Panel Lights

Hi, can anyone advise please. One of the panel lights in the 'message panel' has gone out - it's the end one on the right so you can't read the figure for average MPG without stopping the car and squinting at it! Have any P38 owners tried to fix panel lights? Are they easy(ish) to get to? Thanks for any advice.

Read section 88 in Rave, never done it but it does not seem to be a big job.

owendown said:

Hi, can anyone advise please. One of the panel lights in the 'message panel' has gone out - it's the end one on the right so you can't read the figure for average MPG without stopping the car and squinting at it! Have any P38 owners tried to fix panel lights? Are they easy(ish) to get to? Thanks for any advice.

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Pixel or just back light? Back light is easy, just take out speedo.

Remove the cluster, change bulbs. Be careful with the yellow plug for the airbag, you should wait 10 min after disconnecting the battery according to rave.

Moreirinha said:

Remove the cluster, change bulbs. Be careful with the yellow plug for the airbag, you should wait 10 min after disconnecting the battery according to rave.

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I never disconnect battery, leave ignition off though

Druim said:

I never disconnect battery, leave ignition off though

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Ah, but your'e Scottish are you not?

There's a good photo guide here: P38A Instrument Panel Removal.

I did mine a couple of months ago - no problems, easy job.

Good luck.

Alastair

Have a look at the excellent guide with pictures here;
P38A Instrument Panel Removal
The little bulbs don't have a long life and while it's not too hard to do I went for long life LED's. They are very directional though and shine through too brightly so I put a blob of paint on the globe end to encourage the sideways glow. Worked fine and haven't needed renewing since. Search on LED 12v T5 on the Bay of E, they're just pennies delivered through your letterbox. The same do for the Climate Control, clock and a few other places, you can get green tinted ones that work well in the dash colours. A downside is that they don't dim very far.

Speedex750 said:

Have a look at the excellent guide with pictures here;
P38A Instrument Panel Removal
The little bulbs don't have a long life .

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Really? the bulbs in mine are 14 years old and still working fine, I don't regard that as a short life.
LED's in the dash do not wortk well IMO because, as you say, they don't dim very well nor do they light the dash very evenly.

Datatek said:

Really? the bulbs in mine are 14 years old and still working fine, I don't regard that as a short life.
LED's in the dash do not wortk well IMO because, as you say, they don't dim very well nor do they light the dash very evenly.

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You must have the bulbs manufactured for the Scottish market then, they don't like buying replacements.

I tried LEDs in mine and didn't like the result - they don't spread the light very widely (at least the ones I got didn't) and created 'hot spots' on the message centre that were distracting. Didn't have them in long enough to worry about dimmability.

A

Did mine twice first time took about an hour (learning + nosying around inside the dash)
Second time took about 20 mins
Dont use leds they look ****e you get bright spots rather than the even glow