E30 OBC LED Display Bulb

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:02 pm

The OBC led bulb went yesterday and after checking the part number with BMW, turns out it's £90....Not bad, heh?

I've read in the Wiki that you can solder new bulbs on the housing, but that's not something that I could do myself.

Is there anyone on Zone who can solder them, obviously for an agreed sum?

Or possibly any other options to get this sorted?

And for the removal/installation, I'm assuming the radio/cd player will have to come out?

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:07 pm

Yes bulbs can be soldered into the removable PCB, available cheaply from ebay.

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:15 pm

bss325i wrote:Yes bulbs can be soldered into the removable PCB, available cheaply from ebay.

Great, now I need to find someone who could solder it for me

Btw, how do you get the bulb holder out? I've read some guides for LHD vehicles, but on RHD models the OBC is located on the left side, so the method may be slightly different?

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:22 pm

Removing the radio and using a dremil or similar on the plastic web on the l/h side of the radio hole is the easy way to remove the light bar,the difficult way is to remove the heater control panel,then the OBC unit by removing four tiny phillips screws.(BTW,attempting to remove the screw with a small screwdriver via the radio hole always ends in tears)

Beemerbird once offered her services to repair these units,so a PM may,just,get you some practical help!

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:24 pm

zd3bx wrote:
bss325i wrote:Yes bulbs can be soldered into the removable PCB, available cheaply from ebay.
Great, now I need to find someone who could solder it for me

Btw, how do you get the bulb holder out? I've read some guides for LHD vehicles, but on RHD models the OBC is located on the left side, so the method may be slightly different?

The whole radio / heater fascia panel has to be removed, 8 screws in total, two accessed by removing the top switches, four behind the removable heater slider trim piece. The two pesky ones at the bottom accessed from underneath are the unpleasant ones, if still fitted !
An ideal opportunity to replace any dead heater fascia bulbs and tidy any nasty ICE action while you are in there

Post Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:35 pm

did mine recently , not difficult at all mate even for no one with experience,get a solder gun and just heat up the points pull the old bulbs out and put new in, i didnt even need to use any additional solder just set the new bulbs in what was there