Radio Buttons Backlight

The backlight(s) for the 1 and 4 buttons on the radio quit working. I presume you have to pull the entire face to get to the problem. Though I would ask if anyone has tried it before and what you found. Thanks.

That's interesting, I had the same exact problem (same buttons) on a '98. My solution; bought and installed an Alpine CD player which involed removing the whole dash and blowing alot of fuses. Quite a pain in the ass.

This is a common problem with those radios. You CAN buy replacement bulbs and replace them. I found a website that sells a set of bulbs for $40 bucks. Thats too much, you can buy a new radio on eBay for that price. You can go to radio shack and get part number 272-1154 which is the same brightness, but just a little smaller. It works just as well. I have seen it done with those bulbs, and it looks the same as the others. I would recommend changing all 10 of them. Since I have had my Tahoe (only a month) I have lost 3 buttons in addition to the ones that were already blown. I have my old stereo system out of my car, but for some strange reason, I'm opting to keep my Tahoe Stock. I just don't like the look of an aftermarket radio in the tahoe's stock opening.

weird, my tahoe's radio has the exact same 1 and 4 buttons with the back light burned out

thanks for the part number

when typicalsituations states "this is a common problem,,,"

since owning my tahoe for the last 4 months, I have discovered LOTS of "common problems" with tahoes

like $250 to get an alignment done because GM is too damn cheap to incorporate adjustability for caster/camber!!

what happened to $39 for an alignment??

and,,, a COMMON PROBLEM I also had was the intake manifold gasket that was leaking, which supposedly "those gaskets are prone to leaking"

and $800 later, I have a new $20 gasket installed that fixed the leak,,,

tahoes are cool and all, but the quality certainly is a question,

oh and BTW, anyone have a rear driver's side window that stops functioning on an intermittent basis?? (meaning that sometimes it will roll down/up and other times it's just dead

Yeah, If I would have known about all these common problems, I would not have bought mine. The only things I have wrong with mine are the radio lights, and the infamous "BUMP" when I stop, or take off. I've had mine for about a month and a half. Its been a good truck, BUT I worry sometimes about when and how its going to mess up on me.

Infamous "bump?" What exactly are you talking about here?

"The Infimous BUMP" is the bump or clunk that you get when you start or stop at a stop sign or traffic light. It is caused by the slip yolk (I think this is what it's called) on the rear end as I recall, and the way you fix it is by getting some special greas from your local stealership. You slide the the thing apart and grease it every like 6 months. On the NBS trucks, there is a TSB that is suposed to have a perminent fix for it, how ever people so far have said it doesn't.

I have a question based on all this, would it be possible to change all the lights in the dash, and radio with like red tinted bulbs? Makeing for better night vision, and a cooler look?

But how do you get to the bulbs?

Remove the Deck, and then start removing screws around the face. I can't say Ive pulled apart a chevy deck before.

I ordered one on eBay the other day, and I just got it today, and its bulbs are burned out too, boy am I pissed. Anyway, I've taken apart my old deck before. There are 10 bulbs, and they are soildered into place. It wouldn't be too hard for someone to replace them. I was thinking maybe LED's could be soildered in, but I would hate to mess anything up.

I am quite apt at electronics. If some one wanted to send me a deck with burnt out bulbs, I'll see what I can do for either changeing the bulbs, or changing them to leds. My deck is fine rite now, so I don't want to pull it.

Bartlanz...hey the LED idea is quite good. I wonder though, do you think the resistance would be sufficient to run LEDs?

I dont see why not? As long as the voltage is correct, the bigest thing would be finding the color desired in the voltage available.

voltage and amps needs to be correct or you'll end up blowing leds left and right, the stock bulbs are usually type 194 which are rated at 14v 270 mA where as most 12v LEDs are rated at 15 mA so you would need to use a resistor to keep the amps down, getting that all into a spade bulb socket would be pretty tough, I have seen LED replacement lamps out there but they were too expensive to jusitify putting them into the dash,

JD68

The bulbs in the radio arent 194's. They are like minature flashlight bulbs with a base and they are soildered in. There isn't a directv replacement, but the RadioShack PN I mentioned is CLOSE. I think that LED's might be TOO bright. But it would be worth a try. its a real small pad to soilder to.

I was using the 194 as a reference since most automotive bulbs are rated the same, as for the leds try it and see some leds have a high threshold, another thing you could try in connecting the leds in series affectively lowering the amps.

Yeah that would be very fit..extreme limited space. But boy dont you know how cool it'd look with a nice red glow! You'd have to be a master solderer.

Well, as I said, I am pretty good at this stuff, and if some one has a head unit with some burnt out bulbs, I will try. Either way, I will return the Head to you.

Well, After looking inside of the Head Unit again, it seems like it would be fairly easy to unsoilder them. I don't know about re soldering. Even thought I've already ordered a new Head unit, I think I'll try to fix the old one with new bulbs. Too bad Radio Shack is out of stock now! :(