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Dead instrument clusters

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GregH

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Now that we've had a cold snap here (low last night was 31F!), we are starting to see our yearly ration of instrument clusters that dont' operate. But a few new ones have cropped up as well...

 

Usually, the complaint is a dead cluster, engine operates properly. No power windows and no radio... Affects most car lines made in the last 4 or so years. No communication through the DLC, and U- codes in other modules. Disconnect the battery for a moment, reconnect, and everyone is happy again. Happens most of the time with a borderline battery.

 

But we've had two explorers - one an '05 and one an '04, that came in with the part number showing up on the message center! The cluster was in engineering mode, and both drivers claim they simply started the vehicle normally... Both of these vehicle's batteries were borderline, so we sold them that as a starting point. So far, the problem has not happened again.

 

Anyone else seeing modules freak out when subjected to low voltage, and a return to normal operation when cycling the power?

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IH's clusters also seem to be fussier about batteries and voltages than their ECMs and other modules. I can remember several similar situations at my shop where new batteries and CLEAN POWER repaired a freaked out dash.

 

 

 

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We get clusters going goofy if you drive them in from outside and the humidity in the shop condenses inside clusters, radios, etc. Once they dry out they seem ok. It has been -30 here last week, so the condensation can be quite bad when you bring them in from the cold. Late model Explorers seem to be bad lately. They usually don't seem to mind low voltages, starting unplugged at -30 will cause quite a voltage drop, but they still go.

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I hadn't thought about condensation before... I would have figured the gel coat on the boards would limit it's influence.

 

Yesterday the sales department came to us needing help with a brand new Focus. 12 miles on the odometer, and it was a no crank/theft lamp flashing. No communication with the PCM. I remembered reading about the Escapes having a key-off timer that would max out it's count after about 50 days and lock up the computer. But OASIS didn't show the message on this vehicle. I tried the fix anyway - disconnect the battery for a short time and reconnect. Fixed...

 

Some engineer didn't quite think that one through all the way... Wonder how long until it is address in a reflash?

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I have seen my share of bad clusters in Super Duty's over the last few years and as I recall most of them are 2005 model year vehicles. Almost ALL if not ALL had a failure with the accessory delay relay which as we know is integrated into the HEC. This results in the cluster not working, radio and power windows as mentioned.

 

Have you tried to get a replacement lately? The last two I needed took MONTHS to get!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Really, we just got one a few weeks ago in 4 days, which is crazy fast for us. (At one time we were waiting 5 months for one. Guy brought his truck in to finally get it changed and it had 16000km more than what the replacemnt was ordered with.)

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Perhaps Ford rebuilt their stock on these? It was Summer that last time I needed one so anything is possible. The problems that they were short on cores. We offered to send the one we had in to be "repaired" and they wouldn't do it.

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