124 Heater Control Lighting - Help Sought

[CharlesdeGaulle]

I'm after a bit of 124 advice please.

The dash back-lighting in my car (93 320 cabrio) is poor, notably the driver's-side heater controls which are very hard to see at night. The rotary dial that directs heat to screen or floor isn't illuminated at all (should it be?), nor is the driver's temperature dial. There does appear to be some faint illumination in the passenger side temperature dial.

Is this normal? I'm guessing there is a small bulb out - anyone know how to access it, and what it should be replaced with?

Thanks in advance.

 

[balge]

Does the dimmer switch work? The dash lights on my 230 were really dim until I discovered the dimmer...

 

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Everything else is fine. it's just the heater controls.

 

[hotrodder]

There's 4 bulbs for the rotary heater dials, two are dead easy to get at as the rotary knobs just need pulling off (cloth and a pair of pliers if you can't do by hand). These bulbs just light the arrows on the knobs themselves. To get at the other 2 the heater panel has to come off*, these light the rotary knob surrounds and the temp dials

* Somewhere on the forum there'll be a 'how to' with step by step pics. Basically there are two screws at the base of the wood trim that are partly obscured by the radio, two 24mm nuts under the fan/direction knobs and then the trim can be removed (it's hooked/clipped at the top). I can't remember the next bit well enough to describe but it's pretty straightforward what needs to be undone/removed to reach the bulbs, part # N000000001061 which are 0.5w... 1.2w are more common and have a reputation for resulting in switches which get hot.