AT gear selector light? Is there one.

[oscar]

A quick question.  I got a zebrano ashtray and lower console to complete my zebrano outfit.  Whilst looking at the gear selector knob, there's a couple of wires going into the housing and wondered whether there is a light bulb that shines on the LSDNRP?

You can see the wire/s at the top of the pic entering the housing and covered in a black sheath.  The brown wire is an earth attached to the chrome coloured bolt on the right of the housing.  Is this for an indicator light?

[s class]

IN my car, the LSDNRP are all lit up - the light does not indicate which position has been selected.  Since my SL is the same, I assume this is correct. 

Ryan

[oscar]

Thanks s class

Of a night time there's a whole range of things that I think should light up but don't. eg fan rotary switch and ac rotary switch.  There's other bits too, I'll have to make a list and ask.  Generally speaking, until you notice someone elses is different, you don't know you've got a fault on your hands or something's missing.  Case in point, I don't have a rubber seal/lining between the chrome grill and the bonnet.  Styria's gleaming beauty did and I didn't know I was missing it.

Judging by the crap around the shifter in my photo, I may as well take the whole thing apart and clean it anyway and replace the bulb.

[mirafioriman]

If lots of things don't light up it could be a bulb behind the dash. On my W126 there is a little bulb that lights many things including the shift selector. It is not easy to get at! I can't remember if the W116 has the same set up, but it may have. Hope this helps!

[Papalangi]

Mine lights up and IIRC, it's the wires entering at the left centered on the D.

The rockers on the dash above the climate control are lit with fiber optics from lamps in the climate control.

Michael

[BAR]

There are many light bulbs that illuminate the dark side of a W116.

The auto selector indicator globe is located underneath the area shown by your photo.  Just lift up the black plastic, after undoing the 3 dullinsh looking bolts and you will find the offending little bulb.

In mine, I had to go one step further and resolder the join between the bulb hodler and the wire: just follow the only wire that you can see going in under the left hand side.

Then there are two more bulbs = one behind the fan switch and one behind the aircon temp selector - just pulled off the selector switch knobs to see the switch and be careful [very gentle] when pushing in a replacement.

There are another two, illuminating the fan switch position and the aircon temp position indicators, one at each side - one you have pulled off the selector switch knobs you will see a nut holding each switch.  Undo these and the platice cover panel comes off the provide acccess to the switches.

There are another two, one each side to illuminate the ventillation and heater temperature selectors etc at each side of the console.  Pull the slide control off and then you can eases out the plastic and you will see the bulbs at the top of each side.

Only part of the fun: when I bought my car I found myself changing all of these but one: three more in the dashboard, both rear inteior lights, the boot [trunk] light, one main headlight globe H4, a park light globe, a rear park light globe and one idicator globe at each end.  Lots of light bulbs!

[oscar]

Thanks guys

Apart from the two rotary dials, I think everthing's working.  We'll find out when I take the whole console out.  I always thought the black slide control for the vents with white arrows were supposed to be lit too, not the case.

A half assed mechanic did a half ass job on taking the console out years ago before I owned it and as a result the fan dial is as stiff as ever and the heater and vertical slide switches don't travel as far as they're supposed to.

Anyway, the AT light is working.  luckily it was just the connection or rather the bulb had twisted loose.  Thank God for that because I haven't seen a bulb like it and AI don't know where I'd get one locally.

One more thing; whilst pulling apart that housing I decided to clean the PRNDSL indicator. As you can see from the top pic in my first post there's some kind of crud discolouring it.  Well, I washed it and unwittingly took the white lettering off. Bugger!!
My fix was to print PRNDSL on normal paper and laminate it.  Not quite the same font as the original but who could tell.


Found the bulb.  A couple of PRNDSL strips visible



Light's working.  I had to print twice over the PRNDSL to make sure there was enough black to obscure the light.  Incredibly on our printer the two prints were spot on top of each other.  So no blurry lines despite the blurry photo. You may notice the letters were also placed to the left a little. From the drivers perspective (me) it's in the middle.  If anyone wants the file to reprint their own, just PM me.  It's a tiff file but I can't remember how big it is

[koan]

Ages since I've been in there but I seem to remember a small lamp with a domed cover slipped over it. The dome has a slot in the top of it which restricts the light beam to a single letter.

k