Please read!!! Power Issues - Dash lights

[biggermike]

Hi there. The other day i was driving to work and my entire instrument panel blacked out for roughly two seconds, and rebooted - burying the tach/speedo etc before finding the correct speed and revs. Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but it was minus 28C at the time.
The next day, (not too cold...maybe minus 14C) - everything worked fine.
Today (minus 35C), my abs and slip would kick on and off, instrument panel would go off and on, and i could hear little clicks (relays?) in the dash area.
I tested my battery, 12.5, and 14.57 while running. Aside from bending over and prelubing myself prior going to the mechanic for them to run their tests... does anyone have any other suggestions or ideas as to what it could be? The thing starts fine...runs fine...(loses a bit of power when the dash lights go out, but has never failed). Im out of ideas... I cannot replicate the issue... just happens when it wants to. It seems to be getting worse/more frequent, but i cant drive and hold a multimeter to the battery terminals to see if it is infact a voltage drop, or if its isolated to the inside of the car. Hopefully someone can help me out.

 

[07LTDDSM]

Might be a dumb idea but could you run some wires to the battery and have the multimeter in your ST while driving?

Have you tried running the built in system check?
Have you tried to pull any trouble codes with a scanner?
Have you tried running the Engineering Test Mode? (click here)

I'd try anything before getting bent over by a mechanic while he looks for an intermitant electrical problem.

 

[06bluez]

I had some strange things happening to my cluster, and I followed this TSB and haven't seen any problems since...

http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/DownloadPdf?id=171560

 

[eppd00]

I had an issue with my 08 STA when it was new. The the speedo and tach would fluctuate, all of the warning lights would come on, and only had 3rd gear(kind of like it was being affected by a UFO). I would turn off the ignition and everything would reset.Ford finally found a connector under the right side of the console, where a small plastic tit broke off in a connector,causing it not to lock together . It was causing a spike through the entire electrical system intermittently.
I would suggest checking some of the connectors if it appears to be extreme cold related contraction.