Dash bulb replaced and not working... help please!!!

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 5:37 pm

So.... what bulb do I need to buy to replace the blue high beam warning light on the dash???

It's only that bulb which has stopped working and is required for the MOT, so it seems to stupid to take the cluster out and remove the bulb, refit it all, buy a bulb and start again!!! Much easier to have a new bulb ready!!!
All the info I've managed to find on here help removing the cluster, etc, but I can't seem to find anything that says what bulb I should buy??????

Cheers!!!

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 6:37 pm

1.2w capless,like found in the heater panel lighting...

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 6:48 pm

Bulb type is 286A. There's about a dozen in an E30, and several could probably do with replacing as preventative maintenance.

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 6:59 pm

Is it this one Bryan I bought it by mistake

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:10 pm

The 286A, as used in the E30, is a capless bulb, which is fitted into a holder before fitting to the cluster. Your pic. shows a bulb and holder, which may be two separate parts plugged together, or may be an one piece item. It may fit an E30 cluster or it may not.
The bulb will be a 286, however, even if it is spot welded in by its leads, and on occasions, when I've run out of 286As, I have carefully removed the bulbs from the one piece items and used them.

Post Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:11 pm

This is for the back of an obc unit

Post Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:44 pm

Thanks guys!!!

Just for info - halfrauds wanted £3.49 EACH for these!!!!
Ebay special - £1.79 for 10, inc p&p!!!

Post Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:33 pm

miniblob wrote:Thanks guys!!!

Just for info - halfrauds wanted £3.49 EACH for these!!!!
Ebay special - £1.79 for 10, inc p&p!!!

You have a link please ?

Mart.

Post Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:27 pm

martauto wrote:
miniblob wrote:Thanks guys!!!

Just for info - halfrauds wanted £3.49 EACH for these!!!!
Ebay special - £1.79 for 10, inc p&p!!!
You have a link please ?

Mart.

Search ebay for '286 bulb'

Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:32 pm

Sorry Mart - this was the item I bought: clicky...

Right, so got it booked in for the MOT monday, took the instrument cluster out, changed the high beam bulb.... and still nothing!!!
Granted, I broke the bulb trying to get it out of the holder, thought I got all the bits out with some long nose pliers and wedged a new bulb in - but that didn't work!!!
Swapped it with one of the indicator bulbs to prove that I've broken one of the capless bulb holders - however, it's also proved that the position for the high beam light doesn't work at all!!!
(I put the working indicator one in the high beam spot, and it does nothing!!!).

So what do I check next??? How???

Is it likely to be a wiring/switch fault somewhere, or is the instrument cluster just knackered???
(For info, check lights are always random and speedo has stopped working intermittently, but pretty sure neither of these can affect the high beam light???)

Looking in from the back, it looks like there's nothing there for the bulb to connect to - you can see the indicator one has something there, but the high beam looks like an empty hole to me???

Annoyingly, I'm pretty sure this light has never worked, but my MOT guy has decided it has to work this year!!!

Need some help please!!!

Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:43 pm

It's just a simple PCB track from pin 12 of the blue plug (white/purple wire) to the bulb holder socket on the cluster, plus an earth track from the lamp holder (which is probably OK, since it's used by the indicator tell tales as well.
The white/purple wire comes from the LH headlamp main beam side of fuse 1 - the tell tale won't work if fuse 1 is blown or removed. I mention this last point because I once came across an E30 where there was a fault that blew fuse 1, and the 'mechanic' who had 'repaired' it, had just linked a wire from the RH main beam headlamp to the LH one, leaving both lights running on fuse 2.