Instrument Cluster Electrical Issues

[BeefMan]

Wondering if anyone else has run into this. So, for some time now, the odometer display has been blinking off and on. Before it was very random in that it only happened every so often, and the speed at which it blinked off and on was random. Now it does it all the time and it is almost always switching off and on very quickly.

And, in the last couple of weeks, the tach and speedometer have joined in on the fun. Every so often they will start jumping up and down. Interestingly, they will not jump above the actual speed or rpm's of the car - they just dip and go back, dip and go back up.

All of these symptoms kind of say loose wiring connection to me, but not really sure. Was going to try and pull the whole cluster assembly from the dash tomorrow (if it is one assembly and that's possible).

Any tips or thoughts are appreciated.

 

[just1me]

Could be a loose or dirty connection, or a loose or dirty ground. My tach had worked only intermittently, and other times not at all, pulled the cluster, fixed a ground and it's worked great ever since.

 

[BeefMan]

Thanks! Didn't get a chance to look at it till today, but got it solved.

 

[tomclair178]

What Did you do?

The instrument cluster on my 2005 Adrenalin is doing the same thing. It started with the gas gauge networking, went to the blinking Odometer, then the speedometer and tach. Now, the power is starting to go out on a regular basis. The car will still run, but the power to windows, radio and cluster, all go out. Is that all connected? I pulled the cluster out and discovered a couple of pieces of Duct tape on the back, so it has been tampered with. The dealership told me that my cluster was going and wanted $1200 to fix/replace. F??? that. I found one on E-bay for $190 and put it in myself, but just wondered what you did to fix your original one. I took mine out, cleaned and re-set the plug ins and it worked for about 2 days. Now back to what it was.
Ford tells me that the cluster has to be calibrated to my specific truck before it will RUN. Not true. I put the new one in and all good. Just need to put the old one back in before I sell it. Right? Love to hear some thoughts.