I have a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan and have a question. Are the overhead console buttons supposed to light? At night it is impossible to know which button to push to open the sliding doors or garage door. I've been searching in web for info, but haven't gotten any info except how to change map light bulbs. Thanks for your help.

 

not sure if your 2007 would be the same as my 2002 but mine work fine and are lit up at night when lights are on, I am guessing your dimmer switch is turned up etc
saying that I lost all interior dash and speedo lights and after disconnecting the negative of the battery for 10 minutes and putting it back on, everything has been working perfectly fine again.may be worth a try if you have radio code
if not I am sure someone will have the answer

 

yes. these buttons do light up. they are not led though they are bulbs soldered directly onto the circuit board. just replaced mine... easy enough to do

 

Hi Nick, Thanks for info. How does the overhead console come off? I assume it just snaps on and off, but I don't want to break something.

 

Yes the overhead console where the sliding door and boot buttons are just pulls off. I spent hours trying to figure this out lol. Get your fingers around the edges at the back side and just pull. It will feel as though you are going to break something but you wont. The console is held up by brackets that just pull out with a bit of force. When you have got the console off the roof there are 2 plugs that need removing. One for the 2 map lights and the other for the trip computer. The trip computer one is a little tricky but a bit of fiddling you will work it out. Once you have got the console completely off the roof you need to do a bit of stripping down to get to the circuit boards in the button housings. Its pretty much self explanatory with a number of torx screws to undo. When you get to the buttons just unplug them from the rest of the unit. On the actual buttons themselves you need to unclip the 2 halves from each other. i did this by using a flat butter knife and just carefully prized my way around the unit until the 2 halfs came apart. This will expose the circuit boards. These will just come out of the housing easily. You will see the lightbulbs soldered onto the circuit boards, some of the bulbs (as mine did) initially look like little blue led's but they are not. These are just clear bulbs with a little blue rubber cap on them. You need to remove this cap as you will need it for the new bulbs. You now need to de-solder the old bulbs from the board. I used a 35v soldering iron and a desoldering pump. If you are unsure how to do this just youtube it, there are loads of tutorials. Once you have desoldered the old bulb just pull it free from the board, may take a little fiddling but it will eventually come free. If you struggle just heat up the connection again on the reverse side of the board at the same time as pulling the bulb, it will come free. Get your new bulb and put both wires through the board and slightly bend them outwards to keep the bulb in place, flip over the board and solder the joints on either bulb wire until you have a good joint. I used a set of helping hands with a magnifying glass and some crocodile clips so I could see as they are pretty small joints. When you have done this simply cut the wires down to the joint and pop on the blue rubber bulb caps if you have them. Bingo.. you just saved yourself from having to buy a complete new unit. I have included an ebay link of the bulbs I used. Hope this helps.

Any problems just give us a holla

Nick

12V 70mA 3mm dia. Miniature Wire Ended Lamps Qty. 10 | eBay

 

Thanks Nick, you've been a great help. I found the bulbs at Radio Shack pt# 2721092 $1.99/2pack. 10,000hr life. Do you know what the other lamp is? It looks like an LED. It is the one that shines thru a hole rear of the other buttons. That one isn't working either. I have the 2 bulbs installed and the console ready to put back up, but then I remembered the single lamp doesn't work.

 

No problem, always glad to help. As for the green light that shines through the little hole its a green led. I have absolutely no idea what its purpose is. I was thinking this when I was changing my bulbs. I wonder if its an idea to open up a thread and ask if anyone knows what its for.

 

Nick, thank you for this post! VERY helpful!
Mark