I'm having an issue with a couple of my switches. Specifically the foglight and rear defrost switch. The on/off light works just fine when you turn them on, however, the illumination light usually flickers for a bit then nothing. Maybe it'll flicker while driving, maybe not. They never stay on though. I've tried bending the led contacts a bit to get a better contact with the socket they go in but then they don't work at all. Bending them back to their original state gets them to flickering every now and then. I've also tried replacing them with leds from junkyard switches. (I would have used the jy switches, but they were very yellowed with age where mine are new looking grey). The lights from the jy switches either flickered or didn't work at all. They used to work fine then over time just went downhill like this. The rear hatch switch does illuminate fine though.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this? I'd even purchase new leds but I have no clue what to get, I'd assume at Radio Shack. This is for a 91 TA with the 3 switches above the radio, NOT the older style switches.

 

The illumination wire is usually grey and goes to the INST LPS fuse. Check the soundness of the connections (specifically at the switch since you say dinking with the switch makes it flicker). Clean the female parts of the connector by removing it from the connector housing (pull the metal part out of the plastic part) and hitting it lightly with some sandpaper. Clean the male parts similarly.

I'm going to go out into the garage after I post this and see if the switch is "rebuildable". I have a defrost switch laying around somewhere I can take apart to help you out.

 

Thanks very much. As soon as I get the car home tonight, I'm going to pop out a switch and give a once over like you suggested to see if it improves anything. I ahdn't actually thought that the connector itself could be bad, unless something in the switch itself is going. We'll see a bit more later tonight though.

 

Well, the switch is.. I'd call it "somewhat" rebuildable. Seperating the housings was a challenge. I heated the seams up with a heat gun til I heard the glue popping, and to soften the plastic so it wasn't so brittle. Then I took a sharp pick and pried the housings apart. I still ended up cracking one of the corners, but some glue there and no one would know the difference lol.

Here's a pic.. of course it's a Camaro switch but I'm sure the guts are pretty similar. The two bulbs are way out in the open with lots of room, so even a soldering-gun noob with fat fingers could replace the bulbs if necessary. Finding those bulbs may be a little tough, but I'd bet any bulb with wire prongs that runs on 12v would work.

 

Hmm, I believe the camaro switches are a lot different than the firebird ones. On mine, the LEDs are mounted in a removable holder. Very tiny holder that uses some weird tool to turn it till it's loose, but I've just used mini screwdrivers to remove the sockets. The only challenge was removing the switch from the plug in connector. After that, the bulbs are easily removable... BUT even though our 2 switches are different, cleaning the connectors themselves is still first on my list of things to try on em! Kind of surprising the firebird ones are removable but the camaro ones are soldered on though.

 

Eh, not really surprising. I've always thought of the Firebirds as the slightly more luxurious car on the F-Body platform. I don't know if you can tell in that crappy pic or not, but the backside of the coil is completely corroded. I guess the amount of juice flowing through this thing is pretty condusive to corrosion. The spade that the current leaves through also has some nice cancer on it.

 

I see a lot of corrosion or rust where you're pointing it out. I don't remember mine or the junkers I took having similar corrosion though. I wonder if it has to do with materials used, placement of the switch or even what area of teh country it comes from. I also have a switch similar to yours there and I notice after playing with both that the camaro switch has, what seems to me, an OVERLY firm click into position when you turn it on whereas the firebird has a much softer click. The camaro one also feels a bit on the, i dunno, rougher? side. Kind of reminds me of those toggle switches you can get at radio shack. They're generally clunky feeling when you press them where my firebird one is a lot smoother.

You'd think they wouldn't have gone so radically different on the same exact switches. They didnt have to place em in the same spots, but they sure could have used the same guts under the button itself. Car will be home soon so I can check out the connectors then.

 

I actually did rebuild one of those in my camaro. If replacing one of the bulbs qualifies as rebuilding. I replaced the indicator (lights with dash lights) with an LED and a 100K 1/4 watt resistor in line. It now lights the symbol green instead of yellow.