To anyone who can help,

Hello, I have a 2001 Bonneville SE with some dash light issues. The words "systems monitor" no longer light up at all, and the outline of the car is not as bright as it should be. They went off about a month ago, but came back on after a few swift punches to the top of the dash board. About a week ago, however, they went out again and will not come back on. I was wondering if there is any relatively easy way to change the light bulb(*), and if so where do I get the bulb(*)? I am aware that this problem is common with Bonnevilles, particularly because I already replaced both heated seat switches in my car, and the bottom row of the stereo lights went out in my mom'* 2003. I have done some research on the web but I can't seem to find anything, and I don't really want to pay dealer prices to have this repaired. Not having these lights lit up is driving me crazy though. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Shane

The cluster lights are integrated in the cluster circuit board.

I figure there are three solutions to your problem

1) You can go to radio shack, match up the bulb and get the ol' soldering iron out. The down side is that it will never be as bright as original.

2) You can take your cluster out and have the dealership send it off and fix it, it will take about a week and cost around $250.00, I asked a dealer told me that. With pontiac killed off I dont know if they still will

3) You can find another cluster in a junkyard and then swap out your DIC

Yeah, the bulbs are extremely cheap if you choose to change them yourself and are medium repair time and knowledge level. I will post a link to buy the bulbs at the bottom of this... If you have the time, this is the best option... You have to remove the gauge cluster. Pull off the back panel covering up the circuit board. Remove all gauge needles, but be sure to mark where you removed them from. (This is very important, unless you have a Tech II like I was lucky enough too, and could find out all of these values.) When those are pulled off, you can take off the gauge labels and coverings (black part with actual gauges that you see). Hidden behind you will find the main housing of all the gauge servos and the illumination bulbs. The majority of these are LED and you shouldn't have to worry about those, as LED'* have a much longer life, but the incandescent, which will most likely look burned on top, is the ones that you will want to replace.

To replace, solder the bulbs out and replace with more solder on the board. A solder sucker is very helpful for this process, as some may get stuck in the small holes in the circuit board, and it makes it much easier to get it out.

Now, I decided that this entire process was a real pain, and I just replaced all of them for $4.00 because I didn't want to tear the whole panel apart again if it were to happen again. So if you have an extra few bucks, take that option, because it is worth it.

Word of advice:
I purchased bulbs from Radio Shack and they are less then half as bright as the OEM bulbs that I am listing. These are the stock bulbs and if you do choose to get the Radio Shack bulbs, you might be disappointed that half your dash will be a different brightness...

Bi-Pin Base Lamp | Eiko | 7373

Thank you both very much for your help. When I finally get the time and a nice day to tear this apart I'll look into it. I have front brakes to replace first ha ha. Thanks again.