Bongo Fury

mazda bongo ford freda instrument panel light replacement update!

posted some pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnbullas ... 446560969/

Dash came out with 4 screws - I treated the flexible circuit board with great care having experienced paper thin Austin Rover ones!

LEDs from ebay were VERY sensitive to the location of their thin wires in the holders (v poor quality control) so I have ditched them until I find a way to make the work (need a few spare lamp holders)
ALSO the LEDs are longer than the little bulb so they do not have the same angle of illumination

note the burnt "D" holder! ... I replaced the burnt out bulb with one on the cluster elsewhere, put an LED in the "Hold" slot

note the way in which the auto electricians (sic) used by JAL Ltd pulled the coolant sensor cable tight on fitting preventing the dashboard instrument cluster being removed - I had to cut the cable and splice in 12" of slack!..... numpties!

Made sure all was working before screwing it back in place.

I intend to modify the LEDs to correspond to the connections on the incandescent bulbs I had in "the pits" - also from ebay for about £2 for 20! Found my variable power supply so can check them on the bench.... now a question Where can I get hold of some of the dashboard bulb holders

Another task and another question, I want to relocate the retrofit foglight switch up into one of the spare holes in the dashboard.... which MAZDA does a suitable foglight switch come out of?

How many spare bulb holders do you need? I've got quite a few spare that can be exchanged for beer tokens. I'm not sure of a compatible foglight switch which also has the telltale light which is an MOT requirement. Switches from similar vintage 323's will fit the holes either side of the binnacle and MX5 fit the larger holes on the right hand side of the dashboard. You could potentially fit an LED in one of the spare bulb holder holes in the instrument panel to act as the warning light.

It transpires all LEDs are polarity sensitive so they probably just need placing correctly, the wire alignment was a red herring. I just need too rotate the non functioning ones by 180 º

True enough, I have now got 6 working LEDs in place of the old incandescent bulbs BUT one of the LEDs was faulty meaning no end of turning would have sorted that one!... in passing measured the switch size for the foglight switch I want to put in one of the spare slots near the speedo.... 35mm x 15mm time to go hunting!

ALSO I noticed that there were bulb holders in 2 strange places (i) illuminated at all times below the oil pressure light (and not showing on the dash) and (ii) above the upper most light on the left hand (not illuminated but "populated".... any thoughts on either??

Deja vu

http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... =1&t=61409

The slots in question are the top left (boxed) I cannot make out what it should be warning me about .....the one under the oil pressure light is illuminated all the time BUT it is not a "valid" bulb

Ta

Dr B

It looks like air bag warning light. I would guess that the blank one with no symbol is not meant to have bulb in, so is not going to show anything meaningful .

This will answer many of these types of question:

Now remind me where I might get one of these documents ??

Glovebox is always a good place to start, but if you don't have one in there, you can get the updated version quite readily:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mazda-Bongo-F ... 3a80fea23f

Apparently if ABS .. or Air bags are fitted ... having a warning light 'out' is now an MOT failure ..

My air bag light functions OK ... but I my ABS light 'check' light does not come at all ... and I have the MOT coming up soon ..!!

Mine works the same Mike - I think that's normal for a Bongo. You would have expected it to light up briefly when you turn the ignition on to confirm the circuit is working correctly, but I think it will only illuminate if there is a fault. This does raise a concern at MOT time...

Anyone else with airbags seen it light up as a test?

My dash panel air bag warning light works OK .. but not the ABS ..

Sorry Mike, didn't fully read your previous post. Ok, my airbag light is fine & comes on for a few seconds with the ignition. I also have an amber light on the right hand side above the roof symbol that shows '4W ABS' for a few seconds too, so it looks to be working as expected. Phew.

Here is a video of the lights on our dash from the first turn of the ignition key to startup, ABS, coolant level warning light (plus beep) and Airbag lights illuminate briefly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnbullas ... /lightbox/