Becker Radio faceplate lights

[wmercer]

93 600SEL Becker 1432 head unit, trunk CD unit, etc.
LCD digits show ok, but I do not have any faceplate lighting at, totally dark at night. All functions of radio/CD/cassette work ok.

Any ideas on how to replace the light bilbs on the faceplate of a Becker 1432?
thx,

[Gilly]

I think it's gonna need a reman faceplate.

Gilly

[carman850]

As I recall, as an anti-theft function, the faceplate is portable can be removed from the headunit directly.

After you remove the faceplate, you can easily disassemble it with a small Torx screwdriver, you will find numerous tiny bulbs soldered directly onto the circuit board, I got the similar sized 12V replacement bulbs from Radio shack.

If you are comfortable with solder iron, it's a rather easy job to replace them.

[wmercer]

thanks for the info. I can handle a soldering gun ok, even in tight places. I assume the faceplate can be somewhat easily removed with the becker radio removal keys, inserted in the bottom left and right slots, correct? thx. bill mercer.

[Gilly]

No, on MB radios the faceplate is removeable up to 93, but wasn't intended to be an anti-theft feature.
The radio keys will remove the entire radio, which is fine, then you can pull off the faceplate by hand. You can also use one of the cluster removal hooks and pull the faceplate off and leave the rest of the radio chassis in place.

Gilly

[tecqboy]

Assuming you do get it apart down to the circuit board; DO NOT use a soldering gun to unsolder the dead bulbs. A soldering gun is not intended to be used on the delicate foil paths of a printed circuit board. It gets way too hot; it'll melt the copper foil along with the solder. The tip is too big for small work. And it also has a magnetic field near the tip which can induce voltage into sensitive components. Save the soldering gun for fixing the rain gutters. Use a small low wattage pencil with a fine tip designed for this type of repair work. Get a solder sucker or solder removing braid to help remove the old solder.

When you take the faceplate apart - examine the screws in it first - On my 1988 560 sel the becker unit in it had the same no light problem. I removed the face plate but didn't notice that one set of screws on the back of it allows you to take the back off to get at the bulbs - the other set allows the faceplate to fall apart and all the little push buttons go plop all over the table top - don't ask me how I know - it was 2 years ago and I still remember it l!! -soldering in the new bulbs was easy compared to getting the little buttons in the right place - if I remember right - they were spring loaded which made them a pain to get back in as the springs were not permanently attached to the little buttons and as I got 3 or 4 buttons with springs in -- the springs on the first ones I re-installed when "ping" and flew out again. A few minutes of examining how your faceplate was put together can save you lots of frustration.

[wmercer]

wow!! great advice and thanks for the info, really appreciate it. I will be extra careful.

[Cigar Havana]

On a Becker radio, found in a 1989 420 SEL, some of the LCD number segments fail to turn black when they should. How should one go about fixing this?

I saw in one post, the face plate can be removed. How is that accomplished? What would be the next step?