Problems with my dash illumination.

[Wilky1974]

Hi folks,

 When I got my 2004 ( 54 - reg ) MR2 I noticed that the dash lights behind the heater controls were dim. I took everything apart and found that one of the bulbs had blown. So I ordered two new bulbs from Toyota ( £6.90 + VAT each !!!!   s:( s:(   ). I also ordered some slightly brighter bulbs for behind the instrument binnacle. Everything fitted fine and I was happy with the results. Yesterday I noticed that one of the heater control bulbs seems to have blown again and this morning I noticed that the second one has gone too! I then noticed that the switches for the door lock / unlock, fog lights, mirrors and window disable also don't light up ( though to be honest I can't every remember if they did ).

So my questions is this .... where do I start trying to diagnose what is causing the heater bulbs to blow. Is it possible that by upgrading the bulbs behind the instrument binnacle I have caused some sort of issue which is causing these bulbs to blow?

All advice welcome,

Paul   s:D s:D

[Fin]

I messed around with my binnacle lights a while ago, I wanted to replace them with LED's. Caused me nothing but trouble, and I ended up with no lights behind the instruments at all.
You can mess around with most of the bits on these cars, but they seem to be over-sensitive around that area   s:? :? s:?   You may be better off going back to the original bulbs behind the instruments. Although some people have soldered LED's into the display with great results, seems like way too much work/skill is involved for me.
I now have a laser backing on my instruments, about 70 squid I thinks, and included the heater dials:

[Wilky1974]

..... they look awesome mate!