Replace speedometer light (Page 1/1)
John W. Tilford AUG 29, 08:23 AM
1988 GT, 3.4L, 4T60

This morning half of my speedometer was lit: 55 - 120. Zero to about 50, not so much.
I can't find anything in the archives about how to replace the (36 year old) little light bulbs behind the tach, speedo, etc panel. I've had the cover off a couple of decades ago to do the classic 1988 wiring change but that's as deep as I ever got.
Is there away to refine my search words? I used: dash, speedo, speedometer, lights, bulbs, replace, replacement.
Surely there's no single fuse for a fraction of the dash lights . . .


I suppose I could just accelerate as fast as possible at night to get the needle out of the 0 - 50 Danger Zone . . .

As always, thank you for your help.

John T

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John W. Tilford

armos AUG 29, 10:06 AM
You just need to remove the panel on the back of the instrument cluster (what you see when you look down through the windshield). It's a few screws, probably 7mm. There's some old foam in there that keeps it from rattling, try to keep that. I don't remember if it interlocks with the kick panel underneath the column - I seem to remember always taking that out too.

The bulbs are a small twist to loosen or lock them back in. People sometimes install LEDs. LEDs can go brighter than the incandescents but they can also be flaky and usually only work in one direction, so if you use those test them before you put it back together.

[This message has been edited by armos (edited 08-29-2024).]

1985 Fiero GT AUG 29, 10:07 AM
It's really easy, the 5 torx on the top and back of the back cover, 2 7mm bolts on the bottom sides, pull the cover off, every bulb (194 sized) is in a grey twist socket, you reach over and twist counter clockwise (when looking at it, clockwise from seat when not looking), it'll twist a little (maybe 1/3 turn) then pop right out, you grab the glass bulb and pull it straight out of the plastic socket, replace, and reinstall, if one died, you should replace all of them (6 gauge bulbs, 10 idiot light bulbs), there are 2 bulbs for the speedo, 2 bulbs for the tach (first bulb on either side of the center of each gauge) and then the 2 for the center gauges are the 2nd from top, closer to the center (I think, going off memory), the 10 others are roughly in a line straight up and down following the indicator lights.
Vintage-Nut AUG 29, 10:30 AM
And the correct incandescent mini light bulb is 194 {I use "Long Life" bulbs}

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Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT
Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles

John W. Tilford AUG 29, 02:15 PM
Wow! Thank you all for the prompt responses!

As punishment for your helping, here's a short comparison: how to kill the "tire[s] low air pressure" light on my 2009 Ford Ranger XLT dash. As you probably knew already, around 2008 or so DOT mandated tire air pressure warning on dash. Obviously the keen little air pressure sensors in each wheel run on batteries with limited lifespans. Long dead in my 2009 Ranger. Each is medium expensive to buy, more $ to install. My favorite tire store estimated a few hundred $. For years I used the standard black electrical tape on the clear plastic layer over the light. I actually use tire pressure gauges. The tape helped, but the perpetual orange light still was irritating. So, finally not able to tolerate the light any longer, I asked Mr. YouTube how to get to the bulb:

Take out radio (surround plastic first, then disconnect and remove the radio) to make space.
Take off plastic cosmetic panel below the left side of dash. Requires disconnecting from the hood release handle/cable.
Remove steel panel which was hidden by the plastic cosmetic panel.
Lower steering wheel angle. Shift to "L". This is when I thought to disconnect battery.
Take out cosmetic plastic surrounding gauges. This surround has a split seam under the steering column. Work it out carefully.
Aha! Now partially remove gauges unit. In my case I didn't really have to disconnect but did so anyway. There was enough slack. Reconnected when putting back together.
With the gauges unit at least partially removed you can access the gauges unit good enough to open the plastic clips between the clear plastic front and the black plastic rear. You discover the sandwich of black, white, and clear.
At this point I could see that further splitting the white bulb holder level, which had its own smaller white cover over the bulbs, would be a real pain. I decided since I could get to the front of the white gauges level (between the black and clear levels which were separated) now I could carefully lift the thin black plastic material (sheet plastic with the numbers on it, thin enough for the bulb light to shine through), identify which tapered hole area in the white front matched the tire pressure bulb, and jam little pieces of the black electrical tape in the hole! Filled that sucker! Who cares if the tape gets hot and sticky? Who's ever going to see it again?
Reverse the process to close. Have two little screws left over. Don't tell anyone.

Blessed lack of low tire pressure warning! Well worth the fun afternoon. Well, there was that refastening the hood release lever and cable while laying on my back with head under the dash . . .
Patrick AUG 29, 04:43 PM

quote
Originally posted by John W. Tilford:

This morning half of my speedometer was lit: 55 - 120. Zero to about 50, not so much.

I suppose I could just accelerate as fast as possible at night to get the needle out of the 0 - 50 Danger Zone . . .



Just keep the pedal to the metal.

As has been mentioned, it's a very simple task to access those bulbs.

I made the mistake of replacing all the instrument cluster bulbs in my Subie to LED bulbs when I had the dash all apart on it a couple of years ago. Looked great... until it didn't. Slowly but surely, over the last few months, almost every LED bulb has stopped working. It's a much bigger job replacing the instrument cluster bulbs in my Subie as opposed to a Fiero. I'm not pleased. It's back to using incandescent bulbs for me next time.