02 Ford Explorer gauges not working

[Dhensley]

the gauges on my 02 Ford Explorer quit working yesterday. The radios and windows still work. It was raining yesterday and everything in the instrument cluster just stopped working all of the sudden and has not came back on. Would it be a loose connection or is the gauge bad? Thanks in advance!

 

[mbrando1994]

Since it seems to have responded to rain it leads me to believe it's more of a wiring/grounding issue over the cluster failing. Do you still have your odometer readout or no?

 

[Dhensley]

No I don’t have the odometer. If I don’t put on the seat belt the warning light for that comes on and dings at me also.

 

[mbrando1994]

Best thing to do would be to wait for heavy rain, pop the hood and also possibly pull the cluster and look for signs or evidence of rainwater getting in somewhere. Normally these have issues with the driver side boot wires, but none of the cluster wires are in there, I will dig around and see if I can find you a wiring diagram for that circuit

 

[mbrando1994]

What is the probability in your mind that it was caused by the rain?

 

[Dhensley]

This time it went out and hasn’t came back on. It has happened 2 other times both during rain events but was only off for a few minutes then came back on!

 

[mbrando1994]

Ok so it definitely sounds like a short issue caused by water, so really it's just about finding out where the water is getting in and stopping it, and also repairing the wiring in the affected area if it was fried

 

[Dhensley]

Ok well I will start looking for where water could be coming in and go from there thank you

 

[Dhensley]

I haven’t seen any where water has been getting in but the gas gauge comes up half way even though it is full of gas and the oil pressure comes up some. The temp gauge will come up a hair also but the tach or speedometer doesn’t come up at all. The mileage is digital and doesn’t show at all.