odometer backlight

My '99 SL2 last night decided that the back light for the odometer was going
to burn out . The dash light for the speedo and the tach are just fine yet.

In proper light I can see the mileage and so forth so the odometer itself is
not dead.

Question is how much of an ordeal is it to get the light replaced? Anyone
have it done at the dealer and what was the freight?

Thanks gck

 

Just changed 6 of the bulbs in a 2001 SL1 dash. The part that took me
the longest was driving to the Saturn dealer to get the bulbs. That
was the only place that had them. Took me about 1 hour to change the
bulbs. The hardest part was getting the plug out of the instrument
cluster, not much extra wire or room to get your hand back there. I
called the Saturn dealer and they wanted $120.00 plus $5.00 for each
bulb. If your 99 is like my 02 there are 10 different bulbs in the
cluster. Get a Multimeter to check the bulbs, they are hard to tell if
they are burned out. One other thing when I went to the Saturn dealer
the person at the parts counter said there were only 4 bulbs not 10.
Had to go back and get more. If you need some help getting it out
e-mail me.

SMMM

 

How much is the 10 bulbs, and are they another amazing Saturn-only part?
I'm thinking, since my saturn's got 200,000+ on it, I might swap out the
bulbs given that a) some are bad and b) bulbs of this type get dim with
age anyway. Last time I did a brake light bulb, I did ALL of them in
the back, and the others were all pretty dark inside, too. At least
with brake lights, the extra $5 is cheap vs getting pulled over or
worse, rear ended, and if one's dead, the others are probbably on the
way out too anyway.

Given what it is to pull the dash and change the bulbs, it's probbably
better to just swap them all out...

 

I bought 10 bulbs for the dash in an auto parts store and they were about $1
each CDN.
Alex

 

Each bulb was about $3.50 plus $5.00 for the speedometer bulb. I
checked 6 different auto parts stores and none of them carried the
right one. I found some at one store that said they were the kind I
did need but when I pulled the dash out I found out they were not. I
even spent time looking at auto part web sites and found the same bulb
on some of them that are the wrong ones. Ended up getting them all at
Saturn Dealer

SMMM