OBC Bulbs

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:06 am

I had the joy of pulling my dash off in the weekend... I just wanted to make sure I understand this right!

On my below picture, I've traced an arrow... If I'm guessing right, this is where the bulb goes... If so, why is it that looking through my dash, I can't seem to find it anywhere! Has anyone else experienced this?

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:27 pm

in this whole there must be a plastic bulb housing with a 1.2W bulb attached to it. it's similar with the bulbs in the back of the gauge clusters. you can purchase it from the dealer ready to install or you can buy only the bulb and solder it to an old housing, like i did. the housing and the bulb don't have any cables attached to them, so you will not see them trough the dash, it's just attached to the back of the obc unit.

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:31 pm

From my experience of OBC's, there is no light holder that goes in there. The loom is all you need to illuminate it

However your backlights may have gone- there is a wiki article on how to replace- its v easy

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:10 pm

The supply to the bulb that lights up the OBC buttons is contained within the OBC loom, and is fed from the instrument cluster. The bulb and its holder are missing in the pic.
This is NOT the bulb that lights up the OBC display.

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:45 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:The supply to the bulb that lights up the OBC buttons is contained within the OBC loom, and is fed from the instrument cluster. The bulb and its holder are missing in the pic.
This is NOT the bulb that lights up the OBC display.

No I'm aware that this isn't the bulb that illuminates the display... Perhaps I should have been a little clearer, I fixed the display ones by using LED's and a soldering gun. It's the one for the buttons which don't seem to light up... A few people have mentioned the loom... I'm not too familiar with this...

Post Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:09 pm

For me it looks cool. Here is the result in my car after changing the display and the button bulbs.

Post Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:44 am

That does look nice. So if I want to get the bulb/holder which comes from the wiring loom, where do I start! For some reason, it's missing from my loom - does anyone know where i'd be able to buy these from?

Post Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:17 am

Brianmoooore wrote:The supply to the bulb that lights up the OBC buttons is contained within the OBC loom, and is fed from the instrument cluster. The bulb and its holder are missing in the pic.
This is NOT the bulb that lights up the OBC display.

Re-read the above!

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:03 pm

I really need this in layman's terms and I apologise if this is very simple, but being very new to this and trying to sharpen up is proving a bit challenging. Brian quotes that the bulb and it's holder are missing from the pic, with a supply which is fed from the instrument cluster... I have this missing, I've looked everywhere, but failed to locate it for some reason...

I'm aware that it isn't the bulb that lights up the display, I recently fixed this with led's. I'm now trying to sort out the button bulbs.

If the above is missing, where or how can I fix this?

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:25 pm

Buy a bulb and the correct loom?

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:34 pm

If you want to illuminate the buttons, put a bulb ( in a bulb holder ) into the hole in the back of the obc. The wiring is already in the loom you plug in to the obc. Hope that helps.

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:04 pm

There is no missing loom.
All that is missing is the bulb and holder.
It is identical to the smaller ones fitted into the back of the instrument cluster.
It sits deep within the hole, and will require needle nosed pliers to fit and remove it, or inventive use of a pencil and superglue.

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:02 pm

OK, I'll have a look, but I'm not convinced there is anything in the hole of the OBC for me to get out! There wasn't even a bulb or a holder! The only reason I found out that it lit up s because I shone a light in the hole, where I have drawn a little arrow!

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:16 pm

I can see that there's nothing in the hole! That's because it's gone missing, so get a bulb and holder and twist it in.

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:23 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:I can see that there's nothing in the hole! That's because it's gone missing, so get a bulb and holder and twist it in.

But then I assume it doesn't magically light up! There should be a wire to connect it to, which is also missing...

What do I need to do other than get my hands on a bulb + the holder and I take it the connecting wire! Where does it then end up (as in it's power source?)

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:26 pm

THERE IS NO MISSING WIRE!

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:31 pm

Ok, one more time.

In the whole this thing is missing. You need it (bulb + bulb holder):
http://www.autoguide.net/apf/images/pro ... 892lhi.jpg
http://www.rmeuropean.com/Images/produc ... 39488A.jpg

#3 here on the picture, if you'll purchase it from the dealer:
http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E30/4 ... _computer/

Then, use these pliers to put the bulb in the whole. :
http://doubleglazingdoctor.files.wordpr ... pliers.jpg

Get the bulb with the pliers and put it in the whole and when you're sure you put it as deep as possible rotate the bulb a little bit with the pliers, so the bulb to get attached to the obc

There is no wiring, just put the bulb holder (like you see it on the first two pictures) in the whole.

Note: a random bulb holder may not fit in the bmw obc unit. i bought a new bulb and a holder from a random shop for electricity things and it didn't fit because of the two metal legs which you see on the pictures. They were different. That's why you better purchase the bulb and it's holder from the BMW dealer. I didn't have time for this and i was impatient so i bought new single bulb, removed the old one from the holder and put the new one in the old holder and soldered the wires of the bulb to the little metal legs on the holder. If you can't do it, or you don't get what i said, just buy a new one from the dealer and you will have full illuminated OBC.

At the end the back side of your OBC should look like this. You see?... there are no any wires. This is the back side of the smaller, 6-button obc and for some reason there are two wholes, but anyway... your OBC should look the same:

P.S. FYI, if you're still wondering why there are no wires... you see the two metal legs i was talking about, on each side of the bulb holder? Now take a look IN the whole, you'll see another metal part. When you put the bulb holder in the whole, the two metal legs are making contact with the metal part IN the whole. And this is how the bulb is supplied with electricity.

Good luck.

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:48 pm

dpehlivanov - Thanks very much... Now I understand!

Brianmoooore - Thanks for your help as well... It's just difficult knowing what I'm looking for when I've never seen what the part looks like and everything else in there is connected to a wire!

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:54 pm

i guess you already got everything, but read again the end of my post because i was editing it and added more information and i'm not sure if you did see it.

Post Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:32 pm

Brianmoooore wrote: It is identical to the smaller ones fitted into the back of the instrument cluster.

Post Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:58 am

dpehlivanov wrote:i guess you already got everything, but read again the end of my post because i was editing it and added more information and i'm not sure if you did see it.

Yep, to be honest as soon as I opened the below link I understood straight away why there were no wires...

http://www.rmeuropean.com/Images/produc ... 39488A.jpg

Like I said, if you're looking for for something and you don't know what it may look like, you just make an assumption of what it looks like by observing similar objects in the dash.

The previous owner was a bit of a cowboy as well with the electrics of the car and I thought he'd cut off the wire!!

Anyway, thanks all for your help