Originally Posted by rogsim

I solved this problem with some help from my partner in crime (2006 DB9 Volante)....

Originally Posted by AstonAficionado

Map Lights

Up until this point, the project was going pretty smoothly. This changed, however, once I started fiddling with the map lights.

To get to the map lights, you need to remove the Alcantara housing that sits behind (from the driver’s perspective) the rearview mirror. At first, I removed the rearview mirror thinking that it would make it easier to access the housing. Although this is true to some extent, it actually makes the rest of the procedure more difficult because the mirror is tethered by an electrical cable and once the mirror is removed it hangs down from the roof and pulls down on everything contained within the housing. Therefore, I suggest you leave the rearview mirror in place. If you want to remove it, however, it is secured by a T25 TORX-head screw (see PIC 11).

As I said, you need to remove the Alcantara housing to replace the lights. The housing is kept in place by a distal clip (near the windshield) and a proximal Phillips-head screw (near the rearview mirror) which is hidden by a slotted metal cover on the housing (which I believe covers a microphone for hands-free calls). The screw is visible in PIC 12.

Before you remove the screw and pull off the housing, I must warn you that I had a hell of a time getting the housing back in place once it was off. I think I actually spent over an hour on this part of the project alone. Therefore, if you aren’t mechanically inclined and/or can’t stand frustration, I would think twice before proceeding with changing the map light bulbs yourself.

Okay, now that I have provided that disclaimer, I will continue. Once you remove the screw and pull the Alcantara housing, a bunch of wires will spill out like intestines. For my car, the wires were accompanied by some electrical components which were shoe-horned in the small space defined by the housing. I’m not sure if all of the components are original to the car because at least some of them are for a radar system that the previous owner had. Regardless, the wires and those components are why getting the housing back on was such a challenge.

On the inside of the housing, there are two light fixtures that seat within associated housings. To remove the fixtures from their housings, you give them a small twist and they are freed. My biggest mistake in this whole project was not being able to determine the original orientation of the fixtures before I removed them from their housings (I actually removed them before I removed the Alcantara housing -- my error). Be sure to make a mental note of the original orientations (they will fit in two different orientations) so you can replace them in the positions that most easily enable replacement of the housing.

Once the fixtures are removed, you just pull the old bulbs out and replace them with the new ones. At that point you can replace the fixtures in their housings in their original orientations and put the Alcantara housing back in place. Now that last step is the one I wasted a lot of time on. It was just really difficult to get the housing back in place with all of the wires, electronics, and light fixtures in the way. Furthermore, one of my fixtures would not tightly secure to its housing so it tended to pop out whenever I tried to get the housing back in place. After many, many failed attempts and copious amounts of swearing, I finally got the housing in place with both light fixtures properly seated, but with an open gap between the housing and the headliner on the driver’s side. Fortunately, I was able to close that gap when I secured the housing in place with the screw (did not need to "force" the gap closed -- the screw simply kept the gap closed).

Originally Posted by jyeh74

So are the license plate light one or two wedge bulbs? They call them 168/194 wedge bulbs.