I am so f*** pissed right now. I have 2 climate control units, and neither work right now.

I had tried to swap the bulbs from one to another, and only got 3 out of 5 that would light up. I tried turning them 180 degrees, then I tried moving the metal attach wires a little to better contact the circuit board, nothing.

All of a sudden, non of the bulbs work in either of the climate control units. It’s completely dark except for the LEDs.

I’m likely going to just have to buy a used controller because I’m convinced the circuit board may have stripped. I’m starting to learn after trying this several times, those bulbs shouldn’t ever be removed from the controller they are fixed to.

Only reason I changed it this time is because the “AUTO” button wouldn’t light up. I had a spare one from a salvage that worked perfectly fine when I first plugged it up couple years ago, this time only half the lights would come on.

I called the dealer for replacement bulbs, apparently they don’t have them anymore. Just another thing with this car that’s getting on my nerves.

98_Q45 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 10, 2019 9:15 pm

All of a sudden, non of the bulbs work in either of the climate control units. It’s completely dark except for the LEDs.

When two units suddenly start malfunctioning in exactly the same way, that's usually a clue that the problem isn't with the units themselves.

Bad connector?

Missing ground?

Hey, I just decided to order a whole used one from eBay, this time no swapping bulbs, just leaving in place.

I hope it works. This all started when I brought it couple years ago around this time...only part of the control was illuminating. I don’t think it’s anything else because like I said, this other one worked completely when I first plugged in. But it’s mighty strange that I always keep having this issue, so I have checked to make sure no connection wires were messed up.

I think somehow I might of cut the connections on the actual circuit board. I can see where the lightbulb contact ends “scrapped” the circuit board. Perhaps it’s only designed to be removed once or twice, and after that its toast. One thing for sure, I’m kinda tired of some of the junk being sold on amazon. I’ve had to return a heater core and the climate control bulbs...

And this “portable cigarette lighter heater” did absolutely 0 yesterday during the 1st freeze of the season. Not sure how I’m going to get thru the winter, only options are spending it somewhere warm, or just paying Infiniti themselves to replace it and give me a loaner for a week.

I refuse to go back and pull the dashboard off myself again. Plus once I found out there’s more work to be done...I’m just in a conundrum of sorts lol.

Check your fuses - might we worth a peek anyway - good luck and let us know how you are doing.
My 99 Q45 is Canadian celcius and I often think I am going to change it to US - mmm - may be not...

HansCC, are there any fuses are responsible for just the bulbs in the climate controller, not the LEDS?

Well...to my horror, the eBay swap did not work. BUT, I think I finally narrowed it down after some more googling. The damn dimmer switch is f***. And worst yet, I think it’s my fault lol. When I pulled the dimmer switch, I noticed it was cracked, and a bulb was busted. I think I might have accidentally smacked it on the shift lever while I was trying to get the other 2 bulbs to work, which explains the sudden all lights off situation moments later.

I didn’t notice this because the speedometer/shift lever bulbs all work, just not the ones on the climate control. Then again, I could be wrong and maybe it’s not the dimmer. BUT, it seems to be the likely culprit since I do remember hearing a crack at some point.

So now I’ve got to wait to find a dimmer at some point. I’m just so annoyed. I’m supposed to be fixing things, but breaking things in the process. Now I have a bit more sympathy for mechanics: sometimes when you try to fix stuff, you end up breaking something else. Similar to how the brake rubber stopper broke the other day as I was trying to continually move the shift so I could pull the center console up. but was able to quickly figure it out thanks to an old thread one of the moderators here responded too lol.

It’s just these little things that make the Q so hard to deal with lol.

Back to this topic again:

I changed out with a working dimmer: no luck

Replaced various fuses in the panel, still no luck.

I’m just perplexed lol. Non of the other dimming bulbs on the dashboard or shift lever are affected, and the LEDS in unit all work. I don’t know if maybe I didn’t snap something in tight enough or what. Unless I need to pull and check all fuses, I can’t think of what’s wrong.