Removal of AC controller of 1994 Mazda Miata

Remove the console, the eyeballs, and the center panel. Pull off all the heater system knobs. Remove the 4 screws holding the heater control unit (the collection of levers and the fan switch) into the dash. The faceplate should fall off in your hand, and the bulb is behind it. However, I think the "A/C" indicator is blue because the faceplace has a blue window.

Removing the control unit itself means disconnecting all the cables. Ugh.

Is there some particular reason the factory lights are green?

I.e., easier to see without spoiling your night vision or so? Bruce may remember better, but I have some vague notion from my flying days long ago that red is to be used for that.

Leon

Not sure, but not real fond of the green. It looks cheap!! ha ha ha!

I tried to remove the heater system knobs and they don't pull off (even with a pair of pliers)! Now what?? :-) Dammit! I hate green! :-) HELP!

pair of pliers)! Now what?? :-) Dammit! I hate green! :-) HELP!

You don't take them off. According to the enthusiast manual, you feed the cables so that you can pull out the entire unit.

Leon

pair of pliers)! Now what?? :-) Dammit! I hate green! :-) HELP!

Oops. You do have to pull off the knobs to get at the light.

Leon

Yes, the color "red" is easy to see at night. In the "airplane world", the night lighting was red for a long time, then it went to "blue / white" so that you could see the red lines on the charts ! (they just go-away in red lighting)

Bruce RED '91

The lever knobs have setscrews in their undersides. You can't get at them cleanly until the center trim section is removed. I think they're either Allen or Phillips (never had mine off).

The fan knob pulls straight off. The A/C button falls off as you remove the fan knob.

BTW, did you know most of the center stack goes dark if you press and hold the bass knob for a couple of seconds? Nice way to reduce distraction on dark roads, as well as enhance the retro ambience. This assumes you have the OEM radio, of course.

How exactly do you "feed" the cables? Thanks for the help!

Well first of all, you need to be very careful when you feed cables ! If they have not been fead in a long time, they can be a problem. I have found that the best way is to hold them in one hand and feed them some, "graphite, control cable lube" with the other. This stuff is wet black junk that gets on everything so wear old gloves!

Now if your guestion was, how do you "route" them, just make sure you "feed" them first! Otherwise they will bite you.

Sorry, I just couldn't help it !!!!! :-)

Bruce RED '91

Hi dude,

I want to do the same thing. Green is ulgy and I just *love* the red illumination of my Alfa Romeo 156.

IIRC, the green light comes from : (a) green "condoms" over the bulbs (easy to remove) and (b) a green film on the original gauge faces (not easy to remove).

I wonder, what did you do to convert the instrument cluster? Did you replace the gauge faces? And did you use red bulbs? Or red "condoms" to cover the original bulbs? Is the result a deep shade of red?

Steven

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Sorry to hijack the thread, but what do you mean with "Bass knob"? Is this the button with which you alter the audio-settings (bass, balance etc)?

Thanks,

Jeroen van Omme The Netherlands

'95 Montego

"Lanny Chambers" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@newssvr24-ext.news.prodigy.com...

Yes. Pushing the Treble knob turns the radio on; pushing the Bass knob for a few seconds turns of the lights, even with the radio off.

Hey! The lights in my cluster were white lights with green "condoms". I removed the green condoms and then used glass paint to paint over the actual bulbs. I am not real happy with the finished product because it seems as though there is still a bit of white light getting through which keeps the cluster from having a "deep red look". I am looking for an alternative solution vs actually painting the bulbs. Still, I'm not sure were to find red condoms... well for light bulbs anyway! ha ha ha

You push them from below the dash or they will snag trying to pull out the heater control unit, according to the enthusiast manual.

See however my follow-up-message correction.

Leon

Hey Bud! Just wanted to send you a great big THANKS! As I told you, I had already changed my cluster, but wasn?t very happy with the results. Well, tonight I was adventurous and found a website that explained how to change out my instrument gauges with new bezels?. Well, I removed all of the bezels to see about this green color that you told me was pasted all over the back of them. You were right! There is a green film all over the back of each gauge that was preventing my red lights from shining through very well. Basically, the only ?truly? red things on the cluster were the needles and the odometers. I got some general purpose sand paper and sanded down the backs of the gauge bezels and put them back. Now my cluster looks TOTALLY AWESOME. It is VERY brilliant and the exact shade of red I was looking for. I think it is called Vitrea 160 Pepper Red for glass. Now, if I can only get the AC changed over J If you wanna check out the web site that instructs you on how to easily remove everything for sanding I?ll post it below. This REALLY was easy. I took a couple hours of sanding plus I wanted to repaint the bulbs. I wasn?t very happy with the first paint job. This method really does the trick!!! Also, if you wanna know exactly what I did, it?s below too:

1. IMPORTANT: Warm up car and take a photo of EXACTLY were each needle should be on the instrument panel so that they can be replaced to their proper position when finished.
2. Remove instrument panel according to instructions in website.
3. On back of panel, remove bulbs with ?green backs? which indicate sleeved light bulbs.
4. Remove green sleeves from each bulb.
5. Using small sized paint brush and Vitrea 160 Pepper Red glass paint, apply 1 coat to each light bulb (total of 4).
6. While light bulbs are drying, remove plexy glass top of instrument panel according to instruction on website.
7. Remove each of the instrument gauges per instruction on the web site.
8. Using household sand paper, sand the backs of the gauges until the color of green comes and goes? Initially mine had some sort of white and black logo and some designs? I sanded them off and they all work fine.
9. Hold each gauge up to a very bright light to ensure that there is no green visible. Numbers should all be white.
10. Make sure to clean each gauge as you replace it with windex or some glass cleaner and a soft cloth. Dust must be removed to maintain a professional ?finished? look.
11. Replace the red bulbs into the back of the instrument panel.
12. Then replace needles and instrument panel according to instructions on website.
13. FINISHED!

If you wanna try this, I?m sure you?ll love it. It takes absolutely no experience to accomplish this. I am a complete idiot when it comes to cars and I was able to do it without any problems! If you wanna see some pics of my finished product let me know. I?m VERY proud :-)

Later!

Hey Bud! Just wanted to send you a great big THANKS! As I told you, I had already changed my cluster, but wasn?t very happy with the results. Well, tonight I was adventurous and found a website that explained how to change out my instrument gauges with new bezels?. Well, I removed all of the bezels to see about this green color that you told me was pasted all over the back of them. You were right! There is a green film all over the back of each gauge that was preventing my red lights from shining through very well. Basically, the only ?truly? red things on the cluster were the needles and the odometers. I got some general purpose sand paper and sanded down the backs of the gauge bezels and put them back. Now my cluster looks TOTALLY AWESOME. It is VERY brilliant and the exact shade of red I was looking for. I think it is called Vitrea 160 Pepper Red for glass. Now, if I can only get the AC changed over J If you wanna check out the web site that instructs you on how to easily remove everything for sanding I?ll post it below. This REALLY was easy. I took a couple hours of sanding plus I wanted to repaint the bulbs. I wasn?t very happy with the first paint job. This method really does the trick!!! Also, if you wanna know exactly what I did, it?s below too:

Website:

1. IMPORTANT: Warm up car and take a photo of EXACTLY were each needle should be on the instrument panel so that they can be replaced to their proper position when finished.
2. Remove instrument panel according to instructions in website.
3. On back of panel, remove bulbs with ?green backs? which indicate sleeved light bulbs.
4. Remove green sleeves from each bulb.
5. Using small sized paint brush and Vitrea 160 Pepper Red glass paint, apply 1 coat to each light bulb (total of 4).
6. While light bulbs are drying, remove plexy glass top of instrument panel according to instruction on website.
7. Remove each of the instrument gauges per instruction on the web site.
8. Using household sand paper, sand the backs of the gauges until the color of green comes and goes? Initially mine had some sort of white and black logo and some designs? I sanded them off and they all work fine.
9. Hold each gauge up to a very bright light to ensure that there is no green visible. Numbers should all be white.
10. Make sure to clean each gauge as you replace it with windex or some glass cleaner and a soft cloth. Dust must be removed to maintain a professional ?finished? look.
11. Replace the red bulbs into the back of the instrument panel.
12. Then replace needles and instrument panel according to instructions on website.
13. FINISHED!

If you wanna try this, I?m sure you?ll love it. It takes absolutely no experience to accomplish this. I am a complete idiot when it comes to cars and I was able to do it without any problems! If you wanna see some pics of my finished product let me know. I?m VERY proud :-)

Later!

Sorry, forgot to put website. It is:

Definatly! Mail me (remove .net at the end) or put them on a public website like cardomain.

I would really like to see the result, since red is the color I want myself!

Steven

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