About a month ago I lost the IP lamp behind the temperature gauge on my 2001 Taurus SE (second lamp from the left, gauge package w/tach on right). The other night I lost the lamp behind the fuel gauge; the entire left side of the IP is now dark. How does one replace the IP lamps, or is this something better left to a mech? I saw a link someone had posted from another thread where the incandescents were swapped out for LEDs on some older model vehicle (from the looks of the dash panel), which might be a great idea for the sake of life expectancy (assuming one could just swap LEDs for incandescents; I don't know from context), but is the hassle of just getting to the lamps worth it for the average driver, or should I just call the garage? TIA.

You can do it yourself. May take a couple of hours if you have not done one before. Just look as you remove parts to be sure you have all the things removed you will need to access the rear of the cluster. Be extremely careful of the shift indicator.

Can you point me to a reliable source for the procedure, esp. w/diagrams and/or illustrations? TIA