Hi guys,

I have a '95 Galant S 2.4L SOHC with a 4 speed auto trans. I have been going through a long dragged out transmission rebuild. Anyways to the point there was a bad switch (the one on top of the transmission under the shift lever as I took it from my mechanic). That was just replaced because the old one kept putting bad codes through to the computer and then it would down shift randomly or upshift premeturely. But there is still I guess a problem with the D indicator light on the gauge cluster not being lite up. PRN2L all lite up but D doesn't. What my mechanic can't figure out is if it is a bulb or an LED set up in the gauge cluster. Reason being I guess if it is a bulb, being that it is burnt out it can still mess with the computer (correct me if I'm wrong)? But I think he said if it was LED it wasn't that big of a deal I guess?

Now the funny thing is when I was driving it earlier this year it all of a sudden quit working, I just thought it was a burnt bulb. But since the rebuild of my tranny he replaced the computer. He said the D light was on for some time then quit working again. What might be the problem yet?

Thank you!!

 

Does anyone think this is of any concern? Apperently the only way to find this out is to tear the whole dash apart and my mechanic didn't want to do that.

 

I may be wrong but this is a guess. Could it be fiber optics that light up that part of the dash?

 

LED's use in cars is a fairly recent, and I am not aware that they were used as indicator "lights" in 1994, maybe in the expensive cars they were used...I do not have one. Same goes for fiber optics.

I would bet that it is a lamp and logically, as the car is driven in "D" 99.99999999 percent of the time, it will burn out. If you have Mitsu manual, it will say what lamp used for what indicators.

I seriously doubt that the software for the transmission, will cause a problem if the indicator light is burned out. I do not know, but there must be a switch that controls the indicator lights, and maybe that switch is also an input to the transmission control module.

Seriously, you should try to get a factory Mitsu manual for your car, it is worth the money.

 

Maybe if I get some time one day maybe I will see for myself what the dash has (LED or bulb).

I would have automatically have thought it was a bulb, and it was burnt out but when my mechanic said right after replacing the computer the light was on but then it went off again.

But he just recently said that he thinks there may be a bad ground somewhere and that may be what is affecting the computer system.

I do have a owners manual for the car I think I did look through it but didn't find much of anything on whether it was a bulb or LED.

 

I should have been a little more specific about the manual. A factory service manual from Mitsubishi is what I wanted to say. The owners manual is basically worthless for working on the vehicle. The service manual is hundreds of pages, with almost everything you need to know to make mechanical repairs to the car. It will tell you how to get to the dash, without destroying it or the "hidden" things that need to be removed.

It will definitely indicate where the grounds are on the car and there are a lot of them, but I would guess that the ground for the "D" indicator is the same for the "P", "R", "N" "D" etc. I do not know the layout of your car, but if these indicators are in the dash, it could be the sockets that hold the lamp to the "circuit board" that is the problem.

 

Its not a LED.. its a little Bulb

 

Well today I took the dash apart. It was super easy by the way. 6 screws and that was it no wires or cables to disconnect. 6 screws and a little pull and that was it to get the gauge cluster out.

It is a bulb based system. I switched the L gear bulb with the D gear bulb put it back in the dash and D lite up but not L, so the bulb is just burnt out.

The gauge cluster basically just plugs into the dash with 3 plugs. I had this figured out in about 5-10 minutes that was it.

 

Well guess what I couldn't track down this bulb in any parts store. The only place I could get it was straight from the dealer.

Guess what that cost??????


about $8 + shipping ($7) otherwiseI would have to drive 2hrs to pick it up because that is the closest dealer to me.

The only other place I could maybe get one is from a junkyard but it seemed they would only sell the whole cluster for $50-100.

 

You had to go to the dealer for the bulb on a 95 car, seriously? What is the number of the bulb? Or you could have gone to the boneyard, or auto salvage or auto recycling yard (depending on what it is called in your region) and looked for a 95. Also, that is a good place where you can 'experiment" on taking your car apart, provided they have a '95 Galant.

BTY, if your mechanic "can't figure out if it is a bulb or LED" on a '95 Galant, I would seriously consider getting another mechanic. I pretty much figured this out using logic and I only work on my cars and I am not a mechanic.