Please Help: Gear Indicator Lights on Dash Not Working

T

Tacomagirl2000

Member
We recently bought a 2000 Tacoma base 2.4L 2wd and the gear indicator lights on the dashboard do not light up. All other dashlights appear to be working. We took apart the dash to get to the bulbs. There are six bulbs that appear to be intact. Now I'm wondering about this because none of these light up so what are the odds of it being a bulb out, or all six bulbs burned out? Then, I thought about an inline fuse but since all the other dash lights are working EXCEPT the gear indicator lights, I ruled that out. I am stumped. She is 17 and I'm worried about her driving it in the wrong gear.......thank you, Maureen
 
Could be a common ground shared between the lights.

Have you checked the wiring near the switch. Prolly on or near the tranny.

FWIW, the indicator at the shift lever is pretty clear as to which gear is selected.

Suggest spending a few minutes with your daughter to teach some basics about cars. Such as How to check/add oil, check/add tire pressure, change a flat, change windshield wipers, fill the windshield wiper fluid...... the basics. I did this with both of our girls. The exercise was despised at the time, but the knowledge did save them both a couple times.
 
tacojoel said:
Pretty common for a bulb to crap out, or even the gear shift switch.
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Thank you! Where would we find the gear switch shift? If it doesn’t turn out to be the bulbs? We are going to replace the bulbs anyways once we figure out the exact bulbs that it uses.
Rock62 said:
Could be a common ground shared between the lights.

Have you checked the wiring near the switch. Prolly on or near the tranny.

FWIW, the indicator at the shift lever is pretty clear as to which gear is selected.

Suggest spending a few minutes with your daughter to teach some basics about cars. Such as How to check/add oil, check/add tire pressure, change a flat, change windshield wipers, fill the windshield wiper fluid...... the basics. I did this with both of our girls. The exercise was despised at the time, but the knowledge did save them both a couple times.
Click to expand...
I agree about teaching my girl and she has helped every step of the process. I am mom and trying to track down the right bulbs for her and my husband. She actually helped with the fuel pump installation.

There are no lights on at all on the dashboard to show what gear the truck is in. My husband felt like he could easily teach her to count but my worry and a very crowded high school parking lot is if she puts it in reverse but she is actually in drive and hit someone or vice versa. Or, drives in the wrong gear….am I wrong and my husband correct that it’s easy to figure out with no light to indicate which gear it is in?
 

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JayQQ97 said:
What if it's in D when you really need R
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My concern is that she is 17 years old and if there is no light showing her what gear she is in, she might indeed go in reverse and back into someone in a very crowded high school parking lot or vice versa. We did get the panel to the dash completely open and pull out the bulbs. I can see that it says. Toshiba v-2 but no auto parts store has in stock replacements and neither did local auto parts stores. I might just be a worried mom, but I really want her to see what gear she is in before something potentially bad happens.
 
As far as reverse, always keep your foot on the brake till you know which direction the vehicle will go.
 
tacojoel said:
As far as reverse, always keep your foot on the brake till you know which direction the vehicle will go.
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Okay, so maybe my daughter and husband are right that I am paranoid and that she isn't an "idiot". They feel like I'm making too much of getting the lights turned on. I don't want her burning out any gears though but she had an answer for that as well..... Thanks for your reply!
 
Keep in mind. All automatics have the same gear arrangement. PRND

From a parked car...Count 1, 2. will be reverse. Count 1,2 again for drive. Look at the console next to the shift lever. It will have the PRND marking next to the shifter position.
 
Should be pretty simple without the lights. Us MANual folks do not have lights or anything to tell us what gear we are in.

P
R
N
D

Something like that?
 
Don't complicate things. The 17 yo driver just needs to find PR and D.

The gremlin in the trans will handle all the shifting below D.
 
24-7 said:
Should be pretty simple without the lights. Us MANual folks do not have lights or anything to tell us what gear we are in.

P
R
N
D

Something like that?
Click to expand...
I wish I had lights on that knob at night or early in the morning
 
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