OBC Bulb Replacement
With the ever increasing age of our E30's many things are coming to the end of their life and need replacing. The backlight bulbs on the OBC unit is becoming an ever increasingly common failure, highlighted by the more & more regular posts on the Zone asking about replacements.
When BMW designed the OBC unit they thoughtfully incorporated a removable light strips which just slides out the side of the OBC once it's been removed from the center console. You can then simply take a trip to your local BMW dealer and prepare to have you wallet emptied as they are getting on for £70 these days.
Another option is which is far more wallet friendly is to simply replace the bulbs in the existing light strip with some simple soldering. The CCT board comes away from the white housing leaving the two bulb in their cups exposed.
The bulbs you will require are 3mm 5V 1.9 Lumens. Wire ended. These can be bought from places like Maplins, CPC, RS etc etc, they'll come in packs of 5 or 10 for a few quid. You then simply soften up the solder holding the old bulbs in place and pull them away from the circuit board. Remove them from the white cups they sit in and slide the new bulb into this and solder it to the circuit board in place of the old bulb and trim off the excess wire. Then it's simply a case of clipping the board back into its housing and slide it back into the OBC.
