Bulbs for ashtray recess and Heater control lighting

[DJPremier]

Both mine have stopped working. Are the bulbs replaceable ? ..as mine seem hard wired into the plastic shrouded fixtures that attach to the two spade connectors. Maybe time to hack in some LEDs instead.. !

Cheers. Dave V.

[Nate]

I've seen some where the bulbs just pull out, and others where they seem to be a permenant fixture. So either

[ianaudia4]

Strange, my Storm has the push in type that 're still available from the dealers!

[Nate]

I might have a heater panel that takes the push in type bulbs in the shed. Ill have a look when I get backf Rom work

[DJPremier]

Thanks for the responses all. Ian, I did expect to be able to gently tug the bulb free from the holder. Both were quite stiff, which I took to be age related, however increasing tug factor just resulted in a little crunching noise and the bulb came free but without the small wire connectors. What's left is the plastic tube with the small embedded metal plates that form the connections for the spades. This does give two metal areas to connect to inside the tube, so I'm going to try to insert a new bulb and see if it goes in, makes contact and stays put. Ideally I need to replace these before I finish reassembly of the centre console as the amount of cable supplied to each bulb is not generous !

Nate. Thanks for offering a potential replacement.

Dave V

[mark1gls]

When mine went in the golf the blub was fixed in, I also tried to pull it out and left with a little bit in the blub holder, I tried soldering in a new blub, did not work for me so went to the scrap yard and found the whole blub assembley in the ash tray of a mk3 golf. I checked it was working with a multimeter first then asked now much for it and got it for free!
I think vw used the same blub and holder in some other cars as well so check polos etc.

[DJPremier]

I've sourced some bright white 3mm LEDs that don't need a resistor and are stable with forward DC voltages between 3v and 12v so I'll wire 'em in tomorrow and post details up if it works as I'd like.

[ianaudia4]

Be interested in seeing this on Saturday.

[DJPremier]

I wired the LEDs in, and it all works fine, except.. not bright enough. The original 2.3w incandescent bulbs did a much better job so, on to plan B. Hacking the lampholders to make bulbs removable, with a side order of looking for really bright LEDs with same voltage spec. Tomoz..

[ThomasD]

Thanks for the responses all. Ian, I did expect to be able to gently tug the bulb free from the holder. Both were quite stiff, which I took to be age related, however increasing tug factor just resulted in a little crunching noise and the bulb came free but without the small wire connectors. What's left is the plastic tube with the small embedded metal plates that form the connections for the spades. This does give two metal areas to connect to inside the tube, so I'm going to try to insert a new bulb and see if it goes in, makes contact and stays put. Ideally I need to replace these before I finish reassembly of the centre console as the amount of cable supplied to each bulb is not generous !

Nate. Thanks for offering a potential replacement.

Dave V

I did exactly the same thing, assuming the bulb would be replaceable. When built, the car had the heater control and ashtray bulbs soldered into the sockets. The sockets are attached with spade connectors. I guess the thinking was the entire socket would be replaced.

Presumably someone figured out that changing a bulb was cheaper than a bulb and socket assembly, so VW made replacement sockets available which have replaceable bulbs. I'm guessing if someone has a Mk2 with replaceable bulbs, either a previous owner already went through this, or perhaps VW changed the design later in the production run.

The replacement socket for the heater control is 321 919 039 and the bulb is N 0177512. Both are available from VW. The socket on the back of the ashtray is similar but slightly different - it has a bulge on the end to secure the socket in the holder. I'm not sure what the replacement part number is for that one or if its still available. I just used another 321 919 039 socket with a bit of wiring tape around the end to make it a tight fit. Ashtray takes the same replacement bulb.

[DJPremier]

Thanks for that Thomas :b. I solved the heater control panel by replacing the panel with the later type that has an led permanently wired in. Once that was done, I found by more experiment, that the ashtray fitting allowed me to fit a push in bulb after all, but I had to spread the small wire contacts on the bulb slightly before insertion so they made good contact at the right points. All working fine now

BTW. Is that a Brown Storm you have in your Sig ?

Dave V

[ThomasD]

Thanks for that Thomas :b. I solved the heater control panel by replacing the panel with the later type that has an led permanently wired in. Once that was done, I found by more experiment, that the ashtray fitting allowed me to fit a push in bulb after all, but I had to spread the small wire contacts on the bulb slightly before insertion so they made good contact at the right points. All working fine now

BTW. Is that a Brown Storm you have in your Sig ?

Dave V

Nice! The LEDs will be nicer than the original lamps.

(Yes, its a brown '84 Storm)

Best,
Tom

[james butler]

how do you replace the bulb in the heater control panel as mine seems to be moulded as one unit?
and i cant even see the bulb, just the connection at the back.

[ThomasD]

how do you replace the bulb in the heater control panel as mine seems to be moulded as one unit?
and i cant even see the bulb, just the connection at the back.

It seems VW switched the control panel at some point. In my car ('84), there is circular socket which plugs in the the back of the heater control panel - you can just pull it out and replace it as described above. But in later cars, there is just a square connector that plugs into the back of the panel. Here is a thread from another forum which shows the author replacing the bulb on a sealed heater control panel. Essentially you can carefully pry the back of the heater control unit off to get access to the bulb/socket assembly. Then you have to break the bulb out and you can obtain a new bulb and solder it in.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2898209

[james butler]

Ahh cheers.
I did think "they got it in there so it must be able to come out".