Morning All

I'm looking for some help / advice please.

I have looked at other forum posts and there are similar problems but I can't find the same one.

I have 1.6 TDCi 2005 Ford Focus.

Some time ago I completely lost power on the motorway. All the lights on the dashboard lit up.

I was recovered by the AA who investigated the fault codes thrown and couldn't establish what was wrong. Although I can't remember the code thrown now, it basically didn't give enough information to diagnose the fault as it was a general "Lost communication" code.

However when I was recovered from the motorway the car started normally. AA man scratched head and drove home normally.

Drove around another 1000 miles and it happened again.

Recovered again, Same deal with AA. This time they removed and cleaned all the earths but didn't make any difference.

Took to my local garage. Spent an hour investigating / same fault code etc. Same result.

Car started normally again.

Spoke to Ford Main Dealer who said they could only diagnose with the fault codes themselves which were revealing nothing.

Fault has happened intermittently since. I have however found I can reliably "re-start" it by hitting the dashboard firmly with my hand.... (discovered obviously in a moment of frustration... :) ) so presents like some sort of short cicruit.

Sometimes goes hours and hours without occuring. Sometimes twice in 5 minutes.

Recently started occurring much more frequently, sometimes within 30 seconds, sometimes 5 minutes, then sometimes hours.

Hard hit on dashboard, lights go out and car drives normally again. For a bit.

I don't want to drive the car now as it is happening more frequently and wonder if anyone can help / has had similar etc?

Thanks in anticipation!

Dave

im far from an expert on car matters but with computers, if its not actually recording a fault then its likely its not getting the chance to or it doesn't realise its doing it because its shut down. Hitting the dash sounds interesting, isn't the instrument cluster and the PCM(?) not interconnected quite extensively? as good a place to start as any, as you said its probably just something come loose

From what you say there could be a poor connection in the dash, possibly the multi plug going to the back of the cluster.

You can get to this quite easily by unclipping the trim surrounds on the steering column then undo 2 torx screws and the cluster pulls out. Multi plug has a locking arm which should be pushed down flush to the connector - you have to pull this upwards to unlock the connector from the cluster. Worth checking any other wiring connections in the area too such as ignition switch and so on.