I've noticed the past week or so when I start up the car (if the car hadn't been run around for about 7-8 hours at least) that I hear a popping sound coming from the left front corner of the dash. Kind of hard to pinpoint, but it seems like it's around maybe the tachometer area or maybe towards the back of the steering column. It does sound like an electrical pop, like maybe a bad electrical connection? The car runs well on all fronts except I noticed that the light(s?) on the gear shift don't turn on (5AT, so the gear position indicator on the shift box)

If it counts for anything, I changed out my CD player by myself a couple weeks ago, but for the following week or two, the lights on the shift box did come on. And tbh I didn't mess with any of the wires to the shiftbox. Honestly, I'm confused. Any ideas?

 

lol less than 1 day later and I have an update:

It doesn't always make this popping noise. I'd say the popping noise, no matter how loud or faint occurs I'd say about 75% of the time. Sometimes it's barely noticeable, but still there. Other times I hear absolutely nothing at all. It pops like instantly before the car cranks.

 

Is that pop sound coming from one of your speakers maybe? Might have a short somewhere. Try pulling the fuse from your deck and then starting to see if it still happens. Simply turning the deck off will not work in some cases. Why your lights are not working is something I would have to look into. Check the wiring schematic to see if those lights are somehow linked to the deck wiring. Was there a power antenna wire on that deck? How did you terminate it? (If it wasn't used for a power antenna)