So our cars use incandescent back lighting for stuff like lock switches, window switches radio face, and hvac controls.

I was wondering if anyone devised a way to test components in wreckers to see if the lighting is all working;
Let's take the hvac controls for example;
I noticed that the bulbs on the left side of this component are all burnt out;
Does anyone know if we can essentially hot wire a loose part to see if all the bulbs illuminate?

I am not very good at soldering - so I'd prefer to not have to re-solder new bulbs in place, and instead swap for a part that has all the bulbs still working;
I am noticing that our cars are just old enough that the lesser models are being tossed out, and often while still being in great shape - without too many miles.

I took apart a power lock switch to see the little circuit board, and it looks like the locks are polarity controlled - I am guessing that the middle lead is the illumination, but that's purely a guess...

Thoughts?

 

They all burn out easily; and it's just a 3 pin: power, controller, and ground so doing a bare wire test (9v maybe) should be enough to pop the lights on. The last time I went to a junker to replace mine for the same thing, I asked if I could quickly test it in my car as I already had the dash mostly dismantled and they were fine with it (YMMV).

 

It's pretty cool that you were aloud to check parts in your car;
I am quite confident that the yards here will not even consider this.