RE: Help w/autocheck display on '91 200Q, and thanks.

["James A. Desveaux" <desveaux@ucla.edu>]

First, thanks to Jan Skrzypek, Bob Myers, and Michael Murphy for the free
advice on my autocheck display problem.  Turns out it was, indeed, a burnt
out bulb.  In this case, it was the bulb with the yellow plastic cover.  I
had a similar bulb (correct socket) with a red plastic cover.  I carefully
removed the old yellow plastic and pulled it over the new bulb.
Incidentally, I got the instrument cluster out, quite easily, without
removing the steering wheel.  The trick is to rock the cluster away from the
dash, and pull the right side out a bit farther.  The hardest part of the
whole job was removing the brown plastic plug on the far left.  You have to
carefully pry out the black plastic 'keeper' which pops out but stays
attached.  Then the plug comes out easily.  THere's a similar setup on the
right side.  The cluster slid right out the right side.  I didn't have any
Stabilant 22 handy, but did have a can of DeOxit D5, which I've used to
clean audio circuitry.  Anyway, the whole job took an hour or less, and
everything seems to work.  I suppose 'seems' is the operative word here.  

Two final comments:

1. Once again, the knowledge and generosity of listers deserves
acknowledgement--again.

2. Despite the pain in the ass, little things about these cars that are
mostly annoyances, I'm impressed by the design, and the fact that, indeed,
these things are meant to be pulled apart and fixed.  Having done this
professionally earlier in my life makes a difference, but there are so many
counterexamples of cars not designed to accommodate error-correction, when
errors occur.  And they always do.

- Jim