98 Harmony dashboard dilema

Hi folks,

Had my 98 Harmony sat on the drive for a few days now and spent most of the time giving her a good old clean inside but one of the first jobs was to swap out the stereo in her (not sure if it was the original but it was a jvc tape player) for one with bluetooth conectivity as I just didnt feel safe trying to play with the stereo whilst driving given its location . I noticed while i was doing this that the lights behind the heater controll area have gone. I fitted the bluetooth reciever thing on the R/H side of the dash where the cluster of square blank buttons are and in the process figured out how to pull forward the speed guage etc section, remove the section above the heater dial area and obviously the stereo. I managed to loosen the facia of the heater dial area by removing the knobs and input slider and undoing the screws hidden under the dials. the facia moved forward from the top edge half an inch or so but i could not for the life of me figue out how to remove it compleatly to then undo the heater area to reaplace the light bulbs. has anyone stripped out this area? I could do with knowing what i missed that was stopping the facia from coming away as driving at night I cant see any of the heater/air controlls.

sorry its a bit long winded but was trying to be helpful with the information and probable done the exact opposit

cheers in advance

Neil

Harper22 wrote: I managed to loosen the facia of the heater dial area by removing the knobs and input slider and undoing the screws hidden under the dials. the facia moved forward from the top edge half an inch or so but i could not for the life of me figue out how to remove it compleatly to then undo the heater area to reaplace the light bulbs. has anyone stripped out this area?

Yes! I had to take the dash out when I replaced the heater matrix.
Once you've pulled the control knobs off, you should see a small square of sponge behind each knob:

Behind the sponge is a screw:

Does this answer your question?

Frank

boxerman wrote:

Harper22 wrote: I managed to loosen the facia of the heater dial area by removing the knobs and input slider and undoing the screws hidden under the dials. the facia moved forward from the top edge half an inch or so but i could not for the life of me figue out how to remove it compleatly to then undo the heater area to reaplace the light bulbs. has anyone stripped out this area?

Yes! I had to take the dash out when I replaced the heater matrix.
Once you've pulled the control knobs off, you should see a small square of sponge behind each knob:

Behind the sponge is a screw:

Does this answer your question?

Frank

I managed to find those ones frank but i could only pull the facia down forwards a small amount, there seemed to be something around the cigarette lighter area that was stopping the whole plate from coming away (i had already removed the square knob off the air direction slider so i know its not that) did you manage to get yours off with just takiing those screws etc out?

cheers :-)

I'm going to have to scratch my head on this one and try to think back. You have removed the clock console above the heater haven't you? as this holds the top of the panel and I'm not sure if the screw under the gear lever boot holds this panel or not?
Bearing in mind that I was taking the whole lot out rather than just the front panel, so I don't know how far you need to strip down just to get at the bulbs.
There are two screws holding the panel to the heater at the bottom but you need to remove the LHS lower fascia panel to access them.
If you remove the ashtray you will see two small screws holding the "ashtray holder" I suppose you could call it. Removing the ashtray holder will give access to the screws holding the heater control panel to the heater.

I did a bit of a write up on the heater removal and a friend of mine put it on his website here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] MATRIX
Hopefully that may help?

Frank

yeh i took out the clock console but wasnt aware of the screw under the gear boot so thats possible. also took out the ashtray frame but couldnt see much but tbf i didnt have a great view. will have a look tomorrow afternoon but sounds like we on to a winner cheers bud ;-)

Thanks ever so much frank, with the additional info about the other screw below the gear boot i managed to remove enough facia to replace the bulbs :-)

Cheers again

Neil