So the buttons on the right side of my trip computer no longer want to light up. This has nothing to do with the lights on the display...

Using a caliper, I measured the exterior diameter of the bulbs... 4mm. It's about 10mm tall, by the way.

On eBay, I found sources for 4mm grain of wheat bulbs. I believe the ones I ordered are 1.2mA. They are clear. I was afraid that the blue ones would blacken over time. There are blue ones up for sale, but they are not nearly as bright, I believe only 0.4mA.

I also found a place on eBay that sells those blue rubber condoms for the bulbs. They don't look quite the same as what I pulled off of mine, but the poster does say that it will fit a 4mm bulb, entirely. There are some "condoms" that do look exactly like what I took off, but they are 3mm only.

Does anyone have any experience replacing these bulbs? They will have to be soldered on.

Thanks

 

I managed to find four possible bulbs that will work.

a. 12v 4mm bulb - 1.2W / 100mA draw
b. 14v 4mm bulb - 0.8W / 100mA draw
c. 12v 3mm blue LED - 1,000mcd / 140 degree viewing angle
d. 12v 3mm white LED - 1,500mcd / 140 degree viewing angle

I found some others, but they had a 30 degree viewing angle which was way too narrow to light up the buttons.

When I am able to test all four, I will post back the results. I did manage to purchase those blue rubber condoms for both 4mm and 3mm bulbs.

 

Well the job is complete.

I couldn't tell the difference in brightness between the original bulb and bulbs a & b above. I suppose I would recommend going with the 14v bulb.

I ended up installing the 3mm blue LED bulb, but I'm not sure I like it yet. I certainly couldn't make it match the aqua color in the display, and for that reason, I may end up replacing it with a regular old bulb. I wanted to put something in that I would never ever have to go back and change.

I'll post some pics.

I did add the saffron color gel that I used to get the trip computer display back to the aqua color, but for some reason, it didn't work.

I have to wait for nighttime to really see what I did.