Steering wheel back lights and dash too? | Ford Explorer Forums

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Steering wheel back lights and dash too?

Curtis629

Member
Joined
April 4, 2002
Messages
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City, State
Flowery Branch, GA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Explorer XLT
2000 explorer with around 100K on it. I noticed the backlight on the left hand steering wheel controls for the cruise are burnt out or something, can those be repaired or replaced without removing and replacing the whole steering wheel? Also the backlights for the headlight switch are out too. If that a bulb or will I have to buy a new switch. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
 



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I have a '97 Eddie Bauer. I recently replaced the bulb in one side of the cruise control switches (the right hand side) following the directions supplied on this site and it was really easy. No need to replace the steering wheel, either.

As far as the burned-out headlight switch bulb, from what I have been able to read in the posts, it is a total PITA to fix, so I am not going to bother with that one.

But you should be able to find the info you will need to do these fixes, along with the Ford parts numbers for the bulbs that you will need to get, by doing searches for "headlight switch bulb" and "cruise control bulb" (or something akin thereto) in Stock 1995-2001 and General Explorations.

Happy hunting 8-) :exp:
 






I also have one side of my cruise lights out. Where is the article on changing these posted? I can't seem to find it. Thanks
 






I had the same problem with my cruise switches, here is what I was told at the time:

Quote:
Originally Posted by TPLYNCH
The following is from a thread that Robert posted several years ago regarding the cruise button lights and the headlight switch light....

Each switch gets one bulb. The cruise button lights are very easy to replace if you remove the air-bag and then pull the entire switch out. Start to finish is about 10 minutes. It is possible to replace the bulb by prying off the rubber cover and then popping the circuit board out but getting things back together correctly (especially the rubber switch cover) took more time and cussing than just removing the airbag. The airbag is only held in with two small bolts on each side of the wheel. Disconnect the battery first, remove the airbag and then you can remove each switch by removing the two small phillips screws that hold it in. Pay attention to which way the bulb goes in though (it points away from you). The first time I did it, I put the pulb in so it was pointing up at me as I sat in the seat. That left a bump in the button from the bulb poking through. I had to R&R it again. When I removed my other switch to verify which way the bulb was supposed to go, the bulb in the other switch quit working when I put it back together so I had to use my spare (& R&R the other side). The first switch I tried doing without removing the airbag. The next three times I removed the airbag and spent less time during those three times than I did the first time without removing the airbag.

Cruise Lgts - F32Z-13466-H
Headlights - F57Z*13B765*AC
End Quote

I ran the cruise light part number by a Ford parts guy and he said it was no longer available. I ended up getting a couple of tiny 12v grain of wheat bulbs and soldering the leads to the contacts on the old bulb. I just pulled the glass part out of the old base.

Ghh97eb where did you manage to get these bulbs and do you have a part number?
 






Although replacing the headlight switch bulb is a PITA, it is not so terrible as to not be worth a try. With a litte patience, you don't even have to completely remove the instrument panel OR the switch. Just remove all of the screws that hold the instrument panel in place and carefully pull the panel toward the steering wheel enough to see the back of the switch and the bulb receptacle. See the following thread:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149874&highlight=headlight+bulb
 






mwking said:
* * *
Cruise Lgts - F32Z-13466-H
* * *
Ghh97eb where did you manage to get these bulbs and do you have a part number?

Hi, mwking,

I actually have a different part number for the cruise control bulb than the one you mentioned:

E5RY-13466-BA

I got this part number from one of the posts on this site (I think it was from the General Explorations forum).

The bulb cost me $3.79 from a local dealership, but it was a clear bulb so I had to salvage the blue cover from the burned out one when I fixed my switch.

Hope this helps. :exp:
 






Thanks, I'm going to stop at the dealer tomorrow and see if this part number works better.
 






I wish I had bookmarked the thread I jumped in on.... I did a bunch of research and found some that will work, but they were blue instead of green. Apparently the green ones are not sold separately, which wasn't a big deal for me.

I'm currently working on finding some LEDs that will work.

-Joe
 






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