uplanderman

I'm new to this firoum and also a new Uplander owner hoping for some help... After reading this forum it appears I may have purchaed an electrical nightmare waiting to happen. My Uplander is a 2005 LS RWB, and I have already pulled the fuse for the power sliding door to avoid it opening while moving again, now my dash lights and head lights are flickering slightly and the dash lights have started to burn out !!

Questions....Can the dash lights be replaced??

Hoping for some advise

Thanx in advance for all the help!!

Cheers
Brad

likearaptor

I have this same problem. I contacted the dealer and they said the bulbs behind the gauges are not replaceable and are not sold and they only will replace the whole gauge set. I didn't believe them and so I pulled the gauges out and was able to pull the pulls out but the dealer was right. I haven't seen a bulb like this before and neither has the part stores in town. My dad mentioned the best bet is to go to a wrecking yard and find a 2005-2006 chevy/gmc with a gauge cluster and see if I can pull the bulbs out and buy them there.

Does any one else have any suggestions? I actually have pictures of the bulb but now where I am at now. Let me know if posting them will help.

Thanks
Blake

uplanderman

Yes, please post the pics of you can & I will do some investigating to see what I can find. Hopfully someone has already found a fix.

I did some research years ago on an 02 Montana that had the radio lights go out...dealer said you must replace the whole radio....research found a guy the was able to solder new bulbs into the radio in 10 min @ $1.50....Hopfully we can find a fix like that !!

likearaptor

Here are the images I got from the light bulbs, sorry it took a while. The images were on an old cell phone that I can't use any more and it took a little to find all the right cables. I have the originals in higher resolution plus 2 or 3 more files. On the blue plastic piece it said it is a 12V 12 W lightbulb and it also said alba.

uplanderman

I had my bulbs repalced by a local mechanic who said you could solder in new bulbs to the blue plastic base if you wanted to but it was a lot of intricate work....he recommended going to the scrap yard and collecting as many as you can ....so thats what I did...lol. The scrap yard didnt even charge me for them.

Now I have to do the alternator voltage regulator fix to ensure my new bulbs dont blow!! My mechanic says the flickering headlights issue that most Uplander owners are having is the main reason the dash light bulbs are blown as they are the smallest and weakest link in the lighting of the van....

john-yves

Hello,
Well it seems that chevrolet wants to replace the whole cluster because they dont sell just the bulbs.

Hers what i did, i went to an electronic store, in ottawa ( gervais electronics ) and he gave me 3 light bulbs for 4 $.

You take a small pointy objet, insert into the base of the bulb slowly the bulb should come out, then using wire cutters simply just cut the 2 small copper wires.

the bulb wire from the store are long enough all i did was wrap the wires arounf the silver pins, no solder required, put the bulbs back in and voila it works,

you can also go to canadian tire, match the light bulb and do the same thing wrap around..

goog luck

Val D.

I know this thread is quite old but I just got the same problem on my SV6. One of the bulbs on top of the speedometer burned out. This area is now much darker than the rest of the dash and this is quite annoying. I already got the idea what to do but the question is how hard is to reach the back of the instrument panel? Do I need to remove the instrument panel or it's possible to get there without that hassle? If I have to remove the panel what I need to do? Thanks in advance.

Val

john-yves

good day Val,

yes it is quite easy withing reach in about ten minutes. here are the steps to take too change your bulbs without changing the whole cluster..

1- remove 4 exagon screws from instrument panel
2- slowly gasp one end of the plastic casing to unclip the black plastic casing from the dasboard,

3- remove electrical wire, its a clip on youll see.
4- the whole console should be in your hands now, their are about 6 plastic clip on that secure the base, slowly, gentle pry them open

5- remove the bulb by turning it, remove it, keep the palstic blue casing , slowly pry out the old bulb, the new one take the 2 wires and wrap around silver contacts, re-assemble,

the rest is the reverse, should take no more than 10 minute and canandian tire bulbs are about 5$ for 2 hope this works let me know

Val D.

Thanks john-yves!

I found a detailed picture explaining the process in GM technical documentation. Looks easy to do without removing too many parts and spending too much time. The bulb is 12V 1.2W but what the dimensions are? Looks like most common size is 5mm x 20mm, type 286 (just for reference). Is this the one we are talking about? I would like to have the bulbs ready prior to disassemble the cluster.

Val

P.S. Btw, I thought GM finally made the cluster illumination by using LEDs, but... maybe next time. To protect the bulbs from burning it is a good idea to dim the dash a bit. By general rule only 10% less voltage gives approximately 2X live in incandescent bulbs.

johnnybgood

Buy dash light bulbs from European inport automotive place. They are used on several imports.