Randy V

I'm told that Porsche does not source the bulb that illuminates the climate control unit.

Anyone find a source for the appropriate sized bulb?

Thanks.

wds928

Randy:

From Greg Nichols site, I found the following. I had replaced the bulb in my head unit when I did the Ice Cube relay replacement. I've copied adn pasted the info below from Greg's site.

Bill

Climate Control


Illumination of Slider *****

This evening as I was fumbling around in the dark looking for the HVAC controls, it occurred to me there might be lights in the levers... are there supposed to be?

adTHANKSvance,
gooz

84S


There is a single, small bulb in the center of the controller that lights the panel and also the sliders via fiber-optic tubes. Remove the controller, take off the top, remove the gear attached to the temp slider and pull out the bulb. You can replace it with a 1.2 watt, Osram # 2721 W2x4,6d which should be available at any auto parts store.

Good Luck

Don Burrows
dcburrows@aol.com

928 Tips Home Greg's Home

Garth S

Randy,
I've done the exact replacement that Bill referrs to above - although it was more of a mystery without a write-up . The bulb is about dead center in the controller, and some plastic tabs may be sacrificed in getting inside: sticky tape helps on reassembly.
At best, the sliders are poorly illuminated with a 1.2W bulb. If I ever went in there again, I'd strongly consider soldering in a 12v regulated LED.

Chuck Schreiber

Randy,

Although the head unit in my 79 is manual vs your HVAC in the GTS(auto) the units are basically the same when it comes to illumination. I've taken both the early model and late model units apart to compare them.

The bulb that came in your HVAC unit is an Osram and yes it's still avail. I used an LED and it looks much better! The following is the site where I sourced the bulb for the HVAC

http://autolumination.com/74.htm they are direct replacements.

I used red and I looks really nice! The ends of your sliders do not have bulbs in them and I don't think I've ever seen a slider that actually illuminates that well even on a GTS. The bulb in the HVAC illuminates the top and bottom sliders. A fiber optic cable pics up the light and brings it (supposedly) to the sliders.
I snipped off the end of the fiber optic cables with a pair of sharp scissors to get a nice end, I then went and picked up a pair of new sliders (pretty cheap) and I drilled them out with a 3/32 drill bit all the way to the end so in the day, you see a little black pinhole in the middle of the slider. I then pushed the fiber optic cable into the slider as far as it would go upon reinstallation.
I now have a nice little dot in the middle of my sliders at night! Again, they are red and match my clock and pod illumintation. (I did the Jager red pod ill.)

A couple of things. I also replaced my pod switches with the same #74 bulbs and they look awesome! The headlight, odo reset, fogs, and defrost all look nice and bright at night (not too bright) It really brings the car into 2005.

Secondly, I replaced my clock ill with red off the same site. I imagine you can do it on the GTS as well but I'm not sure what bulb your clock takes. Pull out the bulb and see if it matches anything on that page.

It's a really cool setup at night and I think I paid less than $30 for all the bulbs, plus backup bulbs, that I needed. I did get several different colors to experiment with as well since they are so cheap.
Really easy, cheap upgrade for our cars.

Have fun and good luck!!!

BTW, I tried to upload photos, but the files are too big.

Randy V

Thanks, Don & Garth!

Great info on the LED upgrade, Chuck - I'm doin' it! Thanks.

Are these the ones you used for the pod switches and the HVAC control illumination?

Randy V

Oh, and Chuck - Roger tells me you are a pod illumination expert as well. (I've been pestering Roger with instrument cluster questions lately.) I need to replace some of the bulbs in the instrument cluster - specifically, the ones that illuminate the auto gear selector position (PRND32). Can you tell me which LED builbs I should order from this company for that application?

Roger supplied me with the following picture, indicating the location of those gear indicator bulbs.

Thanks!

Chuck Schreiber

Randy,

Yup, those are the bulbs I used for the Pod switches and HVAC illum. Order a bunch, they're pretty cheap and you can experiment with different ones to get a color scheme that you like.

As far as the illumination, expert is pushing the boundries a bit,
but yes, Roger heard me talk about what I was doing forever! Ok, I know the pods pretty well up to 88, but the 89-95's are a bit different as your pic shows.
I have not taken one apart but I've got to think that you can cross ref. whatever bulbs you pull out of there with the site you now have the link to.

I would call one of the big 3, or your local Porsche house and get the bulb #. It might be the Osrams that are in our pod switches, or if you can pull a bulb out and take a pic, I can identify it and tell you which one to get. Just about every 928 bulb can be cross ref. on that page to an LED.

PM me and I can get some pics over to you to show you the results. Again, the files are way too big to post here. Hope that gets you started.

Randy V

Thanks, Chuck - let me see if I can get ahold of one of those bulbs to use as a cross reference.

Chuck Schreiber

Let me know as things progress. You're gonna dig these cheap/cool mods!

jenyap

Replacing all the instrument panel incandescent bulbs with LED sounds like a great idia! How did you know which direction to put the LEDs in? I was under the impression that they had a + and - or are these different?

jenyap

Does anyone know?

Chuck Schreiber

They do,

When you put them in you'll know real quick if you've got them in right or not. Just rotate 180degrees if they do not light up right off the bat.

Chuck Schreiber

BTW,

Here is the Jager LED illum. Not a very good pic, but you get the idea.

jenyap

Ouch!!! what about the idiot lights that only come on when there is a problem? I would hate to have to pull the pod, replace bulbs with LEDs put the pod dack in and only find out that one is in backwards when I run out of gas. There has to be an easier way!

Chuck Schreiber

There are no LED replacements for the idiot lights. Just order the stock ones from one of the "bug" 3. I have 19 on my 79. YMMV.

I don't need any brighter lights telling me I'm an idiot!