Odometer Light
 

My Odometer back light on my 99 sl1 stopped working. Is this fixable by me, and what do I have to do to fix it?

Yes, its fixable by you. It is a pain in the ass (in my opinion)
You would have to get the bulb, and from what I remember (someone correct me if im wrong) you have to take the cluster out of the dash to reach that bulb.

Pull the cluster

That does sound like a pain. Certainly not something I am doing in the winter. Thanks.

With winter holding court in most of the nation, I can fully understand your decision to forgo any "non-emergency" repairs for right now. However, be aware that even in the midst of summer, this repair still gets the "PITA" badge ...

O I don't doubt that. Anything that requires pulling the cluster is going to be a PITA. I find the same thing replacing dash lights on my GMC Safari. One has been out for years, but knowing all the stuff I need to pull to get at it, I figure I can live with it.

The top of the dash comes off purdy easy ... once your there the rest is cake.

Just watched Richpin's video on removing the cluster. Man that is a PITA having to do all that just to get to that point. Does one have to remove the cluster to replace the odometer bulb? Any idea on what type of bulb it uses?

The odometer back-light was out on a 1998 Saturn SL2 when I bought it last January. I took out the instrument cluster, a somewhat tedious but not difficult operation needing a common screwdriver, a 7 mm socket and a 13 mm socket. The "socket" was not giving electricity to this bulb. So I scraped and soldered thin wired that become hot when the ignition switch goes on and procured a jumbo bright blue LED from Radio Shack. The plastic from the LED had to be filed to change the lens shape into a flat frosted front so that it did not project a hot spot in the odometer face. I taped the diode into place. It is too corpulent to insert it through the bulb mounting hole but the face of the LED need only be positioned against the hole for it to work. The odometer numbers light up just right, not glaring at night but bright enough to be easy to read in daylight. I think this is a much nicer looking display than it ever had.

corpulent?

In your first post?

Nice.

Thank you for your contribution.

One of the many things I love about good forums -- 1,000 people with the same exact issue can come up with 1,000 different ways to solve it. (Although some may be safety or fire hazards, they still count towards the total).

Now the number of viable solutions -- that's a different animal....