Hi,
The lights that illuminate which gear my 1996 Ford Escort is in (e.g., P, R, N, D, etc.) recently burnt out. Is it relatively easy to disassemble the plastic console around the gear shift indicator to replace the burnt-out lights? Has anyone ever done this? If so, could you please provide instructions or any useful tips?
Thanks.
If it's the same as my '98 then yes it is very easy - you remove the shifter knob, remove the center piece between the seats, undo a couple of screws and you're there. The tricky part is finding the bulb. There are two bulbs listed as "instrument cluster" for '98 Escort and both of them run MUCH too hot for this application; they will melt the plastic indicator strip. I put a resistor inline with the socket to work around the problem.
Well, I finally got some free time this past weekend, and took care of this. It was fairly straightforward, actually. Your instructions were spot-on. You were also right about the bulbs running too hot; when we took apart the gearshifter, we noticed that the old bulb had run so hot it burnt a huge hole in itself and actually melted the plastic piece right above it. We put in the replacement bulb, and so that will have to do.
Thanks again for the tips!
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