Dashboard Crash And Red Cog? (55 Reg)

[Lordy92]

Hi everyone,

A couple of months ago I was happily driving along when all of a sudden i lost a lot of power (not all) and an orange co light appeared on the dashboard. I managed to get it looked at by a garage and they couldn't find anything wrong with it, so i put it down to a 'freaky' moment.

Now, I've had a bit more of problem. Last week I was driving along a usy A road when randomly my dials crashed to 0 and all the warning lights had come on, as if it I was starting her up, and then some disapeared but the red cog remained. I managed to pull off and waited to see if the dials came online again, they didn't. So i restarted and all was ok.

This happened again this morning, however instead of being on a busy A road, i was stuck in some traffic. Same thing happened, dials crashed to 0, warning lights came on then disapeared except the red cog. So again i waited to see if the dials would come back, they didn't and I managed to get into work ok after a restart.

I've had the car since January this year and this is the first fault I've come across so i'm not sure exactly what the cog lights indicate.

A couple of notes to add, when in this 'crashed mode' the car functions fine (engine, drivetrain, gear changes etc) except for the dash.

I'm new here so please excuse the mass post lol

Any help would be appreciated before i hand it over the garage and get "couldn't find anything wrong with it" again

Cheers

Will

[jeebowhite]

Hi Will,

It sounds like you may have a faulty instrument cluster. It was an issue on the MK1, and we thought it had been fixed for the MK2, but it seems to be coming back with a vengeance.

[Lordy92]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I also found something on the forum about a speedometre sensor fault? Could it be that?

Is an instrument cluster easily fixed? I'll make the garage aware as they seem to check everything but what you explain to them lol

[jeebowhite]

Hi Will,

The VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) was present on the old Focus' because this needed a central sensor to capture the data. However, on the MK2 onwards, it uses the readings from the ABS sensors to identify the vehicle speed by taking an average of all four readings (as long as they are all within a tolerance). You would have an ABS warning light if it was due to this but you dont seem to.

The Instrument cluster can be repaired, which is much cheaper than a new unit. There are companies online who quote that they can repair them for circa £150 which compared to £800 for a new unit...

[Lordy92]

Ahh, okay.

I'll get it check out by a garage and see if they can confirm the fault.

Thanks for the assistance :)

[jeebowhite]

No worries. It normally seems to be a bad connection at the back of the cluster. Unless they remove the cluster and inspect the socket, they wont find an error. You may find its good to have a look yourself!