Old Library

Brian:

Been there.. done that!   I had a burned-out bulb on the dash from
day-one and the freekin' dealer claimed that they had fixed it once
before I bought the car... anyway, enough complaining and on with the
install:

Start by prying off the plastic cover to the left of the headlight
switch and pry-out the heated-seat controls (my car doesn't have heated
seats so I'm assuming the controls pry-off on a '95.)   Remove your
headlight switch by reaching your finger in the hole you just created
and push-in the little tab that keeps the switch from coming out (you'll
know what I mean once you have your finger in the hole.)   Slide the
switch out and unplug it.   You should now see the screws at the bottom
right and left side of the instrument cluster shroud-thingy.   Take them
out and then pull the plastic cover straight out towards you... the top
has a clip on it so you may have to pull pretty hard at first.  Also,
make sure you lower your steering wheel as much as possible 'cause there
is a little plastic tab at the bottom of the shroud that will make
things difficult otherwise.

You should now see the screws for the instrument cluster at the top
right and left side.   I recommend using a magnetic screwdriver to
remove these screws or else you may loose them if they fall into the
dash (been there, done that!)   Once these two screws are removed, the
instrument cluster tilts forward, exposing those nasty light bulbs...
actually, they'll look like little plastic hex-nuts from the top.   You
may want to put your key in the ignition and turn you lights on and give
the bulbs a twist to see if they are really burned out... mine just had
bad contacts and didn't need replacing.   You can remove the bulbs by
giving them about a 1/4 to a 1/2 a turn.   I'm not sure where to get
replacement bulbs from, buy you can bet the cost of a new bulb is much
less than the dealer would have cost you for fixing this!  As long as
you have the dash apart, you may want to play with the illumination
color be removing the white plastic cap that is in front of the bulbs
and replace the green filament with some cool color like sissy-pink ;P

Hope that helps,
Todd Taylor
www.venommotorsports.com
www.toddtaylor.com


    Hello all,

    This is my first post.  I'll try to make this short.

    I have a 95 GTI that I bought a year ago.  When I bought it, one of
the two dashboard lights was burned out.  No big deal, I still had one
that worked and lit the speedo and tach and other gauges.  Well, last
month the other burned out too, so now I can't see my dash at all at
night except the digital clock readout thing.

    My question is this:  does anyone have a diagram on a website that
shows what I need to do to get at these bulbs to replace them?  Or could
someone walk me through it?  I don't want to have to tear my whole dash
apart if I don't have to.  Hopefully I only have to take part of it
apart just to get to the dash lightbulbs.  I have looked it over and I
can't even find any screws!!  I know my eyesight's bad, but...

    Thanks in advance for any and all who help.  My spring break is
coming up and I'll have a day or two to fiddle, and would love to
replace these then.  reply to me personally or via listing - I don't
mind.

    Thanks!!
    Brian Wood
    St.Louis, MO
    woody123gtw

    P.S. Colin McRae Rally is awesome, and is available for the PC and
PSX, but only in Europe.  While I live in the US, I have a copy of the
game (I'm pleading the 5th here!) and it is one great game. Right up
there with Viper Racing and Toca racing as the best driving games out
there in my opinion.  Their website is www.codemasters.com, and I
believe there are places you can buy it over the internet regardless of
what country you're from.

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