Standard bulbs for dash - type numbers anyone?
 

I have 1 or 2 bulbs gone in my 2003 WRX, namely the heater control and fuel/temp gauge. I'm not interested in changing colours or anything, just want the standard bulbs. There's got to be an alternative to Subaru for them as they've just quoted me £9.13 for each of the heater control bulbs and £7.43 for each of the fuel/temp gauge. Not sure how many I need to fix my issue but not at this price ! :eek:

Thanks guys.

Mods - could you please move this to 'Lighting and other electrical'

Thanks.

All I can say is that in a classic they are standard W5W bulbs, like the capless ones in your sidelights.

I'm not surprised Subaru want that much, they want £30 for a top-hose which is £7.50 from a motor factor. They are robdogs in the extreme.

I'm pretty sure the dash is as easy to remove in yours as it is in mine: two screws in the upper part of the cowl, they need a stubby screwdriver to make their removal easy.
Once they are out, wriggle the surround out, lowering the steering wheel helps.

That should show the three screws holding the instrument cluster in place......there could be more, or less screws on yours, but mine has three.

Remove those: longer screwdriver, magnetic one advisable, since the screw is hard to get fingers to, and CAN drop off to disappear into the dash area........probably for ever:eek:

Once the screws are out and somewhere safe, pull the instruments towards you and disconnect the plugs from them. On mine there are two. They are towards the top and relatively easy to get to.

Now wriggle the instruments out too. You should now be able to see the bulbs, and a visit to a decent car shop or motor factors will get you new ones.
If it were me I'd replace 'em all, save you doing it again in three months;)

Thanks for the comprehensive reply and the tips...noted! :thumb:

Do you suppose that the bulb type for the heater control might be the same type? So far I've found most information relates to the LED mods that folk have done and not standard replacements.

I'd thinks so, yes, you got probs there too?

I have, yes. Doing a head unit replacement this weekend hopefully and I'd like to take care of this at the same time if possible as access will be easier. I might try a local motor factors tomorrow and see if can get lucky.

Might be worth ringing a dealer:

You: "How much is a bulb for the heater controls of an XYZ?"

Dealer: ££nnn"
You: "How much? What sort of a bulb is that then?"

Worked for me;)

Jeff, do you know which bulbs are required for the early classic heater controls?

Not sure if they'll be the same as yours is a later car?

I honestly don't mate, but I would guess at W5W same as the ones for the dash.

Dealer will know, you could get the info as above.

Progress so far...
 

Well I've got the dead bulbs sorted out but I wanted to fit a full set to the instrument binnacle. The very helpful man in Camberley Autofactors was at something of a loss as there were no markings on any of the bulbs we looked at (I took the binnacle assy in to him), and there were a number of different types in there. He advised that usually the different colour caps denote different wattage/physical size of the bulb. There were no exact matches in his kits, but I did get a 1.2W for the fuel gauge, slightly smaller than the original but looks just fine when lit.

There were two other that looked quite silver; like they they didn't have long left. One was for the speedo and the other the rev counter. These were bigger than the others and again had no markings whatsover.

It'd be good to get to the bottom of this and identify/sorce them before they become a necessity.

TBC.................

Take one of each into your local Maplins?

Used these people a few years ago for an old car I had, seems they have a reasonable range of bulbs.

http://www.holden.co.uk/displayprodu...=Bulbs+Capless

Got a selection coming from them, will post back once I've had a go with them.