the led so any help would be great

I'm sure it's possible. I was going to do led's in mine but haven't gotten around to it. Although I did put a 3mm led in my cig lighter er.. lighter it's a 3.5v but I did solder in a resistor with it, don't remember the size tho. Just use the search button I'm sure you'll find something on this topic .

k thanks

thread revival

picture links broken! can you fix the links so I can do this on my S14