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My TA has some random accent lighting in the dash (like in this case i'm chasing a bulb that is in the bottom of the ledge above the radio pod that shines down over the HVAC controls through a little white lens in the bottom of that ledge).
Anyone know how these things come apart? It appears to have a regular bulb inside it (it gets hot, I think I see it through the "lens" opening, but "socket" is just a white plastic piece pushed into a whole in the dash frame that has a lens and a hood assembly covering the bulb. I'd like to get the bulb out but the wires are too short to get the socket out of the dash far enough to really look at it, I don't want to pry (unless I know that it just snaps together) for fear of breaking old plastic, and I can't even find it on any of the wiring diagrams (it just has 2 black wires that go straight into the dash frame structure, I can only expose about 1" of them so I don't have any clue where they go, if they have a plug/connector somewhere...)
Some of those lights are a sealed unit. The plastic holder is molded around the bulb and wires, and there is usually a plug an inch or three away to disconnect it. If it's in any of the diagrams, it'll probably call it an ashtray light. Usually they'll be in the dash lighting diagram.
Camaros have a bulb in the same place. There’s just a single hex screw that holds in in place in my ‘88...but even with a new bulb, it’s extremely dim. I’m guessing your Firebird is likely much the same...but my wires are a bit longer than yours. On mine, there’s a grey connector about 2-3 inches from the bulb.
Huh, yea, there may be a plug a few inches away from it, I just can't get to it/see it. For some reason I've got it stuck in my head that I want to add some more "courtesy lighting," like my '12 SHO has and figured that replacing that lamp with a red LED would make it closer to what my 4th gen had.
FWIW I started with lighting up the floors with the lights on/engine on like my SHO does. It's wired into the dimmer circuit so it dims with the dash lights with the dimmer dial:
An LED should easily fit in the little fixture and you can purchase or easily assemble a 12V led in whatever color you like. I drilled out the opening a little and mounted a black tinted SMD LED there, it is much more useful than that old tiny bulb. I'll snap a picture this weekend.
