digital mileage disappeared and came back on

You don't tell us the year , but the syptoms sound like it could be this cold solder fault.

As Samstone said - It's a classic boo-boo from that series... I have a '99 F-150 Lariat and have the same occasional problem...However, when I notice mine out, I give a slight (but sharp) rap with the finger-tips to the glass in front of the odometer a few times, and it comes back on. Mine I guess isn't as "loose" as others that flicker and such and it only goes out once in a blue moon so it hasn't bothered me enough to fix it.....yet. But if it's driving you nuts and flickering a lot, try the link he provided. Good stuff!

IYM

Like they said in the link its the cold solder joint. I just fixed mine last month after 2 yrs of dealing with it. Took about 45min from start to finish but its worth not smacking the dash everyday..Mine had 2 spots/joints the solder was cracked and was easy to just flow a little more on the joint and fix it.

If mine was going out every day, I'd fix it too....Mine started doing it about a year ago, and it's only gone out maybe 4-5 times tops. If it increases in frequency, you can bet I'll be fixing it too! :)

IYM

thanks for the link for the odometer repair, now what about the radio light ?

It actually was something I was going to get fixed under warranty but dealer wanted truck for 2 days to fix it. I piddled around too long and Ford extended warranty ran out by 1 month when I had time to do it. At least I know it fixed right now...Took truck in to same dealer for an axle problem that was diagnosed 2 times as right axle shaft bent and when I got it back they replaced the axle shaft on wrong side of truck. They lost my confidence after that one.

I fixed both the odometer blanking and the radio blanking on my 99 F150. I'm an electronics tech so I had no hesitations about getting into the guts of my radio. It turned out that a surface mount resistor in the radio had unsoldered itself due to lack of solder on the component to begin with coupled with the radio running a bit hot after I had it cranked for a few days (windows down and listening to the radio while I was out cutting wood). Anyway, that is what the fault was with my radio and I have heard a few others had basically the same fault. It might be the same with yours but if you are not experienced in this sort of repair I don't recommend doing it yourself since it could snowball into a larger problem.

Cheers, Lawrence