Just drove home and when I started my car up to drive home the gauges are incorrect, I didn't want to turn it off just incase didn't start. The fuel gauge went past full, the rev counter stayed at 2, the temp gauge said half and speedo was on 5 mph this was on start up. I drove my car home, restarted and gauges are there again. I looked at secret menu and fuel said I had 40 precent gauge didn't showed full.

Thank you

47 minutes ago, madman said:

The fuel gauge went past full, the rev counter stayed at 2, the temp gauge said half and speedo was on 5 mph this was on start up. I drove my car home, restarted and gauges are there again. I looked at secret menu and fuel said I had 40 precent gauge didn't showed full.

The gauges are driven by little stepper motors. It is possible that some event during the previous shut-down or start-up moved them out of their correct positions. They do a brief reset on each start-up by being driven against their lower end stops. But it can take several start cycles to reset them fully.

In the Cluster test menu (the press the trip reset stalk one), there should be a gauge sweep option. That is worth trying.

If all the gauges stay wrong, or keep going wrong, then it could be one of the supplies to the Instrument Cluster (IC), via fuses:

F67 (F114 in Mk2a) for the ignition supply. (unlikely)

F68 (F108 in Mk2a) for the acc (radio) supply.

F46 (F107 in Mk2a) for the battery (permanent) supply.

Another possibility is voltage spikes or sags due to a poor battery, alternator or related wiring.

Last possibility I can think of is an internal IC fault. This unit can be repaired for about £100, as I believe.

 

Thank u.

I did couple start ups when get home and they stayed revs at 2, speedo 5mph, fuel gauge past full, temp halfway. I did a few sweeps all went right I now have rev counter and speedo on 0, but still looks like temp and fuel gauge are incorrect. On secret dash said I had 40 percent fuel I just added 25 pound and secret menu says 60 precent but gauge said full who do I believe. Also temp gauge said half but secret said 132c.

My battery is new from last year and it has greased terminals.

Àlso does the secret menu match what's displayed on the dash as the two don't match

4 hours ago, madman said:

Àlso does the secret menu match what's displayed on the dash as the two don't match

The information comes from the same source, the Fuel sender in the tank is wired directly to the IC. A gauge could malfunction due to a faulty stepper motor or pcb track etc. But if all the gauges and the menu value are wrong, it suggests a fault or wrong software or tables in the IC.

I notice that you had reported a seriously wrong fuel consumption before, when using the IC menu values. So it may be a fairly long term problem. Did you ever check the consumption using the brim to brim method, which uses the filling station gauges, not the dodgy car systems?

If there is a long term problem with the IC, could it be it was changed at some time, before you had the car, and not set up properly, or changed for the wrong unit. Changing the IC can be a way to reduce the displayed mileage! Though it is not easy, as it needs the immobiliser to be re-programmed after.

 

2 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

I notice that you had reported a seriously wrong fuel consumption before, when using the IC menu values. So it may be a fairly long term problem. Did you ever check the consumption using the brim to brim method, which uses the filling station gauges, not the dodgy car systems?

Just for information, my fuel gauge currently reads 3/4 full, and the test menu states Fuel as 0049. This may well be in hex format (hex 49 = decimal 73) which would tally more with the analog gauge.

On 03/03/2017 at 2:31 AM, Micro said:

This may well be in hex format (hex 49 = decimal 73)

That makes some sense, as quite a few of the other menu items are in Hex. Displaying a percentage (out of 100) in Base 16 is a bit of a strange thing to do, but there are a lot of very strange things in the word of automotive software!

I have had some difficulty interpreting the DTCs that come out of the IC menu display. But I think I may have the answer, they are a very simple Hex display of the raw data stored in the car. In that raw data format, one letter and 4 digits are stored in just 2 bytes of memory:

The 1st two bits (most significant) are the Letter:

00h = P

40h = C

80h = B

C0h = U

The next two bits are the 1st digit, only 0,1,2,3 are allowed:

00h = 0, 10h = 1, 20h = 2, 30h = 3.

The next & final 4 bits in that byte are the next digit, all values from 0 to F are allowed. Add the values above together to get the complete byte.

The 2nd byte just has the remaining two digits, as in the Hex display.

So 1234 on the menu would be DTC P1234,

& A47F on the menu would be DTC B247F,  (80h + 20h + 4 = A4h)

& D900 on the Menu would be DTC U1900. (C0h + 10h + 9 = D9h)

There are an additional couple of digits that are supposed to provide additional data about the DTC, but I have not yet found them useful. So the menu values have 6 digits, I think, but the last two digits can be ignored usually.

(This encoding method is part of the international OBD standard, not just a funny Ford thing. I am not 100% sure this is what the dash menu does show, but it seems logical.)

 

Thanks for reply.

Yes I had as low as 22 mpg driving on digital display driving it today it's 25.8 and was told clean the maf sensor, I had look in gap but never cleaned it. I did put bit red ex in maybe that why gone upto 25.

Never checked it brim to brim, I went by digital hidden menu said 25 percent and added fuel took mileage waited till gauge went near 1st Mark and was on 25 percent on hidden menu and worked it out.

I don't know if was changed before.

Thanks for reply.

Yes I had as low as 22 mpg driving on digital display driving it today it's 25.8 and was told clean the maf sensor, I had look in gap but never cleaned it. I did put bit red ex in maybe that why gone upto 25.

Never checked it brim to brim, I went by digital hidden menu said 25 percent and added fuel took mileage waited till gauge went near 1st Mark and was on 25 percent on hidden menu and worked it out.

I don't know if IC was changed before.

As u know had gauges stuck at weird numbers and erratic.

The rev and speedo now seem ok. Goto the stoppers when off and speedo 0 and rev idles at 750, the hidden menu said the hidden menu said same 750-780rpm

Looking at that above screenshot why that odd

53 minutes ago, madman said:

Looking at that above screenshot why that odd

That temperature reading is barking mad!

The IC gets the engine temp from the ECU (pcm) over the CAN bus. As far as I know there is only one engine temp, and it will be used for the gauge (correct) and the menu display (mad). I can not think of any reason for that except some very odd fault in the IC.

Have you got a diagnostic reader that can read the temperature value(s) directly from the ECU?

 

I have a hand held diagnostic scanner it's showing no error codes

On the focus hidden menu do u look at fuel percent, fuel gauge to see what's remaining

26 minutes ago, madman said:

On the focus hidden menu do u look at fuel percent, fuel gauge to see what's remaining

I have never looked at the hidden menu! Well maybe once.

Partly 'cos I use the trip meter to measure my fuel consumption (and brim to brim fills), and partly 'cos I have Forscan to read all the data and a lot more, that is in the menu.

My fuel is now at 75% on the gauge, I will have a look what the hidden menu says tomorrow, in daylight.

Ok thank you. Have quick look at the hidden menu. I have forscan on laptop, what cable do I need to get as hear forscan is like a full diagnosis where handheld scanner I have is more basic

Fuel pics

Fuel pics

As one says percent and one says fuel gauge

1 hour ago, madman said:

I have forscan on laptop, what cable do I need to get as hear forscan is like a full diagnosis where handheld scanner I have is more basic

You need an ELM327, preferably a "modified" one that has a switch on the side. This switch is not essential, a standard ELM327 will be able to access the ECU, the IC, ABS  (& steering & transmission if relevant). The modified one will add the GEM (aka BCM), door modules, park aid, radio, etc, to that list. One supplier of the ELM that some people have used is given below.

------- Standard Intro to Forscan

Forscan is a powerful Ford specific system, Cost £15.00 for the interface. Needs a computer of some sort. (COM port, USB, Bluetooth or WiFi interfaces available). You will find a lot about ELM327 & Forscan on this site, which together provide a very comprehensive diagnosis & maintenance tool. James (jeebowhite) has done a nice guide: http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=21196

Forscan works best on a Windows laptop, with a USB ELM. The Tunnelrat one (below) has been reported to work well by several people. Forscan is also available for iOS & Android for some tablets & phones.

For a USB ELM327 adapter, see
http://www.spanglefish.com/TunnelratElectronics/index.asp?pageid=516992

Wireless ELMs are also available (bluetooth & WiFi), but are often not as reliable as the wired ones. Also they are rare in the "modified" form which is needed to access the 2nd Ford bus system. This 2nd bus is the MS-CAN bus, and links all the car interior electronics like door modules, and the BCM (aka GEM). But a standard ELM will still work with all the Underbonnet Modules (PCM, ABS etc) and with the IC (Instrument Cluster).

The Forscan programme is free (in Windows format) and you can get it from:

http://forscan.org/download.html

 

Madman as we said earlier in the topic, I think the fuel percent reading is in hexadecimal (base 16). Mine at 3/4 full showed a value of 49, which if you convert to decimal, you get 73%. If you convert 51 to decimal you get 82% (tallying with your fuel gauge).

15 hours ago, madman said:

Have quick look at the hidden menu.

I just did. It did not help very much, the items I get are very different to yours. I think I have a more basic IC.

It did the gauge sweep & LED test ok, but a lot of the rest of the items were fairly incomprehensible.

I think the engine temp was 0 (it was 4C on Forscan, and about 7C on my diy temperature sensor, as the engine was stone cold and not running).

Two readings that might have been fuel were "F038", and "F9040E", neither make any sense to me, in hex or in decimal.

Forscan gave 73.7% fuel, agreeing with the gauge.

I think that hidden menu was never intended for customer use, and is a simple technical bodge put in during debugging the software and hardware during design stages, and has stayed in ever since. So it is not very reliable, and may vary from car to car. A decent diagnostic system like Forscan is much better, though not as convenient or simple to use.

 

Noticed tonight that on my wing the wire off the battery to wing as earth was dirty not rusty just covered in black yucky stuff.

Would that be issue

23 hours ago, madman said:

the wire off the battery to wing as earth was dirty not rusty just covered in black yucky stuff.

That would not be a problem in itself, except:

If the black stuff is sealant, did someone put this on to hide or protect some fault underneath, like rust.

Or could the earth connection have been undone, then done up again with some insulating sealant underneath it.