2004 LeSabre Climate Control

[BuickBeignet]

Hello!

2004 LeSabre.

I'd like to remove my automatic climate control and send it to a vendor to refurbish the lighting system. What's the best way to tackle removing the climate control?

Thanks!

 

[Homer Jay]

Hello!

2004 LeSabre.

I'd like to remove my automatic climate control and send it to a vendor to refurbish the lighting system. What's the best way to tackle removing the climate control?

Thanks!

If you haven't, try searching the site or Google. IIRC there are a few good tutorials.

 

[BuickBeignet]

Thanks!

If you haven't, try searching the site or Google. IIRC there are a few good tutorials.

 

[Ultra Ego]

I'd like to remove my automatic climate control and send it to a vendor to refurbish the lighting system. What's the best way to tackle removing the climate control?

Been there -- a couple of times -- and disliked the project very much. If your LED screen is faded, disappeared, or flickering, those circuits are on a small board and the components eventually come loose because of the cold solder process they use to make this. Vibration is the enemy. Sometimes you can epoxy the loose resistors in place and/or resolder them. It is tough to tell which ones need attention, or are out of spec.

If the button light bulbs are burned out, those bulbs are miniature bulbs soldered to the keypad board. Tiny and tough to do. You have to replace all of the bulbs because the ones GM used are no longer available.

I've done both of these projects on a couple of my cars and the results are not what I had hoped. The bulbs look okay, but the display screen still fails.

I highly recommend you go on eBay and contact the seller there who rebuilds these all day long. I don't have his info handy, but use the search function on eBay. He'll send you a reconditioned unit and you send your core back to him.

 

[BuickBeignet]

Been there -- a couple of times -- and disliked the project very much. If your LED screen is faded, disappeared, or flickering, those circuits are on a small board and the components eventually come loose because of the cold solder process they use to make this. Vibration is the enemy. Sometimes you can epoxy the loose resistors in place and/or resolder them. It is tough to tell which ones need attention, or are out of spec.

If the button light bulbs are burned out, those bulbs are miniature bulbs soldered to the keypad board. Tiny and tough to do. You have to replace all of the bulbs because the ones GM used are no longer available.

I've done both of these projects on a couple of my cars and the results are not what I had hoped. The bulbs look okay, but the display screen still fails.

I highly recommend you go on eBay and contact the seller there who rebuilds these all day long. I don't have his info handy, but use the search function on eBay. He'll send you a reconditioned unit and you send your core back to him.

I found the seller and will send it out for repair. The led screen looks fine, just the button lights aren't working.

 

[BuickBeignet]

Been there -- a couple of times -- and disliked the project very much. If your LED screen is faded, disappeared, or flickering, those circuits are on a small board and the components eventually come loose because of the cold solder process they use to make this. Vibration is the enemy. Sometimes you can epoxy the loose resistors in place and/or resolder them. It is tough to tell which ones need attention, or are out of spec.

If the button light bulbs are burned out, those bulbs are miniature bulbs soldered to the keypad board. Tiny and tough to do. You have to replace all of the bulbs because the ones GM used are no longer available.

I've done both of these projects on a couple of my cars and the results are not what I had hoped. The bulbs look okay, but the display screen still fails.

I highly recommend you go on eBay and contact the seller there who rebuilds these all day long. I don't have his info handy, but use the search function on eBay. He'll send you a reconditioned unit and you send your core back to him.

I was actually planning to send it to this vendor.

1997-2005 Buick Automatic Climate Control Repair | Tanin Auto

Contact Tanin Auto Electronix to repair 1997-2005 Buick automatic climate control units. We can service failed backlighting bulbs to blank display screens.

www.taninautoelectronix.com

 

[Mad_Coachman]

I was actually planning to send it to this vendor.

1997-2005 Buick Automatic Climate Control Repair | Tanin Auto

Contact Tanin Auto Electronix to repair 1997-2005 Buick automatic climate control units. We can service failed backlighting bulbs to blank display screens.

www.taninautoelectronix.com

That looks like a great deal. I think I'll go that route as well.
I have 2 extra head units where the bulbs are burned out.

 

[lbear]

Looks like a great service. Has anyone here used them, if so, what were the results?

The company has some bad Yelp reviews

 

[BuickBeignet]

Looks like a great service. Has anyone here used them, if so, what were the results?

The company has some bad Yelp reviews

I'll report back on my experience. I sent out my unit today. I'm not a huge fan of yelp because people mostly complain than praise. Yelp also modifies a business pages algorithm to hide positive reviews sometimes depending on different variable.

The business seems very responsive to my questions so far. I'll report back here on my experience.

 

[Mazda2Buick]

This is an interesting discussion to me as I recently bought a 2004 LeSabre Custom (manual climate controls, single zone) and I discovered that at night only the temperature control slider illuminates, and the orange light for whatever button I have pressed (off, vent, heat, etc). There is no backlighting on any of the buttons, so I have to use the map lights to see what button I want to push. This isn't a priority right now, but at some point I was thinking I'd have to just replace the whole unit.

 

[lbear]

I'll report back on my experience. I sent out my unit today. I'm not a huge fan of yelp because people mostly complain than praise. Yelp also modifies a business pages algorithm to hide positive reviews sometimes depending on different variable.

The business seems very responsive to my questions so far. I'll report back here on my experience.

Thanks! Keep us posted on the results! For the $60 price, it seems like a decent deal.

So will they replace all the lights behind the buttons? Will they do anything to the LCD screen?

 

[BuickBeignet]

Thanks! Keep us posted on the results! For the $60 price, it seems like a decent deal.

So will they replace all the lights behind the buttons? Will they do anything to the LCD screen?

I will! My understanding is they are repairing/replacing all the lighting functions including those in the LEDs panel. However my LED is working fine, I'm only having issues with the lights within the buttons. I only indicated that the lights do not work on the panel. I'll keep you posted.

 

[lbear]

I will! My understanding is they are repairing/replacing all the lighting functions including those in the LEDs panel. However my LED is working fine, I'm only having issues with the lights within the buttons. I only indicated that the lights do not work on the panel. I'll keep you posted.

Do they replace the bulbs with LED's or incandescent? If the latter, my concern is that they will burn out again, as incandescent have a much shorter life than LEDs do. Incandescent run hotter and burn out eventually. Hopefully they have an LED upgrade version available.

UPDATE:

I talked with the company and they do not do LED conversions. Which is fine as an incandescent is better than a burned out bulb. Will wait for feedback before I do mine. Turn around is 10-14 days per phone conversation, not the 7-10 days stated on website.

 

[BuickBeignet]

I'll keep you posted!

Do they replace the bulbs with LED's or incandescent? If the latter, my concern is that they will burn out again, as incandescent have a much shorter life than LEDs do. Incandescent run hotter and burn out eventually. Hopefully they have an LED upgrade version available.

UPDATE:

I talked with the company and they do not do LED conversions. Which is fine as an incandescent is better than a burned out bulb. Will wait for feedback before I do mine. Turn around is 10-14 days per phone conversation, not the 7-10 days stated on websit

 

[BuickBeignet]

Do they replace the bulbs with LED's or incandescent? If the latter, my concern is that they will burn out again, as incandescent have a much shorter life than LEDs do. Incandescent run hotter and burn out eventually. Hopefully they have an LED upgrade version available.

UPDATE:

I talked with the company and they do not do LED conversions. Which is fine as an incandescent is better than a burned out bulb. Will wait for feedback before I do mine. Turn around is 10-14 days per phone conversation, not the 7-10 days stated on website.

Do you know any vendors that perform led conversions?

 

[BuickGirlFromMars]

Do you know any vendors that perform led conversions?

the screen is a vacuum fluorescent display
the lightbulbs are incandescent but if thats hwat you mean, you would need LEDs that are the right color to look proper, they also dim with the dash knob,and then someone to put them in .im not saying it cant be done but I would just refresh the bulbs and worry about it again in 20 years lol

 

[BuickGirlFromMars]

here is some free presents merry christmas

 

[Mazda2Buick]

For any of you LeSabre owners that have the manual climate controls in their car like I do (without any LED display), I found a company that will rebuild the climate control for $50, and they say they have a two business day turnaround: Climate Control Manual Buick LeSabre (2000-2005) Rebuild

 

[lbear]

here is some free presents merry christmas

I have the seat clunk noise on turns 🙂 How did you know that? 😉

Will have to find a YouTube video as the factory diagrams are not the best.

 

[lbear]

the screen is a vacuum fluorescent display
the lightbulbs are incandescent but if thats hwat you mean, you would need LEDs that are the right color to look proper, they also dim with the dash knob,and then someone to put them in .im not saying it cant be done but I would just refresh the bulbs and worry about it again in 20 years lol

Good point. The rebuild will be better than the factory lights. It should last a very long time. Incandescent will be just fine