d8 dash

[gordonw]

i need to change a couple of dashlight bulbs can somebody point me in the right direction as regards removing the dash please

[jonsowman]

Pull the steering wheel out as far as it'll come and push it downwards. Undo the three Torx screws above the instrument panel.

You need to remove the plastic facade from around the cluster and the central and drivers side air vents. The judicious use of a large flat screwdriver and some brute force will help here. Start at the side closest to the drivers side door. You can remove the panel at the end and reach inside and try and push it out.

Once you've got that off, there are 4 Torx screws around the instrument panel. Remove those and pull the cluster out from the top first, then lift the bottom out. There are two connectors (yellow and blue) on the black, unclip them and remove the cluster.

The bulbs are the T5 twistlock type things. I replaced a load of mine with LED versions, these work for a lot of the bulbs but not some. Which ones are you needing to replace?

A few that come to mind that don't work are ABS, airbag warn, battery charge/alternator warn.

HTH

[gordonw]

Thanks for that,i need to change temp gauge,headlight and main beam on bulbs

[Gary406]

be carefull when removing the section with air vents in it
be sure to clip them off the back beofr epulling it out.
ive snapped loads before just pulling it out

[gordonw]

Thanks Gary,any idea how many bulbs there are behind the dash and i will just change the lot! cheers

[jonsowman]

The main and full beam indicators will be fine as LEDs if you wanted to do that. Are you talking about the backlight for the temp gauge or the high temp warn light? If it's the former then it's a different type of bulb. There are 6 backlight bulbs in total (black larger ones in the pic below).

Here's my D8 LX panel rear:

[gordonw]

The picture is a great help thanks! its the temp gauge backlight thats out, been that way for a while and the rest are slowly dying lol so if i was goin to take the dash out i am as well replacing the lot with LEDs if possible,cheers Gordon

[Gary406]

stay away from LEDs. there pure sh1te. you will not get the same effect. the leds dont light up the same way as a standard bulb
the light is not spread across the whole section with LEDs
just buy normal bulbs and dont waste your time and money with LEDs

if your clocks are the same as the ones in the picture above then those bulbs slot out of the clip holder they sit in.

the big black ones are simply 501 side light bulbs ..

ive just replaced mine in my clocks half an hour ago. i have LEDs in my toolbox but left them there cos i know how crap they are

[gordonw]

Normal bulbs it is thanks Gary.

[jonsowman]

I've been using these LEDs: http://www.lightec-autostyle.co.uk/xeno ... -p-24.html

And they've been great. As I've said, they don't work in all of them, but they're currently in about 10 places in my dash and they're perfect. They're slightly whiter than the OEM filament bulbs, so the colours of the lights are slightly different. For example the handbrake warn is now slighter pinker than it was..

Anyhow, the choice is yours

[gordonw]

Finally got round to changing the bulbs on the dash with LED bulbs but didnt like the effect so just put normal ones in job done thanks for the advice