Write-Up: Fixing HVAC Climate Control Lighting

the lights on my climate control were dimming, so i followed a writeup on regalgs.org of how to fix it. since it was for a regal, it was somewhat different than mine, so im going to do a writeup of what i did. this is the best of my recollection since its been a while. HTH

first, you remove the front display by lifting up on the tabs seen at the top of the picture and pulling the display down.


this exposes the board you need to remove. second, take the plug out by GENTLY pulling up. it should easily come out. next, lift up the tabs seen on the bottom of the second pick and pull the board out.



the next picture shows the brown resistors that are the problem (these are the main difference between the regal and riviera climate controls). you need to resolder the joints on the other side (seen in the second pic below). all i did was reheated the solder and it worked fine. next, put it back together and if all goes well, no more dimming problem.

pwmin wrote:

the lights on my climate control were dimming, so i followed a writeup on regalgs.org of how to fix it. since it was for a regal, it was somewhat different than mine, so im going to do a writeup of what i did. this is the best of my recollection since its been a while. HTH

first, you remove the front display by lifting up on the tabs seen at the top of the picture and pulling the display down.


this exposes the board you need to remove. second, take the plug out by GENTLY pulling up. it should easily come out. next, lift up the tabs seen on the bottom of the second pick and pull the board out.



the next picture shows the brown resistors that are the problem (these are the main difference between the regal and riviera climate controls). you need to resolder the joints on the other side (seen in the second pic below). all i did was reheated the solder and it worked fine. next, put it back together and if all goes well, no more dimming problem.

I just did that and it indeed fixed the problem of the dimming display but i still have the issue with zero button illumination. Any known fixes?
I guess this is a pretty common problem among gm's in general

Your pictures are a bit dim right now...

oh, crap, i had to clean up my photobucket and moved them. gotta relink them...sorry

There is a place on eBay that claims to be able to fix these. I think I searched for "Buick climate control". It may have been in the Store section.

I had seen the post of the Regal GS board but did not have the time, or skill to try it.

finally fixed the links

On the AC contol panel, the one above the radio, I've got two lights that are burned out (the one that lights up the Air Flow switch and the blue light on the Temp switch). I went to the mechanic I usually go to for things like that and he said he'd need to buy a whole new control panel for, like, $400 or so. Needless to say, I'm not interested in buying one.

I'm interested to know, though, if those lights can possibly be replaced without having to replace the whole assembly. I was thinking of putting some blue LEDs in where the orange lights are now anyway, but has anyone got any experience with replacing the old bulbs with new ones? How would one go about doing something like that?

Thanks for your time everyone, and sorry for the questions.

You have to pull the dash panel off to get at the HVAC control. Once you get it out you can go to radio shack and buy part# 272-1092 bulbs. I just did this on my control and they worked great. The orange lights in the control are 3mm led's. The hardest part is getting the dash apart. Just look up radio removal in the search and you should come up with the procedure on how to get the dash apart.

96RIVMANN wrote:

You have to pull the dash panel off to get at the HVAC control. Once you get it out you can go to radio shack and buy part# 272-1092 bulbs. I just did this on my control and they worked great. The orange lights in the control are 3mm led's. The hardest part is getting the dash apart. Just look up radio removal in the search and you should come up with the procedure on how to get the dash apart.

are the bottons clear??? so if anyone WAS to change the color would it be the true color or is there a filiment to make any light show orange??? JW??

They are indeed clear. I installed a 3mm green led in the auto button and a red one in the off button. Not sure if you can get the leds at radio shack I had them lying around at work.

Thanks, this is good to know, I have some burned out in my newest one too.

Awesome, I'll get to this once I get a couple other things out of the way, but thanks for the help, 96.

Well, I just put a new head unit in and a bunch of the climate control lights went out. So I'll have to take the damn dash off again and investigate this. Is there a particular brand of LED you suggest for replacing the ones already in there, 96RIVMANN?

Are there lightbulbs behind the climate control buttons (Like the Fan and Air flow buttons or even the Vent, Recirc, etc. buttons)? I've always wondered because if there are mine are burnt out and I hate that I can't see what they say in the dark. I know what they do but it just bugs me because I feel like they should be lit up.

They are LEDs, soldered into the circuit board. I recall that there is a writeup on how to do this, but I can't find it. I think it's on regalgs.org. You need to unsolder the old LEds and solder in some new ones. Not for the noob to the soldering iron...

Oh, no no not the little orangish yellow lights like when you push rear defrost, I mean like behind the actual letters that light up the words. They seem like they should've been lit up because someone new to the car would have no idea what's what in the dark.

They are all LEDs.

Can you replace the radio LED's the same way? I have the same problem, Shintsu, but I just ignore it. I want to make most of the LED's blue. I may have a chance to store the Riv and drive something else and dress up the Riv nicely and not have to rely on it for a DD.

Are you sure they're LEDs? They make tiny light bulbs that can be soldered onto boards. The reason I ask, illumination LEDs have a super-long life, they last almost forever.

Yeah, that's why I was pretty sure they were bulbs. I think the LEDs would out last the car!

I was pretty sure they are LEDs and the OEM soldering sucks. I could be wrong though.

HI Guys
I have a 97 SC Riviera which I just recently had the A/C charged, since then the control panel appears to dim and nothing works. The fan, blower, A/C or anything, then all of sudden the light gets brighter and everything works and then stops just as fast as it came on. the gas gauge also seems to work intermitting also. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

What's your battery voltage during this dimming?

Sounds like your dash might have a bad ground wire somewhere.

by the way does anyone know how to replace the light bulbs in the climate control?



Albertj