HVAC backlights?

[RickBlaine]

Howdy,

A newbie here....wondering if you could please tell me if the HVAC controls have a backlight or not? The only lights on mine are the tiny green button lights - as seen in my picture, the floor vent button's little green light is lit up. Kinda weird at night time, I can't see anything except the little green lights.



Does the 240sx come with back lights, and are mine perhaps just burnt out?

Any procedure for removing the panel to get to those bulbs? Part numbers, etc?

Any help or direction would be appreciated. Thank you!

[2_Liter_Turbo]

It does... and they tend to go out. A good friend and my brother did an LED conversion on them at the same time. It looks super rad actually. He did a write up on NICO, but it was a long time ago, so it might be hard to find.

[RickBlaine]

Thank you, 2_Liter_Turbo, for the rapid response....I will search for the write up as well as the procedure for getting at those bulbs.

[Ajax]

its pretty easy to pull the control module out- not much different than your radio. replacing lights from there is the question. I should probably try this myself.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I came in here hoping someone had an easy fix. Mine are burned out as well. I remember reading that LED conversion thread, but holy crap it seemed like a PITA. I'm fine with going incandesent.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

It takes a little time to do, but it wasn't that bad. I did it to one of my S13's, but of course not the one I still have, ha ha. In a nutshell, you have to get some resistors, bulk LEDs and a proto board and solder your own circuit board together (very simple one btw). It looks fantastic after it's done though.

[The Inflicted]

Not sure if the same is true for the S13, but I replaced the bulbs in my S14's HVAC unit with these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EZJ ... UTF8&psc=1

They're much brighter and made a big difference.

The tricky part was prying apart all the various tabs and connectors to disassemble the HVAC cluster unit box. The plastic is old and brittle, and a couple of them broke off.

Ah, found a good writeup here: faq-write-up-s13-hvac-climate-control-a ... 82768.html

[PapaSmurf2k3]

THANK YOU!
Still looks like a pain in the a** though hahah.

[RickBlaine]

Thanks Gents, and especially member "The Inflicted" for that link. I found that same link on Google after finding a few links with missing pictures (the write ups were from years ago, and owners must have moved on and, ....they deleted their photo accounts )

I will attempt this- probably with LED lights. I will take pics, list part numbers, etc....It's still cold and snowy in Chicago, so this may wait a month.

I am a moderator on a Honda forum, so I want to earn my keep here too....

@PapaSmurf: As always, you are on top of it!

[PapaSmurf2k3]

We're probably going to make that S13 HVAC bulb replacement thread an article so it'll jump right to the top of google results when people search.

[The Inflicted]

Oh, and I should add that I replaced all little bulbs in my pushbutton switches too.

I didn't have the right bulbs for that, though, so I improvised.
I had bought a 10-pack of these things to replace the bulb in my clock: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007G6 ... UTF8&psc=1
...so I had like 9 of them that I didn't need.

Now, these aren't the right size for the pushbutton switches, BUT you can modify them very easily to fit.
If you bend the contacts until they're straight, you can pull the LED and its resistor out with very little effort.
Then, take your stock light bulbs and pull out the bulb itself. Its contact wires should slowly straighten themselves and pull cleanly out of the rubber.
Insert your LED/resistor unit into the rubber housing unit, thread the contact wires so that they'll make contact with the socket spades in the button, trim the excess wire, then re-insert. This takes a bit of trial and error, and don't forget that you may need to reverse the polarity of the light so that it comes on.

As for disassembling/reassembling the little switch, that's not a walk in the park either, but this video helps.
Be careful not to lose the little ball bearings or springs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PHANJulgc

[PapaSmurf2k3]

^You should start your own business called "fiddley bits, inc".
You could take people's HVAC units, switches, clocks, gauge clusters, etc and put new kickass bulbs in them for a fee.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Boom. Article:
http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/s13-hv ... ign=buffer

[The Inflicted]

Spiffy!

I also would add that this evening I discovered that the T10-size LEDs I bought are also the correct size to replace the cigarette adapter illuminator ring light.
You know, because that's important.