My D light was out and it always annoyed me as the PO had installed a shifter boot and momo shifter and deleted the shifter located indicator.

I am not posting the pod removal, etc... as there are many much better write ups about this process than i can do...

i desoldered the old burnt out light. i heated the through board connection from the bottom. I alternated heating and pulling one then the other... the light came right out.

I soldered in the new one. I figured it was so easy i would replace the others as well as a few were discolored.

 

just a heads up if it happens in the future...if they all go out it could be a bad circuit on the board. easy fix when it happens.

 

all the lights except the drive worked fine.. i just replaced the others because i was in there anyway. it was really easy and the bulbs were cheap.

 

here are a few pics of the instrument led.

 

The "D" on my 88 S4 is burned out as well...damn it! I am not going to play like I have any idea how to solder though and try it myself and my mechanic does not do that either unfortunately. I'll be sending it to you next time it needs to come out Steven! LOL!

 

Good work and a nice write-up! One thing I would suggest is that there are some easier lamps to use. Superbrightleds.com sell B8.5D LED's which are a direct replacement for the bulbs in our instrument clusters (and the bases are colored to match the lamp color- see below, although not marked for polarity). (And note later cars use B8.4D's if I am not mistaken.)

Also, below on the right you see a RadioShack lamp which is a direct replacement for the PRND32 bulbs. You bend the legs at a right angle to the case and they are the exact spacing and length for soldering to the circuit board. Also, and I am not sure if it is important but I think it might be, the case keeps this bulb from touching the board. Mine was quite discolored under the D lamp from the heat of the bulb, so I thought I would mention it.

 

thanks

 

james,
the soldering is super easy