Hi All

I have a electrical problem that i need help with. Over the last few days my cluster warning lights have been coming on and going off. Whilst this is happening all power to the engine is lost and it seems to revert to idle mode. When the lightseventually go out all power returns. If whilst this is happening i turn off the ignition i am unable to restart, the igntion is to all tense and purposes dead. it will eventually return. however, the other day it became particularly bad and i had to pull off the Motorway into some services. fortunately i have AA membership and called them out. the guy was very helpful but was at a loss as to why these symtoms were displaying, although his investigations did led him to believe a communications problem as whilst connected to his test equipment it dropped in and out trying to connect and reconnect. He swapped over a couple of relay's i.e. starter relay and the combus and this seemed to cure the problem however it has happened a couple of times since and everyone i have asked including main dealers haven't a clue what the problem may be. Is there anyone out there that may have, Thanks Tony

Hi Tony,

Sounds like a bad connection on the instrument cluster. Sadly a known fault of ford's of this era.

Start by removing the instrument cluster, spray generously with electrical contact cleaner, and see if there is an improvement. If not, you may wish to send the cluster off for repair, there is a company in the UK who will refurbish it for £99, or return it for a £30 fee if there is no fault found.

Thanks for the reply. Would the cluster have an influence on the running of the engine? Apart from not having a clue how to get the cluster out, although i'm sure there will be something on YouTube. The option I have tried is to replace the relay that the guy from the AA suggested. It is the cheapest option so far and the least complicated. However, I'm yet to be convinced. I have only just replaced it today and everything seemed to be fine going and returning from work (around 50mile trip), all motorway.

It's not the warning lights that really bother, its the effect it has on the engine controls, as they just die and go into some idle mode. Like I asked early can the cluster influence this?

Tony

Yes the symptoms you have can be caused by a cluster fault, there's a 'few' posts about it throughout the forum. (Search focus mk1 cluster fault)

One of the many posts is linked below

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/38172-mk1-instrument-cluster-problem/

If the HEC (Instrument cluster) is faulty then the various modules can't talk to each other, i.e the HEC and PCM, the HEC has the Pats function built into it, if there is no communication between the HEC and PCM then the car will not start and the immobiliser will flash an error code.

It does sound like you need a new cluster to be fair or a repair.

A replacement cluster needs to be ideally from the same model car if you go for a second hand one, preferably with lower mileage than your car has done and ideally should be coded in correctly with either IDS or Elmconfg.

Thank you for your replies it has helped me to narrow down the problem and resolve it

Cheers again

Tony

Can you post what your fix was just to confirm for others reading this thread in the future as it can help people having similar problems.

Glad to hear it is resolved though.