Hey guys at my wits end with gf focus. She's had a new ECU, the dash resoldered twice.

Quick YouTube video of fault

I've never seen the indicator go like this and then whole car die and refuse to start.

I believe the last garage said the ignition switch was faulty but this was few weeks ago and the car was fine since new ECU.

I can't wrap my head around why or where the fault is as car is turning into a money pit.

Has anyone experienced the same or know if the ignition switch or anything round there could do this and make the car fail to start?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks everyone

Oh forgot to mention. Is that beep normal?

Instrument cluster fault. Broken dry solder joints, which is quite common.

Another job for ............. @rd457 👍

8 hours ago, unofix said:

Instrument cluster fault. Broken dry solder joints, which is quite common.

Another job for ............. @rd457 👍

You say you've had it repaired but if the solder was just reflowed it can still fault, and if the solder has flowed into each other cause more faults.

Follow Unofix's advice and get the cluster repaired by a specialist, like @rd457

If the faults are still present after you've proved the IC out then the GEM could have water ingress damage

On 1/20/2025 at 4:17 PM, Lukeyyy07 said:

Quick YouTube video of fault

Yikes. So, through several start attempts there's never any needle movement on the tacho, which should be pointing around 750rpm when the engine is idling. The LCD remains illuminated throughout indicating that the cluster is getting constant power. Within the first ten seconds or so you've got four persistent warning lights, engine, oil pressure, traction control, and battery. From about 13 seconds in, the persistent warning lights go away, instead there's an oddly flickering PATS light and indicator light, and a bunch of warning lights collectively come on and off in the manner that they do normally when turning on, done to prove that the warning lights work, though inconsistently it seems with changing the ignition position, and in the one instance right after turning the engine on it then went off again as though you'd turned it off when it didn't seem like you had.

The presence of the battery warning in the beginning is interesting. This warning light is intended to indicate a possible alternator issue. When the engine is running then the alternator should be too and thus voltage would be at about 14.6 instead of 12.6. If the instrument cluster believes that the engine is running, which it may determine simply based on ignition position as discussed in a moment, but the voltage it's receiving is too low, then it shows the battery warning to indicate that the vehicle may be running off of the battery only (which would be quickly drained with the engine running and no alternator). So why on earth is this warning light persistently showing in the beginning even when the engine is off?! Perhaps the cluster is confused at this point, believing that the vehicle is in run mode. The cluster has three connector pins on which it receives power. Pin 32 is its permanent power source. Pin 15 should receive power only when the ignition is in accessory or run position. Pin 4 should receive power only when the ignition is in run or start position. Perhaps during the first part of the video power was being delivered on one of these latter two pins when it shouldn't be, thus confusing the cluster into thinking that the engine was running, but it was only seeing ~12.6 volts, so thus showed this warning. If so, well, if I recall correctly the power for those two pins simply comes from the ignition switch (via the GEM), so it could very well be the ignition switch that's faulty.

The behaviour in the latter part of the video where the cluster is showing the warning lights temporarily in response to changing the ignition position, though not responding quite properly, also could very well be down to a faulty ignition switch, where power is not quite getting delivered to those two pins on the cluster when it should be. Additionally perhaps the engine cut out that one time after turning on because the connection in the ignition switch faultered?

The flickering of the PATS and indicator lights naturally feels like a power supply related issue. I can't explain why the indicator light flickered, though it's interesting to note that the indicator noise was present at the same time, so it would appear that the cluster might have been purposefully indicating, as opposed to a short circuit from a bit of dirt of something causing brief unreliable power supply to an LED. The indicators are connected to the GEM, not the cluster, and the GEM must tell the cluster when to turn on the indicators via CAN bus communications since there are no dedicated connector pins for it, so perhaps this is a sign that there could be an issue at the GEM.

I can't explain why the tacho needle isn't moving when the engine is running. The ECU should be sending the cluster messages to tell it how fast the engine is running.

I concur with the garage in thinking that the ignition switch is extremely likely to be the culprit. It's a very cheap (~£10-20 part) and relatively easy to replace, so I'd go ahead with that and hopefully that will prove to be it. If so but the tacho needle still doesn't move then try doing a guage sweep test on the cluster to see if that gauge motor's faulty (probably pointless to try now with it acting up as it is).

It is possible that the cluster repairer did a poor/inadequate job, but I'm not sure that fits in this case.

Edit: that fuel gauge also doesn't move. Do you actually have an almost empty tank or is that another symptom?

@rd457 wow thank you so much for the really detailed response. That's helped and also will note everything you've said.

Gf has taken car to get the ignition switch replaced. She managed to limp in to a garage as she believes when the key moves the car stops. It was expensive she said (150ish) so I hope they haven't had her pants down with the price. I'll be happy if it works tho as she loves the car even if it drives me crazy!

We've had the cluster repaired twice by Customod I believe. So I'm hoping it was fixed correctly else will be disappointed if after twice they haven't fixed it.

I also believe she has fuel in there. She started a new job hence why car is so important. She had filled up shortly before this video was taken. 

I'm away from her currently so I'm unable to investigate the car myself but I'm crossing fingers it's just the ignition switch causing gremlins.

I'll update as soon as I can about the switch. 

If the switch is no good then would a replacement cluster be the next step? Get a second hand one and have it cloned as I assume you can't just plug and play other clusters.

Thanks again all for suggestions and help. 

5 hours ago, Lukeyyy07 said:

Gf has taken car to get the ignition switch replaced. She managed to limp in to a garage as she believes when the key moves the car stops. It was expensive she said (150ish) so I hope they haven't had her pants down with the price.

They have.  Brand new ignition switches cost £10 and can be replaced in less than half an hour.

So far so good.

The car seems to be running fine with a new ignition switch. 

I'll double check soon if that was the only thing they replaced as I hope for the price paid it was more.

But if it works and car is fine for a while it will be worth the trouble.

Thanks again all and any updates such as anything else changed or (touch wood) problems appear. Will let you know incase it helps future members 👍