1996 Dashboard Lights

[es300ed]

About half are out. I guess 14 years is a long time for any bulb. Are they easy to replace? Any info or suggestions are welcome.

Ed

[cduluk]

They're easy to replace, but you'll need to get the bulbs from Lexus. The bulbs are a standard size (available at autozone, etc) but they each have a very thin rubber "blue tinted" cover over them to produce a whiter output. These rubber covers are impossible to remove in one piece to get onto a new bulb, so i recommend just getting them from the lexus parts department (they will come with the rubber covers already on). I believe there are 8 or so bulbs in the cluster.

[es300ed]

cduluk - thanks, it's good to know that it's not a dashboard replacement.

Here's what I found elsewhere about how to access the bulbs:

unhook neg batt. cable. remove two screws in top of plastic bezel. remove bezel. remove 4 screws holding cluster in place. lower steering wheel. slightly move cluster forward. undue 5 male connections on back. remove cluster. remove screws on plastic cover on back of cluster-put aside. remove 16 screws on circut board. lift up and out of the way slightly. unscrew 8 green-based bulbs. wiggle each bulb out of base and replace with eiko part # 74. reasmble. done- good job. take your time- everything went in before you bought the car so everything will come out. now, you got it out so it will go back in. if you find yourself pulling or twisting something or going to get a bigger tool STOP, have a cig and a beer and start again. oh and don't start the car while the dash is out or you will have an airbag light issue ( thus the unhooking the neg battery cable). you can also remove that pasky "check engine" and "abs" light during this proceedure- just id which bulbs they are and remove them (but i didn't tell you to do that)

Hope this helps somebody else too.

Ed