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'05 Avalanche dash lights, what a joke...

4xcrazy

4xcrazy

3/4 ton status
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Elma, Washington
So today was a pretty nice day, as was yesterday, which is why we went to the beach, roamed around, did some Razor clam digging and whatnot...

I decided to really clean the truck out today, inside and out, wash out the sand, salt and crap from the nasty, rainy wet weather lately.

Well, there are several dash lights that have burnt out over time and a couple just recently we noticed. So I decided while cleaning the dashboard and door panels that I'd pull the components out of the dash and see about possibly replacing a few bulbs. I have a ton of various spare bulbs in the garage, all sorts of shapes and sizes.

I pull the radio out, then the climate control panel. I notice it's a sealed box type of thing with screws holding it together. I remove the screws and get the two pieces apart in the hopes of finding out what bulbs to replace and what do I see?





Soldered on, micro mini bulbs...

Now, WHAT IDIOT, at GM engineering decided this was a good idea to use instead of an easily replaceable/SERVICEABLE standard plug in light bulb...

I wanna slap that moron.
 
I've got at least one out behind the oil pressure gauge in my 06. It really sucks they did that.
 
Can you purchase the bulbs? I have a few hookups that could solder them back in. They are micro/mini qualified...
 
Yeah,they have used those for many years now...another stupid idea intended to frustrate any owner based repairs or maintenence...same guy probably invented the "no dipstick" automatic transmissions too,that you need a lift and the car running,to check the fluid level..

A guy I know has taken several dashes apart to "disable" an annoying check engine light on a few used vehicles that were sold to customers who dont need to get an inspection sticker in their state,and the reason the light was on was something non-critical...and he found those LED type bulbs,instead of a replaceable incandesant type...ended up either using black tape over the dash lens,or popping the LED with pliers..
 
I can handle the soldering job, just not right now like I would have liked. I have seen through a short search of other people finding them and posting part numbers for the bulbs. Going to to a bit more research later tonight.
 
Yeah, I just bought stepper motors and lights to do mine, Terrible design. LMC truck sells the bulb kits in their catalog for the heater controls.
 
Yep, my 2001 has all the lights working. My Mom's 99 I30 has all the tights working. My dad's 06 CCLB has half the lights working. That includes steering wheel, door panels, dash, etc. Unbelievable

But I laugh about my Mom's I30. At 100,000 miles the airbag sensor comes on. Says it's a normal thing in the owners manual, letting you know it should be serviced. So there it is, blinking away, for the last 20,000 miles.
 
I have some of those led's in the garage if you need them. Left overs from the dozens of GM gauge cluster repairs I have done.
 
Our air bag sensor comes on at time as well, I ignore it for now, it goes away for awhile, it'll be tended to in the next few months.

Some of the lights on the steering wheel are out as well, not too concerned with those at the moment, that wheel is probably going to need to be replaced soon anyways, the stereo has a bunch out, but that IS getting replaced within a year or so as well.

So after looking at it more tonight, it really only appears that one light in the climate control area and possibly one in the dash gauge area, lower left corner, not sure, almost not noticeable.

Everything else is getting the whole unit replaced soon anyways.

Ah well..
 
Yeah, those have been soldered in since at least the mid 90's. I consider it standard fare to replace bulbs when you buy a used car. In my '05 GMC I had to do the steering wheel controls, heater controls, radio, half of the 4x4 selector panel and a few things in the driver's door. I first drove that thing home in the rain at night and I could hardly figure out how to work anything!

Yeah, you can do LEDs in all of those places, but you might have to buy a few for "trial and error" to get the color to match whatever else has the bulbs + colored caps. You can buy bulk packs of little bulbs off eBay and just do everything at once for a few dollars. Yes, they will burn out again, but will you still own the vehicle in 10 years? Whatever you do, don't buy the bulbs at radio shack - they can get $2-$3 PER BULB!
 
I always wondered what bulbs they used.

Need to replace bulbs on the 02 and the 97
 
4xcrazy said:
Our air bag sensor comes on at time as well, I ignore it for now, it goes away for awhile, it'll be tended to in the next few months.

Some of the lights on the steering wheel are out as well, not too concerned with those at the moment, that wheel is probably going to need to be replaced soon anyways, the stereo has a bunch out, but that IS getting replaced within a year or so as well.

So after looking at it more tonight, it really only appears that one light in the climate control area and possibly one in the dash gauge area, lower left corner, not sure, almost not noticeable.

Everything else is getting the whole unit replaced soon anyways.

Ah well..
Click to expand...

Both my neighbor and I had the airbag light come on. On both of ours it was a sensor under the drivers side front bumper. $40, a 10mm, and 30 minutes.
 
readymix said:
I have some of those led's in the garage if you need them. Left overs from the dozens of GM gauge cluster repairs I have done.
Click to expand...

Want to replace the failed tach stepper motor and burnt out light in my 03 Tahoe cluster? And somehow dim that useless highbeam indicator? I have to set my wallet in the dash driving at night with the high beams because the thing glares too much :haha:
 
Sure. Send me the cluster and I'll fix it all. Takes me about 30 mines to replace all of the stepper motors and another 30 for the LED'S.
I would have to buy the stepper though since I used all I had. I think the part number is written down here somewhere.
 
There appears to be two different part numbers, different wattages. 7219 = .72 watt and the 2182 = 1.12 watt.
 
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