Dash Lights

I had this last Saturday off and I wanted to do something productive with my time. I decided to change some of the bulbs in my truck’s instrument panel. A few of the bulbs went out a while ago and I have been meaning to do it for a quite some time now. Also my check engine light is on and has been on since I bought the truck. The check engine light is on, because the oil pressure gage broke and the truck thinks (if a truck could think) that there is no oil in the engine. The previous owner put in a second oil pressure gage but did not tie it into the computer. I would like to live along the Wasatch front soon and I know that if a vehicle’s check engine light is on it fails an emissions test automatically. I decided to fix the problem by taking out the light bulb in my check engine slot. I took everything all apart and replaced all the bulbs with new ones and everything works great now.

The first step is to take off all the bolts on the bottom of the kick plate. You will need a 7 mm socket for this job.

Then remove the kick plate. There are bolts at the bottom, but the top is held in with some push clips. They are inserted at a downward angle, so you have to lift up and out to get it off.

Next remove the radio housing. It does not have any bolts holding it in, just push clips. Use two flat head screw drivers to get under one side and pull it off. Don’t worry you will not break it.

Next remove the plastic cover that goes over your instrument panel. There are three screws at the top of the panel and two at the bottom.

Remove four screws that hold the instrument panel in place. Once again they are 7 mm heads.

Remove the entire instrument panel and unplug the three wire connections on the back. Remember where they go. It shouldn’t be too difficult; they are all different sizes and will only fit back into their proper holes.

Then on the back of the panel you will find all the lights. Twist to remove each bulb. I recommend replacing all the bulbs, since you do not want to do this all over again next week.

The final step is to put it all back together. Hope you remember how. It took about an hour or so and was kind of fun. The best part is that I could have spend $20 at the auto parts store buying the light bulbs, but I went to my work and bought the bulbs from them for $1.75.