Fault which cropped up a month or so back on my van.

Indicators work as expected, all of them (the on part of the flash is slightly longer when the hazards are on than the normal indicators - is that normal?), however the indicator...well...indicator in the instrument binnacle is as dead as a dodo.  Same whether using the indicators of the hazards, though the flasher in the hazard switch works as expected.

All other warning lights, panel illumination and the fuel gauge work normally.  I'm currently pointing an accusing finger at the flexible PCB behind the binnacle.  Before I go and start dismantling the instrument panel though, especially given how brittle the plastic seems to be, are there any other likely culprits I should investigate?

Not too worried about repairing the PCB if I have to (I restore old TVs and radios, so am no stranger to a soldering iron and dodgy PCBs), just figured I'd ask here first.

Possible I guess...LEDs are generally pretty reliable bits of kit though!  I'll have to take the binnacle apart to check the flexible PCB anyway, so will check that at the same time.  Reliable or not, I guess they are 31 years old now!  

I figure the problem is most likely within the instrument panel, just thought I'd check if there was any common culprit that anyone else was aware of before I started taking things apart.

Have a pile of LEDs rattling around in a box here, so sourcing a replacement shouldn't be a problem if it does turn out to be faulty.

Just to close this off, I eventually got around to investigating this.

Turns out the LED was indeed the culprit, showing as completely open circuit on my diode tester.  New LED in and it's working perfectly again.

Though it does mean that my indicator LED is ten times brighter than the other three, even though I picked the most innocuous and normal one I could find!

Main beam in my van is an LED.  Think they switched over to incandescent lamps for that after a few years, probably because the red LED for main beam confused people who expected it to be blue.

Excuse the filthy dashboard there - this was one of the photos from before I picked the van up, so it hadn't been cleaned yet!

The very first blue LEDs appeared around 1990 if I remember correctly based on a silicon carbide chemistry.  Being both very dim and very expensive they failed to capture anyones imagination and promptly disappeared into obscurity.  These were generally quite a pale blue colour based on the examples I've seen.  It wasn't until the late 1990s when blue LEDs based on the indium gallium nitride chemistry we're using today that the eye-catching deep blue colour quite unlike any other artificial light source we're used to today appeared.  Between the colour and luminous intensity which can burn holes in your retinas from two hundred paces, these spread like wildfire and now no piece of tech is complete without a blue LED in it.  Even our kettle has one...