Hi,

I have a 97 Civic EX 4d. The lights that illuminate the Climate Control symbols underneath the buttons are going out. Sometimes they illuminate, sometimes they don't. I think the light on the right hand side has burnt out for good.

The Climate Control system works fine. Also the buttons themselves have working lights, just the backlighting for the Climate Control panel is sporadically working.

I am looking for some guidance in replacing those bulbs. Do I have to remove the center panel to replace those bulbs, or can I just pop the plate off the CC panel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

This will tell you how to get the climate control control panel out:
https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...ad.php?t=68735

I'm not sure of how to take the control panel itself apart to get to the bulbs, but once you have it out of the car you should be able to figure out how to get it apart by looking at the different screws on it and such.

 

You need to remove the center panel. Trustdestruction recently created an excellent thread with links describing center panel removal for many types of Hondas, but the links seem now to be dead.

These diagrams should help:

 

ya i screwed up with that DIY... the cluster has 2 more screws.... i didnt know because mine where already missing... you have to pull out those top 2 switches on the console to get to 2 screws behind them... use a small flat screw driver to pop them out and just unplug them and remove the screws then the audio console will come out.

my bulbs both didnt work. but luckly i had abunch of extra bulbs from cuting apart a few clusters over the years so i just shoved in some fater bulbs into the sockets and it worked great.

 

follow RonJ's diagrams. you might also benefit from download the fsm for the 96-00 6th gens. i have found that very helpful. follow the link in my signature and you'll see it. I did this repair myself about 1 year ago and it was pretty easy since I had installed a CD player which required me to remove the factory stereo to connect the CD player connector to it. Then I put everything back. Once you remove the climate control, the bulbs (2 of them) are right in the back of it. very easy once you get the climate control out. remember also to be careful with the heater blend door lever. you want to adjust it until it closes tightly for cold air.

 

Thanks guys. You have been very helpful. It looks non-trivial to get the CC dash out to change the bulbs. I may hold off till I have some free time to do this.

Also, I've heard that the bulbs are pretty expensive ~$10 each.

Thanks again for the excellent help!

 

the bulbs aren't expensive. i bought them at oreilly's for $3-4. maybe at the dealer they are expensive but they use ordinary "small" bulbs. I can't remember the size right now. but they are tiny and very cheap. you need 2 of them for the climate control lighting or maybe it was 3 of them. it's been a while.

 

they're size 74 bulbs and at the auto parts store it's like $2.50 for a Sylvania pack of 2