• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

does anyone know about the factory radio bulbs?

T

tom5170

New member
02 grand prix gt, 3.8

I bought the car with the backlight on the radio display burned out. It's the radio with just cd play, and has a single adjustment for the bass and treble.

anyways I bought a bulb on eBay for it. it wasn't an a.c. Delco replacement. it was a different brand. I bought it because it came with installation instructions and they ad claimed the quality was better than original factory bulbs.

anyways I put the bulb in, and display still didn't light. so I removed bulb and the metal tabs were bent on bulb from turning bulb. I straightened tabs, put bulb back in, and radio started smoking. it looked like the smoke was coming from the back. cheap crappy bulb I ended up getting my money back.

anyways, the radio still works despite the smoke, and it doesn't smoke any more! all the controls and buttons etc work. BUT am/fm and recall buttons under the display don't light up. I didn't notice this before. could this what the smoking was from? are these two buttons connected to the display bulb? and bulb being burned out is why they aren't lit?
 
Last edited:


Its common. I would go to a junk yard or order a used factory cd player online. I am not sure how common it is, but my 01 with 49500 miles had same problem, that light bulb burned out, i ended up putting a aftermarket cd player in it while i put subs and did a big3 upgrade for the subs. I just used it as is until i put the subs in the car
 
My bulbs in the display went out and I bought replacement bulbs. Installed them but other buttons bulbs went out as well. Traced it down to some of the really small parts on the board not working. Bought another radio and since the VINs didn't match it was locked. (04 GP, w/o Monsoon) Didn't want to pay dealer to unlock. Ended up just buying a $100 aftermarket basic double din radio and adapter to keep the chimes and RAP. Wish I would have done that in the beginning. Much better quality sound, more adjustments, still looks like a stock radio, and many more features. It looks like a stock radio and I changed the color of the buttons and display to red to match my dash lights. Also my phone plugs in which is nice. I still have 3 bulbs for the display I never used. I wasted some much time and money trying to get the stock radio working for crap. The aftermarket one is so much better!
 


I waisted time and money trying fix my radio I tried everything finally said screw it got an after market I could make it red match the dash but it's going blue to match the radio. It's smooth and doesn't stick out like some do just do little research and get an after market it will save the head ache
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top