1999 Park Avenue Instrument Light bulb change ( I did it! woo hoo)

Well, I couldnt find any help anywhere online so I decided to take the day and change all the Instrument light bulbs on my Buick Park Avenue Ultra. ( they were all slowly dying one by one over the past 8 months) I de-soldered the old bulbs and re-soldered new 12.0v 50mA T1 type bulbs from radio shack in their place (part #272-1154) @ $1.99 each x 32 bulbs. I even fixed my auto climate control unit that kept going dim then bright etc. ( the heavy duty resisters had cold solder, I just removed the old solder with soldering braid and resoldered the resisters back on. So now at night time I am a happy kid What I changed in all was, All the stock radio lights in the Delco CD/tape/radio - All the lights in the auto climate control unit (includeing fixing the dim display with resolder) - the lights in the seat warmer buttons - the lights for the locks and windows on both from doors - all 4 lights in the steering wheel controls (ugh!) - all the main gauge cluster speedo,tach etc light bulbs - the three light bulbs in the odo/fuel/gage/trip/reset/eng-met those are the 5 buttons to the left of the gauge cluster. Oh! while I had the who gauge cluster out I took it apart and drilled a little hole on the "full" side of the gas gauge and near the "Red" zone on the RPM guage. why you ask? Because both those needles always go all the way around and get stuck under the stop pin(i usually use a Neodymium magnet to push them back around but it started to be a pain in the butt) Hard ware store sells those little tiny magnets for $3.99. Where was I? Oh, the holes in the gauges, after I drilled those little holes I put a little plastic stops about 2/18 I bought from a hobby shop it snapped right into place and looks totally factory.Now the needles cant go all the way around and get stuck under the other stop!😀. Now for the outside of the Park Avenue- I changed all the side marker lights - all the rear tail lights includeing top center inside stop lamp with surface mount LED's made to go right into place of the original incandesent bulb. And to end it all I put in Phillips HID 4,300K Headlights and ballasts for the low beams and 5,000K for the High beams ( u must disable the day time running light to put in HID brights. If you would like I can share how I did this with everyone, in case someone else is having the problem with these bulbs as I did. let me know i will be happy to help u out!

Very informative thread, please share all the details of your experience with the rest of the group, as this info could provide a great benefit to many of those with the same problems. Thanks again, for your info.

Wow awsome BPA that bronze mist metallic is the same color as mine, but I cant afford to tint my windows rite now. those are nice chromes 17" i have the stock chrome on my BPA.

jralston8 said:

Well, I couldnt find any help anywhere online so I decided to take the day and change all the Instrument light bulbs on my Buick Park Avenue Ultra. ( they were all slowly dying one by one over the past 8 months) I de-soldered the old bulbs and re-soldered new 12.0v 50mA T1 type bulbs from radio shack in their place (part #272-1154) @ $1.99 each x 32 bulbs. I even fixed my auto climate control unit that kept going dim then bright etc. ( the heavy duty resisters had cold solder, I just removed the old solder with soldering braid and resoldered the resisters back on. So now at night time I am a happy kid What I changed in all was, All the stock radio lights in the Delco CD/tape/radio - All the lights in the auto climate control unit (includeing fixing the dim display with resolder) - the lights in the seat warmer buttons - the lights for the locks and windows on both from doors - all 4 lights in the steering wheel controls (ugh!) - all the main gauge cluster speedo,tach etc light bulbs - the three light bulbs in the odo/fuel/gage/trip/reset/eng-met those are the 5 buttons to the left of the gauge cluster. Oh! while I had the who gauge cluster out I took it apart and drilled a little hole on the "full" side of the gas gauge and near the "Red" zone on the RPM guage. why you ask? Because both those needles always go all the way around and get stuck under the stop pin(i usually use a Neodymium magnet to push them back around but it started to be a pain in the butt) Hard ware store sells those little tiny magnets for $3.99. Where was I? Oh, the holes in the gauges, after I drilled those little holes I put a little plastic stops about 2/18 I bought from a hobby shop it snapped right into place and looks totally factory.Now the needles cant go all the way around and get stuck under the other stop!😀. Now for the outside of the Park Avenue- I changed all the side marker lights - all the rear tail lights includeing top center inside stop lamp with surface mount LED's made to go right into place of the original incandesent bulb. And to end it all I put in Phillips HID 4,300K Headlights and ballasts for the low beams and 5,000K for the High beams ( u must disable the day time running light to put in HID brights. If you would like I can share how I did this with everyone, in case someone else is having the problem with these bulbs as I did. let me know i will be happy to help u out!

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Impressive job! I will keep this in mind for my 2000 PA.

May I ask you a question based on what you learned doing this? I have a broken button in what the owner's manual calls the "DIC=driver information center" (which is located just the left of the steering column) The buttons, from top to bottom are: TRIP, FUEL INFO, GAGE INFO, RESET AND ENG/MET . The little tabs on the back side of my TRIP button bent and broke. A Buick dealer told me there was no way to repair/replace this without replacing the instrument panel

Here is my question => When you changed the three light bulbs in the 5 buttons to the left of the gauge cluster and when you had the gauge cluster out, did you notice how easy or how hard it would be to remove the DIC (the 5 buttons) itself? Would I have to remove the gauge cluster first in order to remove the DIC?

Did the DIC appear to be a part of the gauge cluster...or did it appear to be separate?

I hope that if I can take out the DIC and find a good TRIP button in a junk yard, I can repair this problem.

Any ideas or suggestions you have based on your experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

HI!😀 that part you are talking about is held into place by two screws and the wire connector on the Faceplate assembly. The faceplate assembly is that plasttic part that covers all the uglyness,screws wires etc. when you remove this faceplate assembly you have access to all the screws to take out the radio,climate control module, gage cluster etc. Your part, the one with the "broken tabs" (DIC)I dont know what the part is technicaly called but its the one you mentioned with the TRIP, FUEL INFO, GAGE INFO, RESET AND ENG/MET buttons(DIC), It is one little piece or module. The "TAB" you Probably broke was the one on top of this unit(piece) that holds it into place with a screw. If that's the case? you can find a small piece of of aluminum or sturdy plastic that is flat and runs the same length of the , TRIP, FUEL INFO, GAGE INFO, RESET AND ENG/MET(DIC) module, and drill two holes the same distance as the MODULE and use it as a sort of Anchor, meaning you put the module in place right? since the top or bottom screw is broken , everytime you push it it will go inward right? Well put the MODULE in place and just have that piece of plastic of tin hold that module into place with screws. The screws are going to be the original ones into the original holes, first thru the piece of plastic or tin, then thru the original holes, therby holding that module into place. Or you can just find a used one for about $20 bucks at a junkyard. That module ( TRIP, FUEL INFO, GAGE INFO, RESET AND ENG/MET(DIC) has three pieces, the front the middle and the back, the back is held on by those annoying little plastic nips, a flat head screw driver and gentle effort will take it off, once it is off there is a printed circuit board, that also snaps out of place, then there is that last piece the one with the bottons and wierd white thing that directs the lights from the incandecent mini bulbs soldered into place on the circuit board. YOU CAN REPAIR THIS PIECE EASILY, UNLESS U JABBED A HAMMER INTO IT OR SHOT IT WITH A GUN. Anyway Your problem is an easy fix, and I hope you do it yourself and not pay anyone a lot of money to do it. And yes that part (DIC) is seperate, and NO u dont haveta buy a new insturment panel ( unless u breaksomething trying to do it yourself) OH ! once you take that (DIC) out and fix it, you might want to replace those bulbs ( 3 ) of them and all the other accessable bulbs, because once they burn out you gona be taking everything apart again, to re solder them in.

I also replaced the Cliamate Control dash lights in my 2001 Park Ave. Here is a link to a web page I made with some photos of the bulb replacements.
http://mathtaco.com/BuickParkAvenueDashLights.htm

hey is there any way you can show me what resistors i need to resolder in that pic? (just an aarow in paint or something) im thinking about doing the same thing to my car. tapping the stupid window to see the temp is getting annoying lol

Hi!, In that pic that Ken957 posted. The resistors you have to re-solder are the 4 light purple colored ones on the top left side of the circuit board ( Notice the Scorch Marks around?) that is because they get hot over time and the solder becomes "cold" or loose and it moves around, so when you tap it the thru hole prongs make a connection momentarily. Since you are going to re-solder those resisters back into place you should also change those 5 (five) mini incandacent light bulbs that light up your climate control buttons too. Believe it or not all that tapping ruins those bulbs so the eventually die. You should use Radio Shack 12.0v 50mA T1 type bulbs part number 272-1154 they are $1.99 each. And those bulbs fit easily into the little blue rubber bulb condoms 😀t hat go around the light bulb. Good Luck! and be careful and remember "patience is a virtue" things break easy when you are taking all that stuff apart.

jralston8 said:

Hi!, In that pic that Ken957 posted. The resistors you have to re-solder are the 4 light purple colored ones on the top left side of the circuit board ( Notice the Scorch Marks around?) that is because they get hot over time and the solder becomes "cold" or loose and it moves around, so when you tap it the thru hole prongs make a connection momentarily. Since you are going to re-solder those resisters back into place you should also change those 5 (five) mini incandacent light bulbs that light up your climate control buttons too. Believe it or not all that tapping ruins those bulbs so the eventually die. You should use Radio Shack 12.0v 50mA T1 type bulbs part number 272-1154 they are $1.99 each. And those bulbs fit easily into the little blue rubber bulb condoms 😀t hat go around the light bulb. Good Luck! and be careful and remember "patience is a virtue" things break easy when you are taking all that stuff apart.

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ok, will do. thanks alot!

did it, worked perfect, thanks alot!

whats going on.. i got a 2000 PA and having the same problem and want to chagne out all my dash and climate control lights... get at me with details jjcaraudioandaccessories@gmail.com 512-786-8572

My climate control display on my 2005 PA works great (i.e., temp, etc), but the backlight on the temp ^ switch is out. Also, the backlights on the speed control and the radio controls on my steering wheel are out-- Is there a way to just take those buttons off and replace the lights under those buttons? Or is it more complicated than that? (are there individual sockets in which the bulbs are inserted, or must they be soldered on?)

Hey, ken957:

Can you repost the link to your page about replacing the climate control lights? When I try the link I get the 404 Page Not Found error. Half of my lights are out and I'd love to see some pictures of the process before I go tearing it all open.

How can I turn off the DRLs to put hids in my high beams? I've been trying to figure this out for a while now