Light bulb in hazard button burnt out?

[Aaron]

I recently removed the plastic bezel around my instrument panel to replace my stereo. Reassembled everything, and all seemed to be well. Tonight, when I reached to turn my hazards on, I realized that the red triangle on the hazard button is not lit. First of all, is this supposed to be lit? (I'm 99.9% sure that it is). 2nd, if this bulb is burnt out, is it replaceable, or do I need to replace the entire switch? Anybody else ever have one of these bulbs go out, or did I mess something up when I was plugging and unplugging the wiring for the buttons?

Thanks in advance.

[Otto]

Yes the bulb can be replaced, you need to pull the switch out then on the side of the switch the bulb can be removed with a small flat head screw driver a 1/4 turn. You can purchase the bulb from St. Charles for about $8.

[Aaron]

This is perfect... Thanks!

[LittleBeast]

First off, the hazard light housing is completely different than that one shown on that link in our VX. The bulb housing in our VX hazard is a screw in type. It is quite simple once you look at it though. Ok first take dash apart then disconnect the hazard housing and then push one of or both of the tabs on the top and/or bottom of the unit, then it will pop out towards you. Yes it will come out towards you NOT in towards the dash. You will see a grey circle on the left side of the housing if you are looking at it straight on. There will also be a place for another screw in bulb below it, but that is for units like the cruise control or defroster where two bulbs are used. So your focus is the grey screw in one on the "top" above the open hole. You will need a small flat head screw driver and turn about 1/4 turn to left then the bulb will pull straight out at you, if it does not stick on the end of the scewdriver you will need needlenose pliers to get it out or turn it upside down and hope you don't drop it. The easiest thing to do once you get the housing out is undo the under side first. I found the easiest way to do this is with a micro flat head screwdriver or a sharp "ice pick" looking thing, I think you get the point (no pun intended). Once you get the bottom wires straightened you can pull to bulb straight out the other end, and then put the new bulb in and bend the new wires back around in the same manner original ones were (this is not hard to figure out there are specific grooves for each wire to go into and around). However, if you really want to do something different you can replace the bulb with a LED like I did. You have to put a resistor in there as well, but there is plenty of room and if you really want to get creative you can put the resistor "in line" on the GREEN (with red stripe) wire before it goes into the housing and then put LED by itself back in instead of the bulb. If you do this you can use a voltage regulator to figure out which screw in connector (that makes contact with the wires on the LED) is positive (GRN with Red stripe) and negative because LED's need specific + and -. Or you could just know that if the hazard housing is on the right and the pin connectors are on your left the top connection is the positive and the bottom one is the negative, which is opposite the cruise control buttom below it, I don't know why they are different, but each one is different. It is quite simple and if you screw it up just send the screw in base to me and I will ship you back a LED in there. I just recently got done completely replacing each and every single one of those interior bulbs with blue LED's to match my new DVD receiver's buttons and took notes that is the only reason I know exactly what you are about to do, it really isn't that bad. Good luck.
In Christ,
Ryan
USA Decathlon Team

[Ldub]

Aaron,
I looked at mine earlier & noticed that the hazard icon only lights up when the headlights are turned on.
Maybe you knew that already, but just in case that was overlooked.

Ldub

[CSTYLES]

Similar problem here, the gear selecion light (R,N,D) no longer lights up. I tapped it a couple of times and it lit up, now it is out. Has anyone else had this problem? How easy is it to get at this connection? And if the bulbs are not burned out what could cause it to go in and out?

[LittleBeast]

Once you take apart the floor board shifter assembly with a phillips head screwdriver, you will see that it is simply one #74 bulb. The housing twists into the bottom of the black plastic shifter cover thing, and then the bulb pulls out of that housing easily no hassle. You can replace this bulb very easily with a #74 bulb (or LED) of your choice (I found that just one LED wasn't good enough and put three in there). If the light is coming on and off I would still say it is just the filament about to go out. The connection to that light is just like the light in the ash tray, two wires, if you follow them back far enough the GREEN (with red stripe) is the positive and the RED (with green stripe) is the negative. Hope that helps.
In Christ,
Ryan H
USA Decathlon Team