When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Some time ago the bulb illuminating the left side of my speedometer failed. Recently the one illuminating the right side of the speedo failed. Not a good situation at night.
After reading posts here on the BB and finding some useful guides on other sites, I bought replacement bulbs and yesterday successfully installed them. (I will create a separate thread with those links.)
There are two different types of bulbs in the dashboard instrument cluster, a detail that wasn’t clear to me until after I had *removed* the instrument cluster.
Mercedes part A 001 544 55 94 is a 2W bulb. Two of these bulbs provide primary illumination for the speedometer and areas immediately adjacent. Some people use a 194 5W bulb as replacement, but it is brighter. See their items 3 and 25 on the annotated back-of-cluster photo for locations.
Mercedes part A 002 544 36 94 is a 1.5W bulb; it is physically smaller than the 2W bulb. All the other bulbs on the dashboard are of this type.
Replacement bulbs are readily available via amazon, eBay, and both brick-and-mortar and online auto parts stores.
Under the belief that all bulbs in the instrument panel were 2W bulbs, I bought a ten-pack for under $10, including shipping from partscontainer on eBay. The bulbs I received were a 10-pack of Jahn (German) bulbs. Overall, I was very happy with the product and their service. I don’t mind having extra bulbs at under $1 per bulb.
Use needle nose pliers to remove 2W bulbs from the cluster and a 6mm socket or nut driver to remove 1.5W bulbs.
(Why are three highlighted bulbs on the photo? The lowest one shows how 1.5W bulbs are marked on the back of the cluster. Don't know why this information is not in the maintenance manual.)
Last edited by BobG; Apr 4, 2020 at 12:24 PM.
Reason: add info about third highlighted bulb in picture
On Sunday night while driving to a store for groceries I discovered that my temperature readout is not illuminated. Everything else is fine.
And it's my fault!
Background: After removing the instrument cluster I found that two 1.5W bulb slots were empty. Might have come from the factory that way, as I never found a loose bulb on floor, nor did I find one during dash disassembly.
When I decided to remove a 1.5W bulb for inspection, I removed one near an empty slot (mistake 1), did not write down which one I removed (mistake 2), and inserted it back into the originally empty slot (mistake 3).
See annotated photo. Slot A is the originally empty slot into which I mistakenly placed the bulb from Slot B! The arrow shows where the bulb should be. Sigh. (You can check my logic -- look at the other two bulbs aligned with Slot B in the photo.)
No, I am not repeating the disassembly/reassembly steps to move this bulb.
I am curious though whether other people found missing bulbs. I checked posts going back ten years, but never found a photo showing the rear of the instrument cluster with bulbs inserted.
Good photo's and explanation. This kind of response/experience is sure good for those of us with some mechanical skill but not a lot of experience. Thank's BobG for the photo's and the explanation.
I added the bulb layout drawing fro the Service Manual and the realized it was already there, so I erased it.
I looked for a full photo but I found none.
On Sunday night while driving to a store for groceries I discovered that my temperature readout is not illuminated. Everything else is fine.
And it's my fault!
Background: After removing the instrument cluster I found that two 1.5W bulb slots were empty. Might have come from the factory that way, as I never found a loose bulb on floor, nor did I find one during dash disassembly.
When I decided to remove a 1.5W bulb for inspection, I removed one near an empty slot (mistake 1), did not write down which one I removed (mistake 2), and inserted it back into the originally empty slot (mistake 3).
See annotated photo. Slot A is the originally empty slot into which I mistakenly placed the bulb from Slot B! The arrow shows where the bulb should be. Sigh. (You can check my logic -- look at the other two bulbs aligned with Slot B in the photo.)
No, I am not repeating the disassembly/reassembly steps to move this bulb.
I am curious though whether other people found missing bulbs. I checked posts going back ten years, but never found a photo showing the rear of the instrument cluster with bulbs inserted.
I have changed the bulbs in the cluster and have an extra cluster also. I can confirm there is no bulb where you have it labeled as Slot A.
ive tried 2 different clusters and have never seen The fuel light on
There is an old thread on the subject and it appears it does not light up.
What does light up when the fuel gets low is the bulb #8 which is behind a fuel pump icon on the left side of the instrument cluster, it is beside the air bag light that comes on just for a second or two.
The diagram of the light bulbs at the start of this thread which came from the Service Manual is not accurate.
Total fuel tank capacity Is 15.8 gallons, the low fuel light comes on when there is 2 gallons left in the tank.
Last edited by onehundred80; Apr 10, 2020 at 12:31 AM.
There is an old thread on the subject and it appears it does not light up.
What does light up when the fuel gets low is the bulb #8 which is behind a fuel pump icon on the left side of the instrument cluster, it is beside the air bag light that comes on just for a second or two.
The diagram of the light bulbs at the start of this thread which came from the Service Manual is not accurate.
Total fuel tank capacity Is 15.8 gallons, the low fuel light comes on when there is 2 gallons left in the tank.
Really great to know
Thanks for the heads up on the light. I would have spent days trying to diagnose it
Onehundred80 is a wealth of good information. If he tells you something it is because he has either already tried or accomplished it or remembers from discussions over the years. When he says something, I take it to heart. He doesn't post BS just to impress. As an example, I posted something about removing interior panels in the hatch area. He warned me how brittle the fasteners can become. I tried it anyway and broke more than 50 of them before finally getting the stupid things to fasten satisfactorily. I doubt that I will ever meet him in person but if I do, I'll thank him for his help.
There is an old thread on the subject and it appears it does not light up.
What does light up when the fuel gets low is the bulb #8 which is behind a fuel pump icon on the left side of the instrument cluster, it is beside the air bag light that comes on just for a second or two.
The diagram of the light bulbs at the start of this thread which came from the Service Manual is not accurate.
Total fuel tank capacity Is 15.8 gallons, the low fuel light comes on when there is 2 gallons left in the tank.
I remember reading on the “how to recolor your instrument cluster” How to, that the guy sanded off the back layer of the cluster and the red on the low end of the fuel level was then viewable like the the other red parts of the cluster. I always thought my bulb was just out. For some reason it’s always drove me crazy Lol
I know this post is a little old now, but I did exactly the same mistake as you did :-) Even though I have put the bulbs back in correctly now, the LCD panel below my RPM gauge does not light up at night. I need to diagnose that since all the bulbs seem to be OK.
This is my cluster with the bulbs in the correct position and the two empty ports like you mention:
Today I purchased Philips 12256 B2 bulbs to replace the 2w bulbs that have recently burned out. The Philips bulbs are 3w to give just a bit more light. 194 will fit, but because they are 5w, I was afraid they would burn or melt the surrounding areas.
Dashboard Instrument Cluster Light Bulbs
I agree! 
Re: Dashboard Instrument Cluster Light Bulbs
