Illuminated blend buttons . . .

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odyssey

Active Member
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364
Location
Derbyshire
Just a quick one to save me pulling the dash apart again - should the air distribution buttons be illuminated? ('98 4.6 HSE).
The orange 'on' indicator lights all work, but in the dark I'm having to choose by feel which button I'm pressing. All the other Hevac panel lights work including the temp buttons and screen.

TIA
Alastair
 
odyssey said:
Just a quick one to save me pulling the dash apart again - should the air distribution buttons be illuminated? ('98 4.6 HSE).
The orange 'on' indicator lights all work, but in the dark I'm having to choose by feel which button I'm pressing. All the other Hevac panel lights work including the temp buttons and screen.

TIA
Alastair
Click to expand...

Yes. Two bulbs in T sockets at base of Hevac unit.
 
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Yes they should.. With the lights on they should all glow the same pale fluorescent green colour. The bulbs are easily changed.. but accessed from the back of the unit
 
Can you post a link? I've also to replace bulbs in the hevac. Also does it mention what bulbs to have on hand or does anyone know of a kit or set?
Cheers!
 
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I got 4 of these:- 36mm 3 SMD LED 239 272 C5W WHITE INTERIOR LIGHT FESTOON BULB | eBay
for the courtesy lights, they're not bad, much colder than the old ones, but not a great deal brighter. They're OK in the back and for the rear 'footwell', but for the front, I got one of these:- White 48 LED Panel Car Interior Light Bulb T10 BA9S Dome Festoon Adapter 12V New | eBay

MUCH better :cool:!

I know the newer CREE units are more powerful, but unless someone's done a direct comparison, it's hard to see what the difference is, some quote lumens, some watts, but the efficiency of the differing types of units make wattages spurious for guidance. I also seem to remember that LED lumens are different to flourescent and incandescent lumens; I know it seems daft, but one of my customers spent large sums a few years ago unsuccessfully developing LED alternatives to 110v flourescents and the lux values were different - something to do with the size of the light source and the spread of the beams . . . but the technology has moved on considerably since then.

I've not changed the map lights yet, don't really use them much (probably even less now) - still pondering . . .

A
 
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I've tried all these W10 bulbs (i've got a box of assorted types) for both the map lights and the high level brake light and haven't yet com up with one that's better than the basic filament ones in either location.
As for the interior lights I found that the festoon replacement vibrate and rotate in the holders so you lose the light. I ended up using the LED panels in all three interior fittings, much better.
You could even glue one into the footwell for SWMBO to get in and out and a couple in the boot so that you can see what you're doing back there.

Holy floodlit P38 Batman - but it looks great in the dark when you press the remote, or that might be the addition of puddle lamps under the side steps!!!:cool:
 
I've replaced all of my interior lights with LED.
I used festoons for the main lights, and 2x 24LED SMD panels (6x4 layout) next to each other in the loadspace. I found they hot-glued in place next to each other and were a perfect fit to replace the loadspace lamp.

I used W5W LEDs for the footwell/puddle lamps, and made my own lamps with just a single LED on a small piece of PCB for the map lights - These are quite directional, and I found a standard LED replacement didn't actually focus the light through properly. But a single white LED (with resistor) soldered on an angle to shine it straight through the lens, made an ideal replacement.

Was helping measure battery drain on a mates P38 - and found that all the interior lights draw about 4.5A with standard tungsten lamps... Definitely going to be a lot less with LED!!

Marty
 
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