I've been trying to restore illumination to my fuel and temperature gages on my 2008 Ford Ranger. I've removed the instrument panel as per instructions in another blog in this forum. I've replaced all (10) light bulbs in the circuit board, but the same two bulbs will not illuminate. Could the circuit board be bad and should I replace it, or what else should I do?!!

 

Make sure the contacts are touching on those two sockets. Get a volt meter to see where the power is or isn't.

 

I've dismantled the instrument panel on my '08 ranger p/u 3 times. The 1st time was because 2 mini bulbs were not illuminating. I replaced all 10 bulbs, 1 of the bulbs still did not come on and 2 other bulbs did not come on. I dismantled it again and carefully scraped the built up corrosion on each of the rings in the bulb inlet on the circuit board. I rolled up a piece of semi fine water sandpaper and sanded the inner edge of each ring. The bottom part of the ring is difficult to access so I fashioned a piece of wire about 2 inches in length similar to bailing wire, flattened and sharpened one end then bent it so I could reach the underside to scrape the ring in the circuit board. I also inspected the copper contact points of the bulb adapter for corrosion and bent down the ones that appeared to be too high to contact the ring in the bulb socket. I put the instrument panel back in the dash just enough to reconnect the 2 multi wire plugs. Couple of bulbs still did not come on as well as one of the turn signal indicator. I exchanged the bulb and adapter for the turn signal indicator with one of the other in the circuit board. The signal indicator light works fine now, but I still have a couple of bulbs that do not come on. So now, I'm right back to square one!! Not really, 'cause now my speedometer doesn't work. Maybe I'll go back into it this evening or tomorrow!!

 

I'm sorry that you are still having problems with the dash lighting. I have a 02' Ranger XLT 4X4 4.0 and also have the very same lamps not opp. I'm a 67 year old retired electrician and been turning wrenches of some sort all my life. Fun in the 60's with so much room in engine compartment compared today. Well I've found a fast and cheap way to fix my dash lights. Walmart has a $1.00 flash light that has a small loop cord that I use to hang on my auto trans shifter and away we go...!

 

This post was from 2015