[August]

Hello Fellow Ford Fanatics

I have an 04 ZX5, 2.3L Duratech, manual tran Focus. I bought the car in 09 and the engine light has glowed ever since I got the car, but it ran great. Yesterday, my instrument cluster went crazy, saying my door was open, then my gas cap was open, etc. Found in the forum a great fix for that

Check this out if your having instrument cluster issues.
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=188957

I did all the cleaning recommended in that article. Seemed to have stopped the lights going crazy problem, but my engine light is still on. Tried to read it using an OBDII scanner, no codes.

Anyone have any ideas on how to track this down? I have an electrical enginnering background (not currently) and am not afraid to dig into a circuit board. Are there some test points I can check?

Thanks for any help you can give to me... [thumb]

 

[drunkyoda]

unplug your battery for 10 minutes. then see if it comes back on.

 

[August]

I have tried that, it keeps coming back, right now its pretty bright, in the past it was dimmer.

 

[Grinder]

You probably need a new cluster. There where issues with similar model years getting some sort of mold growth in the cluster. Ford suspected it was a clean room issue with their cluster supplier but I don't think they where able to put a finger on what units where affected. If you can't find any obvious wiring issues I'd suspect you got a moldy cluster.

 

[August]

Well, I went through and cleaned the pc board with electronic degreaser and some rubbing alchol, that should have taken care of the mold thing, so I'd like to track down what is causing this, its been like that for years now. The car was down for about 3 months when I did an engine swap and the light came back on when I was done, and still no code to read.

 

[sailor]

Just so you know you aren't alone, Mine had a random brake warning light with no cause - replacement cluster (one with a tach.) solved it....

Luck!

 

[August]

OK, an update in case other people are having this problem. The cleaning of the board totally made an improvment on the cluster, my gas cap light, seat belt lights stopped coming on intermittenly. So I was left with a bogus engine light on.

I am not totally sure, but I did discover a burnt bulb on my instrument cluster, they plug in from the back, kind of like a Christmas tree light. I messed with the burnt bulb a little and tried it again, and it did not come on, BUT.... my bogus engine light was now off. I ordered the bulb from the Dealer ($8) and my dash seems to be working awesome now.

One other lesson learned when putting the needles back on the speedo/rpm/gas/temp gauges. I did the trick where you drive and put them on while reading the Odometer in test mode, so I could get RPM's and MPH's. The trick was to be going as fast as you safely can. I got on the freeway and set the cruise at 70 MPH and put the needle on. After checking it for a few miles, it was dead on. When I tried to put the needles on going slower speeds, it had more of an error on the dial, meaning it was not on.

Good luck for future people having these issues...