How do you replace dashboard lamps on a 1997 Mercury Villager?

Answer 1

Remove the two screws in the top of the bezel plate in front of the speedometer housing. There are two snap in grommets at the bottom of the same bezel. These pull out kind of hard but by pulling straight out one side and then the other side worked well for me. You'll need to unplug the headlight & cruise control switches on the left side and may have to unplug the rear wiper, rear heater, and flasher switches on the right side but I didn't have too as my wires were long enough to place the bezel over to the side hanging on the right side wires mentioned. You'll have to drop the steering column to its lowest point and you'll have to pull the transmission selector down into 1st geat to get everything below the bezel to remove. There are four screws that hold the soeedometer housing in place and need to be removed after getting the bezel out of the way. Slowly pull the speedometer housing outward and rotate the housing from the left side so you can access the back side of the housing. The bulbs are in 1/4 turn black sockets at various locations on the backside circuit board. Twist CCW to remove and CW to put back in after the bulb has been changed. Replace one at a time unless you know exactly which ones have been removed as there are several style speedometer layouts on the Villager's. I used instrument lamp #168 but I believe a #161 and a #194 bulb will work also. Reverse the steps to re-install everything. Make sure to plug back in a the switches you unplugged and check to make sure the right side switches are tight even if you didn't unplug them. Should be about a 1/2 hour job start to finish if you have the bulbs.