Clock Work

When we got our van about a year and a half ago we noticed that the clock on the dash never lit up. I searched Google and found nothing on it. I knew of someone else who bought a Honda and their light (same style) never worked either so I just figured that it wasn't something that came with certain models. On Thursday, spurred on by our resent trip to PA (most of which that in the dark) I did another Google search. Wow, this time the whole page was filled with stuff. What a difference a year makes. I quickly read a couple of links and found out that there is indeed a back-light bulb for the clocks. Apparently its a design flaw. Honda chose to go with a standard bulb instead of an LED. This wouldn't be bad, but they did something else foolish. They decided to make the light power up when the engine is running. This means that its on night and day so the bulbs only last a couple of years at most.

From everything that I read dealerships where charging over $10 for the part and at least an hour but most were charging 2 hours of labor t0 replace the bulb because the whole dash had to come off. That's anywhere from around $100 to upwards of $200. I don't know about you but I find that a little silly to pay that much for a light bulb. The second link that I read was this one. It was very helpful and right on the money. I quickly went to Radio Shack and got the LED bulb that they recommended. It contained 2 bulbs for $2.12 after tax.

I didn't have time to replace the bulb that night. I figured if some dealerships are charging upwards of 2 hours in labor then I was not going to have time to finish that night and I didn't want Laura to be without a car the next day. I waited until Thursday night to tackle it. I followed the directions just like they said. They were spot on. I got the whole thing disassembled, bulbs switched, reassembled without a hitch. I finished and looked at my watch. It only took me 25 minutes and that included me taking a call from Dad.

I can't tell you how nice it is to finally be able to look at the time while your driving without having to turn on the interior lights. Now only 257 more things to do to the van to get Laura off my back about it. . . j/k.

From the picture you can see how small the light is compared to the penny. I can't imagine paying over $100 for that. Yikes!!