Speedometer/tach/abs light radio

[45Frank]

I gave my 2000 explorer to my daughter and she let her stepdad drive it over Thanksgiving when she was on vacation.
HE CALLED her to whine about a problem.

It seems that the gauges went haywire and the radio lost it's pre-set stations.
Battery isn't old and even after the rebuilt tranny back in June we are still having a shifting problem on occasion between 2nd and third.
Any ideas!

 

[J_C]

Seems like the electrical system voltage dropped too low. That will cause all kinds of wacky gauges and error codes.

Measure battery with engine off, should be near 12.6V. Measure battery with engine on, should be near 14.4V.

If the battery is low with it off, you might try a charger and see if it gets up to 12.6V, and stays there once the charger is disconnected. If it drops down to ~10.5V right away, the battery probably has a bad cell in it.

If it doesn't get up to 14.4V running, your alternator is probably bad. A bad alternator will also kill a battery eventually but if this is the first time it was ran down low, it's probably fine so long as it doesn't sit discharged too long.

Do check that there's enough water in the battery if not a maintenance free type, and that the battery terminals are clean. Wouldn't hurt to check that the alternator cable connection is clean too. I'd take the cables off the battery anyway just to clear any erroneous codes that might've been set due to the voltage being too low.

 

[45Frank]

Battery, alternator, and connections all good.

 

[J_C]

Is it still doing this? If not you have an intermittent fault and may have a hard time finding the problem until it happens again and at that point can do the testing.

There's nothing else I can think of that would account for both the radio and the other items acting up, except maybe fuse #1 in the under-hood junction box (power to interior fuse panel) but if that blew you probably have a short circuit somewhere to cause it.