electrics/voltage? problem

[ripcity17]

Hi,

I have a ford kuga 2.0 tdci titanium 2008

I've had it for nearly 3 years now and I've always had a problem with the electrics, the headlight's are always blowing out at some point while the radio is on, At least that was how i self diagnosed it because i stopped using the radio and the lights where fine for a couple of months then i decided to start using it again to see and the lights started blowing out again.

Anyway fast forward and one thing i have noticed is that when i put the heater on the lights constantly flicker, its only a slight flicker so its hard to notice unless you really look... and it does that basically until the car has fully warmed up.

fast forward even further and basically everything in my car is cutting out, the heater the radio the lights the dash lights come on and off as if the car has just been switched on all for like 1 second and thats while the car is running, so its as if the car has switched off and come back on again in an instant. anyway when its doing this its basically blowing my lights out again... even if i just have my lights on and radio and heater off. It went 1 step further the other day and all my speedo's dropped to 0 for a second as if the car had been shut off but it was still running.

I got a mechanic friend to check it out the other day he hooked up diagnostics and it came up with loads of faults so he cleared them then he tested the battery and it said it was faulty so now ive been and bought a new battery, it ran fine for all of 1 10 minute trip, later that night i went out with the lights on and i put the heater on to defog the window and it started doing it again and 1 of my lights blew out again.

i'm stumped really most people have no clue and the car has just become a bottomless money pit i'm ready to just cut my losses and scrap it but i thought i'd come here for one last go at help without having to spend a fortune to fix it.

[RL123]

There are a few common faults that affect the mk1 Kuga electrical system. One is the instrument cluster solder and another being water soaked passenger carpet leading to corrosion on the electrics underneath.

putting up the error codes will help people to offer advice, not just deleting them.

have seen it posted aftermarket custom halogen bulbs can fail after short time.

[unofix]

 You need to do some in-depth fault diagnosis using FORScan. I expect that it will show most of the DTC's to be codes beginning "Ux xxx" The codes that start with a U are communication issues which using FORScan will say 'Lost communication with ???'

The probable problem on a 2008 model will be the solder joints on the instrument cluster starting to fail, especially if you have had the problem with the Speedo  and Rev counter dropping to zero whilst driving.

The headlight problem with the lamps failing frequently is likely to be a separate issue and possibly being caused by the use of aftermarket lamps.