Cars always seem to wait until the dead of winter to have problems.  Last week, the light behind my heater control flickered a bit, and promptly failed. Last night, as I was out running errands, the radio decided that it wasn’t going to power up after just a quick stop.  I’d note that both of these failures are pretty minor (and not critical to driving the car); I’m simply observing that the car repair gods seem to enjoy testing my abilities to fix the simplest of problems without being able to feel my hands.

After a bit of trouble with the garage heater, I dove into the problems, radio first.  I’ve had an issue before where the head unit seems to “lock up” and just needs its harness reseated.  This proved to be another occurrence of the same old thing.  While the head unit was out, I pulled off the heater control trim ring (part number 1J0 819 157) to see if I can clean up the finish a bit (the soft-touch finish is peeling and a used replacement is $20; No new ones seem to be available anymore…)

Details of the actual repair part after the jump.

When I didn’t see any bulbs under the trim, I had to consult The Book, which is an absolutely phenomenal resource.  It explained that you simply pull the fan-speed knob off with a pair of (rubber jawed) pliers. <sarcasm> I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t a special VW tool for that </sarcasm>.  Getting the lightbulb out was a bit of a trick;  The bulb itself is a Sylvania 2721, referred to as a T-1-3/4 size wedge bulb.  That thing is TINY.  I ended up using a pair of needlenose pliers to attach a piece of electrical tape to the bulb, and pulled it free.

As for a replacement bulb, that’s a bit more complicated.  It doesn’t seem to be a really standard size, and the guy at the [farther] Parts Place was all but useless without a SKU.  Moreover, the Advanced Auto Parts out by us now closes at 7pm… That just seems so odd to me…  Anyhow, if I can’t find one tomorrow (Advanced’ Website says 2/$5, if they have them), I’ll have to order online.

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Projects by Kevin