2001 instrument lights

[ampro]

I'm losing some of the dash, door and steering wheel lights in my 2001 Limited. Are these easily accessible ? My dealer told me they never have a problem with those lights. I'd try it myself if I knew the procedure. Can someone help shed some light on the subject?

[pcmos]

I had the same problem on a 2000 LeSabre that I bought as a pre-owned vehicle, and unfortunately the answer is no, these lights are tiny little incandescant bulbs that are literally soldered onto the circuit boards for each instrument cluster, (IE the radio face, the gage cluster, and even the passenger climate control unit on the passenger door). All of these tiny lamps are soldered directly onto the circuit boards, now I spent a weekend taking my entire dash board apart and because I have experience working with electronics I was able to buy replacement board mount bulbs at the local radio shack and solder new ones to the circuit boards, but this is not a simple repair, and you def. should not try taking apart the dash on this car without both GM factory shop manuals. Believe it or not there are only about 4 screws holding the entire dash board together, the rest of the assembly uses push on metal clips and if you don't know where these clips are located they tend to snap off while you are prying and fall down into the depths of the dash ( had this happen to a couple of them anyway )

[ampro]

Thanks pcmos for your reply. I guess I'll just have to live with it untill I trade. The dealer told me the cost would be outrageous too.

[pcmos]

Welll... it depends on which ones are actually burned out, like down to specifics. For example if the "Unlock / Lock" lamp is burned out on one of the door lock buttons, that is much easier to deal with than a lamp that may be burned out behind the radio face. See many of the buttons and switiches and things simply pry out of their respective panels with a simple flat bladed screw driver. I had my steering wheel mounted cruise on/off switch die on me last week and it was a simple enough replacement that I did it right in the parking lot of the dealer. All of those units are built with the idea that they will never be serviced so the dealer sells you the entire switch panel, even though it may be one lamp burned out on one of the switches. But most of those switches are less than 50 bucks. If you have lamps burned out on the actual dash board gauges you can always replace the entire guage cluster yourself and not bother trying to solder in new bulbs. I do have the shop manual and they give step by steps for replacing literally every body / interior trim panel on the entire car. Fortunately GM made good shop manuals for this vehicle, probably because they knew the dealers would need them, lol Anyway if you feel like tackling any of these as a weekend project let me know what lamp it is and i'll copy the instructions from the manual for you on how to get to it. BTW you can also do as I did and fix a lot of dashboard rattles in the process by sticking felt tape over all the joints when you put the stupid stuff back together, lol, another thing GM neglected to do with this car!

[sallisonbrown]

Originally Posted by pcmos

I had the same problem on a 2000 LeSabre that I bought as a pre-owned vehicle, and unfortunately the answer is no, these lights are tiny little incandescant bulbs that are literally soldered onto the circuit boards for each instrument cluster, (IE the radio face, the gage cluster, and even the passenger climate control unit on the passenger door). All of these tiny lamps are soldered directly onto the circuit boards, now I spent a weekend taking my entire dash board apart and because I have experience working with electronics I was able to buy replacement board mount bulbs at the local radio shack and solder new ones to the circuit boards, but this is not a simple repair, and you def. should not try taking apart the dash on this car without both GM factory shop manuals. Believe it or not there are only about 4 screws holding the entire dash board together, the rest of the assembly uses push on metal clips and if you don't know where these clips are located they tend to snap off while you are prying and fall down into the depths of the dash ( had this happen to a couple of them anyway )

Hey PCMOS,
I posted a question about fixing the steering wheel mounted cruise control last month and could have used your smarts.

I asked, "When pressing the Steering Wheel mounted switch to turn "on" the cruise control I have to continue to hold it down in order for it to work after I hit the "set" button. Should the switch be replaced and does this switch just pry out of the steering wheel socket"? I was told to just pry it out and replace it. I pryed it out, pulled it apart, cleaned it with alcohol and tested it with my ohm meter and all looks fine. Do you think that replacing that switch is my problem?

[pcmos]

HAHA, oh boy the only problem with these forums is that I can't get back to you sooner. ABSOLUTELY, the switch has a mechanical lock inside of it that breaks, this one stumped me about three weeks ago on my 2000 LeSabre. I did absolutly 100% the exact same thing you did. I couldn't figure out why the switch seemed to be working fine electrically but the cruise wouldn't stay on. I even took the switch apart and used a piece of wire to jump across those little gold contacts inside, same behavior. But then I finally realized what happened when I found the broken piece down in the hole in teh steering wheel. Its a tiny little pin with a toothed wheel on it that rotates and locks inside that switch when you press the button. When you buy the new switch they'll hand it to you in a bag, and if you press the button right then and there at the counter you'll realize immediately the difference. Its pretty amazing how once you mount it in the wheel you can't tell that it pushes and locks, but it does. It's purely a mechanical failure of the switch, If you still aren't sure, I can take a digital picture of the broken part on my old one here and then you can see if the same thing is broken on yours. It's very tricky to notice at first.

[pcmos]

Oh, one more quick thing. I almost got burned because I forgot to mention when I ordered the switch which color I needed and the wrong one came in. I had to re-order the correct color, just make sure you tell the guy at the dealer exactly what color your interior is, otherwise im sure they'll mess it up, lol.

[sallisonbrown]

Originally Posted by pcmos

Oh, one more quick thing. I almost got burned because I forgot to mention when I ordered the switch which color I needed and the wrong one came in. I had to re-order the correct color, just make sure you tell the guy at the dealer exactly what color your interior is, otherwise im sure they'll mess it up, lol.

Thanks very much. I'm off to my local Buick Dealer to order one now (in the correct color). They should give us just a couple of more mm of lead wire to allow easier plug in though.

[pcmos]

HA, yeah, but think of the weight and cost that 1 cm of wire would add to this car?