how's the cooing system? particularly the water pump and fan clutch? thats the only other thing i can think of. you could buy a new shifting kit to fix that looseness...
otherwise i'd just check the integrity of all your hoses, vaccum and cooling. check your brake lines next time you change your pads if they're OE.
i've ordered an entire new set of all the bulbs for my instrument cluster from BMA, going to put them in in the next few weeks. it cost all of maybe 25$ for the 30ish bulbs required to light everything.
If you're doing the inspection 1 and 2 theres probably literally nothing else you could possible check for until i breaks