On vehicles with the manual air conditioning controls there is one small bulb that illuminates all three dials. The bulb is located behind the centre control knob.

The bulb no. is a 286 and its 12v 1.2w, £1.99 from halfords or 45p with a trade card, from VW part number is +N 017 751 2 and comes in at about £1.30 - VW call it a W5, 1.2W bulb.

Turn the knob to the upright position and pull it to remove the centre knob, cover the pliers with some cloth to protect the switch

Bulb Location arrowed

Remove the bulb using either a pair of needle nose pliers with something like a rubber band round the ends to provide grip on the bulb or a thin piece of tubing pushed over the bulb.

Put in a new bulb

The pictures have been taken from a thread on Vortex http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1617525

Neil

cheers for finding that. ive got the problem of it being intermitent and have to smack it to get it to come on but could never figureout how to get to the bulb to check it

top guide.

can now use heater at night now

woohoo! 

The rubber band idea is a must!!!

I just used pilers and smashed the bulbs because i couldn't get grip. Took ages to get it out

Well done that man !

You can get them from vw,only about a pound

Got the part number knocking about if you need it?

501 Capless 12v 5w bulb 

Only if saw this before, i have tried searching for a bulb at the back of the unit a few months ago but gave up. I replaced the bulb with help of this thread today.

 Im so glad this thread has appeard i used the whack it method now it doesnt work will try and get a buld tomorrow

xmarktx:

 Im so glad this thread has appeard i used the whack it method now it doesnt work will try and get a buld tomorrow

I've changed that bulb once mate,are you sure it's not just come loose?

 It may have done will look at it tomorrow

I have replaced my heater bulb but with 1.2 watt bulb since then my airbag light has come on and does not reset would this effect my car as the recommend bulbs are 5watt

 Does anyone have the part number for this bulb?

You shouldn't need the part number.. its just a 501 Capless 12v 5w bulb!!

 can you get higher wattage bulbs ?

Just seems a little dim.

The bulb not me

 Cheers for that. Just got my old one out. Used a bit of doubble sided tape and long nose pliers

I never knew there was a bulb behind there! Always thought it was strange that they weren't illuminated. Gonna get a new bulb now to stop me fumbling around in the dark

 Forget pliers and elastic bands. Straw from Ribena carton is the king!!!!!

Trust me....

he's right...

Go easy - this is my first post here people.

My problem was the light was mostly off, but now and again, fiddling with the knob - I would see a flash of light - once I even had it on for a few minutes! Teasing me! lol!

Well it will also teach me to come on the forums here to find the answers first, as I had a clear day today to tackle this (and a few other jobs) on my MK4 1.9TDi (2003).

What a game! I ended up with taking the complete dash to bits, including the centre holding panel for the radio, CD and heater controls!! I then found that the heater and distribution is all one unit and decided to go no further!! Now the car is in bits and will have to put the damn thing together - somehow!

Hopefully tomorrow I will follow the instructions here and hopefully it is just the bulb!!

I will now go off and search to find what wires go where from the CD unit to the Radio as there is no "plug" connector - only one on the CD side and just loose wires to go on the Radio!!

All the best folks,

Regards,

Dave

Excellent guide!

However, I probably managed to break something - center know feels right, sounds right, but doesn't have any effect at all - no fan or air is moving. Also I noticed that AC button no longer has background light.

I think I managed to do something wrong when removed center control knob. I checked all the fuses.

Any ideas for foolish newbie - maybe some inner plastic clip or something is broken?

Thanks for this. It helped me out.  Hadnt a clue how to get this fixed.

FWIW, I used a bit a heat shrink pushed over the old bulb to get it out. No probs at all.

Once again an invaluable piece of onfo from this site.  Take a bow everyone!

Hmm, something seems a bit off about the bulb information. Can anyone confirm what the exact bulb should be? I went to the dealer but they said they don't sell any bulbs at all. I took mine out this afternoon and wondered down to halfords instead where I picked up a 286 12v 1.2w bulb. It looks identical to what was already in there, and it works fine. Maybe slightly dimmer than my MFD, but good enough to live with.

The only other bulb they had in the same size was 2.3w, something like '279' or whatever. Should that have been the correct one?

"efunc"

You are correct

Correct bulb for this is the

"286 Capless 12Volt 1.2Watt"

can also be fond as

"T5 Capless 12Volt 1.2 Watt"

http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/ab286-t5-12v-12w-286-capless-automotive-bulb-751-p.asp

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the confirmation. It's definitely dimmer than the rest of my dash though, not a great deal, but enough to notice. I can easily live with this, but would fitting  the 2.3w version instead do any harm? or in fact would it make it any brighter? maybe too bright...? hmm...

BTW, these bulbs are £2 from Halfords, so not exactly cheap!

 mint thread!!

Hello there,

Ive recently joined this very friendly and informative forum.

This thread is brilliant. Never thought id be able to fix the heating controls illumination by changing a simple light bulb!

To confirm, the 501 capless 12 v 5w Bulb is too big to fit, and whilst the 1.2w seems dimmer than the rest of the dash, its better than having nothing at all

so if the bulb lights up that section of the console would it not be possible to change it to an LED and maybe change the colour or am i being an idiot and missing the point?

 The bulb could be swapped but it shines through coloured plastic which gives the colour in the dash, it is a white not a coloured bulb

Neil

 surely that means that with the right colour you could change it to something different?

 If you could get a different coloured plastic insert for the holder than yes