I am trying to replace the odometer light bulb in my 1999 Pontiac Sunfire.When I tried contacting the dealer, they said they don't sell just the light bulb, just the whole instrument cluster. Does anyone know where i can just buy the instrument panel light bulbs? one person told me that they are generic and I could find them at any auto parts store, but that wasn't the case. I also tried the junk yard route, but again everyone only wants to sell the whole cluster.....

I don't know how your bulbs look, but in my Subaru I replaced just the bulb part with a replacement 12v bulb from Radio Shack. I was able to take the little bulb out of it's mounting and rewrap the wire around the base and make them work. The dealer wanted $9 per bulb (with the little base) and I got a pack of 12v bulbs from Radio Shack for $1.49.

Similar to what this guy did on ScoobyMods.

Get a hold of a Bently or Haynes manual for your car and see if it is even a replaceable part - I'd suspect it is, it just might be difficult to get to it.

actually, i have had my dashboard ripped apart for a few weeks now because that was one of the things i was fixing.... i have been waiting to put it together until i get 2 last things fixed

So you pretty much have the bulb in hard? Or is it soldered to the board? In either case I think you should be able to take it to an Radio Shack or the likes and get on.

The bulbs in my Caprice were tiny capsules mounted in a plastic holder. I pulled the capsule out and fitted a small white LED with a resistor in place and it seems to work ok. You might find you need to do this to one each side so it looks ok. You could even solder the LED directly to the PCB since it is unlikely to fail again.

Gareth

can you post a photo of the bulb?
I might just have one in stock.

if it is mounted in a plastic holder, see if it pops out. some do, some don't.
I keep some of each around.

thanks! I mostly need the plastic thing that holds the bulb in place, however... I decided to solder the light bulb on to the circuit board...hopefully, it still works after i am done with it