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Anybody know if they make those bulbs in LED? My D5 light has been burnt out for the last 10 years and if I'm gonna go through the effort of replacing it I wanna use a long lasting LED so that I'll never have to worry about it again lol
They are available @ https://www.superbrightleds.com
I bought mine from there as my d5 light was not illuminating. I cannot remember which one though, but 100% you can get the bulb on this site. Had to replace a whole bunch of cluster lights, and decided to change the color (no more amber) and switch to something I could see better. After 15 yrs and even new amber lights, I deemed it necessary to change the bulb color to something brighter and it's a night and day difference in how easy it is to ready now.
Hello the D5 light in the tach on my 03 TL doesn't illuminate either however the rest will illuminate for all the other gear positions. Anyone else encountered and fixed this before? Doesn't seem to be just a burned bulb because it's only 1 position affected.
Hello the D5 light in the tach on my 03 TL doesn't illuminate either however the rest will illuminate for all the other gear positions. Anyone else encountered and fixed this before? Doesn't seem to be just a burned bulb because it's only 1 position affected.
Try turning on the he ignition while watching the D5 light. It should come on for a couple seconds then extinguish. That is a quick and dirty way to see if the bulb is working.
If it works, then it's likely the range selector switch just needs to be adjusted a bit. Pop the left front wheel and remove the cover over the switch. Then there are a couple of 10mm bolts down low to loosen only enough until the the switch can be rotated. With key on engine off, have someone else inside the car select D5 while you hold the switch to keep it from moving . Rotate the switch a couple degrees(I forgot which direction) until the D5 light comes on. Tighten the screws and cycle through all the gears a few times verifying the appropriate gear lights illuminate. Finally, wiggle the gear shift lever front to back within the D5 detent to make sure the D5 light stays on, if not adjust the range switch another degree or two until everything checks out...................... Done!
Here's a vid of what it looks like. Fast forward to the 4 minute mark
Hi Iggy thanks kindly for replying to this inquiry. I did the initial test as indicated but it did not even light up at all. If it is an actual bulb is it one of those tiny 74 bulbs in the ash tray and it's only accessible by removing the white plastic back cover of the instrumentation cluster? I only know how the cluster appears with its back cover attached. There is a bulb with a red socket but I believe it only illuminates the square for the sport shift indicator.
Try turning on the he ignition while watching the D5 light. It should come on for a couple seconds then extinguish. That is a quick and dirty way to see if the bulb is working.
FWIW: ( " If it is an actual bulb is it one of those tiny 74 bulbs in the ash tray and it's only accessible by removing the white plastic back cover of the instrumentation cluster? ") It is an actual bulb, very similar to the rest of the bulbs in the cluster. Unfortunately, the gear indicator bulbs Cannot be accessed by simply removing the white plastic back cover, as these bulbs are sandwiched in separate wells, in between the green circuit board and the front portion of the cluster. In order to access the gear indicator bulbs, it's necessary to remove the entire circuit board, which includes removing the needles and gauge faces, as well. Be very careful with the needles! In my experience, those bulbs don't routinely fail. Like Iggy says, rule out the range selector as the cause. It's no easy task to reassemble the cluster properly!
FWIW: ( " If it is an actual bulb is it one of those tiny 74 bulbs in the ash tray and it's only accessible by removing the white plastic back cover of the instrumentation cluster? ") It is an actual bulb, very similar to the rest of the bulbs in the cluster. Unfortunately, the gear indicator bulbs Cannot be accessed by simply removing the white plastic back cover, as these bulbs are sandwiched in separate wells, in between the green circuit board and the front portion of the cluster. In order to access the gear indicator bulbs, it's necessary to remove the entire circuit board, which includes removing the needles and gauge faces, as well. Be very careful with the needles! In my experience, those bulbs don't routinely fail. Like Iggy says, rule out the range selector as the cause. It's no easy task to reassemble the cluster properly!
I was under the impression that the 3 gauge units pop out of the circuit board pretty easily without needle or face removal.
Your Correct Iggy. When I did my D5 Lamp, I didn't have the benefit of your great video, and accidentally dislodged the speedometer needle, in the process. Dislodging the needle resulted in the speedometer needle sticking at around 50-60 mph. Tried several times to re-insert the needle correctly, but could not do it. Finally ended up replacing the cluster. The circuit board does have to be removed to replace the Shift Indicator bulbs. When I posted that (" the indicator bulbs are similar to the other cluster bulbs "), I was going from memory. Last night, I pulled out the original cluster, and looked at the bulbs. The shift indicator bulbs are actually smaller: my 03 TLS D5 Shift indicator lamp
and attach differently then the (twist in) type cluster bulbs. The shift indicator bulbs have two holes in the plastic base which attach to two metal power pins mounted on the circuit board. Thanks for posting the most helpful video.
Thanks for replying Frank! So I just moved a bulb from D1 and it works fine now. There was a 9th bulb used for providing white light in the D1 D2 area of the tach and moved that to D1 figuring it’s not a big deal to go without illumination in that area until the next salvage yard trip to get other stuff. Removing the needles and gauges individually wasn’t necessary. There are some other good quality videos on YouTube that shows this type of bulb being changed by using search terms D4 light. I just removed the back cover with the circuit board attached after separating it from the gauge section of the assembly. I didn’t want to risk breaking something with the group of 5 thin wires on the back cover by trying to unplug them so they remained attached to the circuit board.
