I bought my 2000 focus about 1 month ago. at first the dash indicators would ocassionally fail. the problem gradually got worse. now my indicators rarely work and there is ocassionally a "boing" sound when they go out. the dealer dosen?t know of any pre existing conditions to cause this malfunction.
I'm not sure what you mean by "dash indicators". Do you mean the turn signal indicators, the warning lights, the gauges, or all of them? Does anything else happen i.e. the engine run rough, radio stop etc. Does it happen right away when you start or after you've been running a while? Does vibration make it worse? Does it happen without starting the engine? Have you checked for a loose fuse? How old is your battery? Have you had the codes checked? Can you make it happen (or stop) by tapping on the cluster cover? Has anyone pulled the instrument cluster to check for a bad electrical connection?
This is another problem that is impossible for anyone on a newsgroup to remotely diagnose something like this.
I'm not sure what you mean by "dash indicators". Do you mean the turn signal indicators, the warning lights, the gauges, or all of them? Does anything else happen i.e. the engine run rough, radio stop etc. Does it happen right away when you start or after you've been running a while? Does vibration make it worse? Does it happen without starting the engine? Have you checked for a loose fuse? How old is your battery? Have you had the codes checked? Can you make it happen (or stop) by tapping on the cluster cover? Has anyone pulled the instrument cluster to check for a bad electrical connection?
my entire instrument cluster fails. the gauge lights do not go out. my headlights dim when this happens and there is occassionally either a popping noise from my speakers or a "ding" noise from my dash. the car does not run rough and seems to be unaffected other than the headlights dimming and instrument cluster failing.
"red" wrote
Sounds like a failing battery or alternator. This can be diagnosed at a decent repair shop.
Maybe, but without more information it's premature to make that statement. In fact his reply did give at least a clue.
l have 2001 Focus that sometimes dash went crazy, lights dimed/blinked, radio went out,auto trans jumped out of gear etc. After taking to 4 dealers and spending a lot of money l purchased a service manual and fixed it myself. All the time everything was failing the engine kept running, because the key switch ground wire was attached to the battery ground post with a separate screw.l finally came to the conclusion that the problem was the primary source of power because there was no other way you could have so many circuts fail at the same time. That means the battery ground cable was failing. When l discovered the key did not work when the 2 wires were disconnected from the battery ground post l was sure the ground cable under the air cleaner was the source of the problem so l ran a jumper wire from the screw to a body bolt. The problem went away so a week later l pulled off the air cleaner section over the ground bolt to find it in very dirty condition. the location of this end of the connection is convex which allows moisture in etc. l moved the cable to the side of the fender just ahead fo the suport bracket between the air cleaner and the battery, after removing the paint and cleaning the cable end. Problem solved.
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