pleasant, but weird surprise..

since ive bought my truck, the backlighting on the fan speed dial, cold side of temp adjust dial, and recirc button have not lit up, i knew it was a simple fix just a matter of being able to get to(time) and buying the bulb..well otw home from work today i moved the temp knob over to full hot, and kinda used just a bit more pressure because i had a pen in my hand to write down a job number when i heard and felt the slightest click, and voila all the dials lit up! i sat there for a few seconds before going in to drive..all i could say was..the hell? i hope they continue to stay lit. there must of been a loose connection, or i broke something in the panel and "forced" a connection. am i the only one to ever experience this??

 

I've had this happen in a previous car. It was like the wiring wasn't solid or something. Sometimes the dials would light up and sometimes they wouldn't...different ones every time...the whole "WTF?" pie.

 

AFTER i posted this they stopped working, i pulled the knob panel, pushed and wiggled the bulbs, nothing. pushed really hard on the harness connector and popped it back in and they lit again. beats me. im hoping its not a bad solder connection in the panel

 

Sometimes a bulb filement will break near the end, jolting it sometimes makes it light up but inevitably it will quit again. My low voltage sidewalk landscape lights do this all the time, eventually I have to replace the bulb.

 

Yup. My 2005 dclb did this all the time. Get in, start driving, no lights. look down after 10 min of driving and it was lit up. Sometimes if a slightly smacked the front, the light would come on. I drove the truck like this for like 35k miles. Never really bothered me enough to care that much.

 

I have the same problem with my overhead temp/compass light.
Sometimes I can beat on the lense and it works. Other times it just works on its own.

 

Filaments will break and when they do if you tap them and they make contact while on they will "weld" or melt themselves together. Sounds like a good time to swap to LED but ultimately the bulbs need to be changed IF thats what actually happens. My suggestion would be to pull the bulb and examine it next time it is not working to see if thats what is actually happening.