Bruce Crone
Member
I have a 2003 ST. Does anyone know if there's a video on how to replace all the dash cluster lights. Any help would be great.
Thanks
Thanks
Dash light replacement
- Thread starter Bruce Crone
- Start date
Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2009
- Messages
- 5,639
- Reaction score
- 516
- Location
- Kailua-Oahu, Hawaii
- What engine do you have?
- V6 engine
- What year is your Sport Trac?
- 2005
- What Generation is your Sport Trac?
- 1st Gen Owner
<--- Projects
Dean Hedin
Active Member
Make sure the LED lights you get have 10 separate LEDS. The ones with 5 LEDs may not work because they don't draw enough current and then the dash brightness circuit acts funny. Get ones like these:
Last edited by a moderator:
Igor Smetaniuk
Active Member
Wow swshawaii! That link sure makes it look simple. On my '01 I had to remove steering column covers, Shift lever component, dash trim screws and a few other odds and ends. Even then, it was difficult maneuvering the instrument cluster sideways so I could reach in to get at the bulbs. I can't remember if I had to pull my radio too or not. It was a bit of a project and took a while so plan on killing the good part of a morning or afternoon.
I'm not sure if a 2003 has LED's. It could become a nightmare to replace bulbs with LED's if not equipped with them. I've seen somewhere - someone describing that they had problems after installing them with other stuff going haywire and they had to solve it by using resistors. Cheap LED's can also haunt you because there are many different qualities as most are from China and they can be of poor quality. Another thing about LED's, they can have 'hot spots' depending on their design so the dash lighting may not be as great of a display as with original bulbs which spread light better. Be careful because LED's are polar specific when installed, meaning the '+' and '-' position in the circuit panel matters. When screwing one in it is best to turn cluster on to make sure it illuminates, otherwise, turn it around in the socket and try again.
Newer cars that are already equipped with LED's may have some type of semi-transparent plastic diffusers in front of the LED to spread the light to other areas of the particular cluster they want to illuminated.
If the 2003 has bulbs and you just want to replace with the same ones, make sure the package says Long Life or LL after the number.
I'm not sure if a 2003 has LED's. It could become a nightmare to replace bulbs with LED's if not equipped with them. I've seen somewhere - someone describing that they had problems after installing them with other stuff going haywire and they had to solve it by using resistors. Cheap LED's can also haunt you because there are many different qualities as most are from China and they can be of poor quality. Another thing about LED's, they can have 'hot spots' depending on their design so the dash lighting may not be as great of a display as with original bulbs which spread light better. Be careful because LED's are polar specific when installed, meaning the '+' and '-' position in the circuit panel matters. When screwing one in it is best to turn cluster on to make sure it illuminates, otherwise, turn it around in the socket and try again.
Newer cars that are already equipped with LED's may have some type of semi-transparent plastic diffusers in front of the LED to spread the light to other areas of the particular cluster they want to illuminated.
If the 2003 has bulbs and you just want to replace with the same ones, make sure the package says Long Life or LL after the number.
Dean Hedin
Active Member
Yeah, sorry. My previous post only applies if you intend to install LED replacements.
Which is wise because then you won't ever have to go back in there.
I'm the one who had the initial problems with the LEDs in the Gen 1 that toptobottom is referring to.
They work good now. Once I switched to the higher current LEDs. No issues with "hot spots". There is suitable dispersion in the cluster. I will say that they are much brighter than the original lamps. In fact i am going to update the lights in the heater control cluster next, so they all match.
I dealt with the polarity issue by dimming the lights in the garage while replacing each bulb. If I did not see each one light up then I swapped orientation.
Which is wise because then you won't ever have to go back in there.
I'm the one who had the initial problems with the LEDs in the Gen 1 that toptobottom is referring to.
They work good now. Once I switched to the higher current LEDs. No issues with "hot spots". There is suitable dispersion in the cluster. I will say that they are much brighter than the original lamps. In fact i am going to update the lights in the heater control cluster next, so they all match.
I dealt with the polarity issue by dimming the lights in the garage while replacing each bulb. If I did not see each one light up then I swapped orientation.
user 66791
Active Member
- Joined
- May 23, 2008
- Messages
- 375
- Reaction score
- 18
I easily replaced the stock OEM bulbs with LEDS in the dash. Pretty easy. Hard part was finding the right part that matched the OEM bulb base. Once I got that, it took all of half hour to screw in the new bulbs and put dash back together. The LEDS are brighter by far and so far last a lot longer.
