On my way home tonight part of my radio's buttons went dark. I have a 1999 Silverado with a Delco AM/FM CD player. Is it difficult to replace bulbs in the radio? And are there bulbs in the radio or is there LED's or something else in there?
Thanks Brian
Hi!
Your radio could use a few different types of illumination.
Sometimes LEDs are used. They seldom fail but may well dim with age. You can most likely get new ones at any Radio Shack as long as you can figure out the voltage of the ones in the radio now.
A "large" lightbulb or two could also be used. I don't think this kind of lighting is used in any modern vehicle radio, but hardware stores might carry the replacement bulb you need if your radio is illuminated this way.
Finally there are also the so-called "grain of sand" bulbs. These are a lot of fun to replace if they fail. They are a very tiny bulb which is usually soldered into place behind the button or whatever that the bulb will be illuminating. You can buy these bulbs from many electronics suppliers on the 'net. It is possible with a lot of care and skill with a soldering iron to replace them.
If several buttons have gone dark, I would suspect loose wiring, a broken circuit board trace or cold solder on a contact point. Since that would be the easiest thing to look for (and you might not even have to remove the radio to find this problem!) I would start looking for that sort of failure first.
William The Guesser
Order of wiring trouble shooting.
~KJ~
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