Advice Required PLEASE damaged dials cluster board!!!!

[Focus57]

Hi my fuel and temp gauge don't work and the cover glass has a crack in it.... Is it possible to just by a new unit and plug it in and it will work.... Massive thanks in advance.... Been quoted £60 to get it fixed and seen 2nd hand ones for like £20 cheers all

[TomsFocus]

No.  It's part of the immobiliser system, a replacement unit would need coding to your car.

[Focus57]

11 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

No.  It's part of the immobiliser system, a replacement unit would need coding to your car.

Hi Tom how's you pal hope your good.... Is it possible to get a new unit coded to the immobiliser then??? 

[TomsFocus]

7 minutes ago, Focus57 said:

Hi Tom how's you pal hope your good.... Is it possible to get a new unit coded to the immobiliser then??? 

Yeah, not bad thanks. The new unit would need to be coded in, but if you've got to pay someone else to do it then it works out cheaper to have the old one repaired.  The mileage is also stored on the clocks and can only be adjusted upwards to stop clocking, so you'd need to find clocks with a lower mileage than yours.  Also worth noting a used cluster might have the same issues as yours, where a repair usually comes with a warranty.

[Focus57]

8 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Yeah, not bad thanks. The new unit would need to be coded in, but if you've got to pay someone else to do it then it works out cheaper to have the old one repaired.  The mileage is also stored on the clocks and can only be adjusted upwards to stop clocking, so you'd need to find clocks with a lower mileage than yours.  Also worth noting a used cluster might have the same issues as yours, where a repair usually comes with a warranty.

Yeah OK tom cheers..... Is it an mot failure if some dials aren't working?? 

[TomsFocus]

11 minutes ago, Focus57 said:

Yeah OK tom cheers..... Is it an mot failure if some dials aren't working?? 

You need a speedo for MOT but the fuel and temp gauges aren't part of it afaik.  @iantt should be able to confirm that.

[Focus57]

OK Tom cheers.... Stay lucky mate

[LTIronWolf]

Hey David, saw your post about the cluster - I've had a few troubles with my own so I thought I'd chime in.

The gauges for fuel and temperature might just be stuck, so it might be worth to see if anything's blocking them or if anything has fallen in - especially with the crack that's now in the lens. There's a possibility that one of the dry solder joints on the main connector (a common problem with the clusters) is causing the gauges to not power up or receive a signal, so they're not displaying anything.

As for putting in a new cluster, it's definitely doable and it's something you can do yourself - no need to pay someone to do it for you. All you need to do it is:

• The new Instrument cluster
• A laptop with a USB port
• The latest version of FORScan installed with an extended license (both are free)
• A modified ELM327 cable that has an HS-CAN (high speed) and MS-CAN (low/medium speed) switch to toggle between the two
• Two keys

There are instructions on how to do this which I could link to you if you'd like - let me know if you choose to go ahead with doing it yourself. One thing to keep in mind though - when you're shopping for a new cluster, pick one that has the same or lower mileage than your current cluster. This is because you can increase your mileage to correct it, but you can't decrease it lower than what it already is.

Also, make sure that the cluster that you plan to buy is the same as your current one - make sure it has the same rev range (if you have a petrol, both clusters should go to 8k, if it's diesel both should go to 6k), and check that the main speedometer is in mph, instead of kph. You can use both the pre-facelift and the facelift clusters, however, it's a bit more complex to program the facelift cluster.