Climate control illumination...?

[CharlesAFerg]

My climate control guages lit up yesterday night.
I have never seen this happen before so it was quite a pleasant surprise.
They were intermittent as it would just turn on and shut off as I was driving.

Does anyone know if this is supposed to always be on or just turns on at specific times, and if it is supposed to be illuminated all the time - how can I fix this problem? Where is the loose connection?

[shogun]

http://bmwe32.masscom.net/johan//IHKA_lights/IHKA_lights.html

[CharlesAFerg]

http://bmwe32.masscom.net/johan//IHKA_lights/IHKA_lights.html

I actually have the other type of climate control -
http://data.bmrparts.com/qimages/s/A163374_347465_1.jpg
Those round dials are what were lighting up.

[BillionPa]

could be the cable is loose on the back

[LunatiC]

They are supposed to light up whenever you have your headlights on. I would suspect a loose cable.

A similar thing happened to me once before with my sunroof switch, I never knew it was supposed to be illuminated. One windy day my sunroof was stuck open so I had to pull off the panel and wind it shut with the crank. In the process, I moved a cable out of the way for the sunroof switch, and from then on it would illuminate when I had any of my headlights on.

[SumDude]

I just finished fighting my climate control illumination last week. As far as I know it is made to light up when you turn on the parking/headlights and it is only one little 1.5 watt bulb. there is a good how-to on bmwe34.net as far as a cable the bulb holder is soldered onto the printed circete board and if the cale was loose the temp. dials would not work. My bulb only half died in that the filament was broken on one end and when the control was hit, it sometimes worked for a few miles. hope that helped

[Ferret]

From what I remember in these, there's only one or two lamps and the light is transmitted around by clear tube...

Easy fix on these - could be a busted cable or lamp, both easy to have a look at.