How do I replace the recirculated air indicator bulb on the heater control panel?
Hi everyone. The indicator light on the air recirculation button doesn't work on my partner's IO. I though I'd have a go at fixing it. First I removed the heater control panel. This was a mission so I documented it at http://pajerio.com/forum/how-remove-pininio-heater-controls
So now I have the unit out and on the bench. The service manual lists the pinouts for the various bulbs and the one for recirculation indication is on pins 3 and 4 of the twelve way connector. This measures an open circuit so I'm pretty confident the bulb has blown. Trouble is, I don't know how to disassemble this unit to replace the bulb. It looks like if I could remove the fan speed knob everything would come apart, but it seems quite well stuck on and I don't want to force it. Any ideas?
I can unclip the central mechanism and start to slide it out, but it will not slide all the way out because of the knob.
Here's the limit of how far I can slide it out...
Just want to get inside to replace the blasted bulb... Seems like a mission.
Problem solved - bulb
Problem solved - bulb removed!
Thanks Claude IO and Nick IO for the replies.
Claude, the green wires go to two blue bulbs that incidentally can be removed with the unit in situ. These look to me to be for backlight at night time so not the bulb I'm looking for. Here is a photo for those interested.
I removed the fan speed knob using two small flat blade screwdrivers simultaneously, one under each side of the knob with some thick cardboard drinks coasters wedged between screwdriver and the unit in order to prevent marking the plastic. The knob indeed came off undamaged. Yay!
This allowed for easy removal (four retainer clips with some constant pressure the whole time) of the black module that contains the air recirculation button, seen here.
Flipping the unit over we see (and more importantly, can access!) four different bulbs. The bulbs for the rear window demister and the air recirculation are labelled "BLACK".
It's a simple bayonet fitting, removed with a small flat blade screwdriver. Here we see the air recirculation bulb, removed.
Testing the bulb with a multimeter set to Ohms shows an infinite reading; ie. open circuit. Conclude blown bulb. The other 'BLACK' bulb which is known to be good measured approximately 23 Ohms. I hope to source a new bulb in the next day or two.
As a matter of interest, from what I've read it would seem that the bulb starts life as a bare bulb and has the yellow colour applied (dipped/sprayed on?). It's a coating that feels like plastic to me. The bulb is mounted in the black base (shown) which is (I understand) not part of the replacement part from Mitsubishi - they provide just the bare bulb. I have read about other people carefully removing the coloured plastic from one bulb to transfer it to a new bulb. This might be difficult for a tiny bulb like this one. Another option might be glass paint to give the new bulb the right colour. It would of course be catastrophic if the replacement bulb did not have the correct colour (joking... partially).
Well done, you can buy the little cover separately, I got mine from autopro. You also could buy different colour to change the aspect of the light .Epilogue
I went to Mitsubishi for a replacement bulb. The bulb plus holder is available as a single item however there were none in the country (New Zealand) and to order they are NZ$24 each. Mitsubishi did have in stock the bare bulb for NZ$2.50 which is what I ended up with. Swaping the base over as well as the coloured cover was not a big issue.
For interest, the 'BROWN' bulb is the on indicator for the air conditioning. The 'GRAY' bulb is for the localised night illumination of the fan speed knob. The second 'BLACK' bulb is for the rear window demister. 'BROWN', 'GRAY' and 'BLACK' bulbs are all different part numbers on the Mitsubishi parts system.
I have found that it is possible to remove the black module without removing the entire heating control panel from the dash. This is great because it is quite a pain to remove both the mechanical cables for the air direction and air temperature control knobs. First remove the air conditioning knob. The next step, removing the black module is tricky because you have to know exactly what clips (four) need to be released and the way to do that with your flat blade screwdriver, all the while with poor visibility inside the dash. The very first photo of this posting shows this quite clearly where I unclip the central mechanism. One last thought, when you eventually reinsert the black module make sure it slides in smoothly and correctly and that none of the bulb bases ('BLACK', 'GRAY' etc.) catch on the white plastic and break as you slide it back in.
Syndicate
light bulb
I have done it but just cannot remember how ! At the rear of the front panel, I think that the green cable goes to the light bulb plug...not sure ! I remember them to be very small bulb with a rubber cover for the color. You may have to disconnect the front black panel to the white back section.
Happy io
My io is now SOLD Thankshttp://pajerio.com/forum/claudes-io-2002-zr-built-thread-onlyhappy-io