My 02 F-150 supercrew gages has recently started sweeping at start up. This happens every time no matter when, cold, hot?? It also did a funky idal a few times: raced, shut down, came back on. All gages and radio went crazy!! I checked for a UFO but didn't see one, although my butt did feel a little funny the next day. Anyway, has any of you ever had this problem? The truck problem not the UFO!!

Tim

 

Sounds like it's going into diagnostics on its own. This is done by holding in the reset button while starting the truck. Switching levels by pressing the rest button. Sweeping all the guages is the first level of diagnostics. As for what is causing this to happen, good question. Is the reset button stuck in?

 

isint the sweeping guages a sign of a dead or dieing battery???

 

Where do I find this reset button? I will check to see if it's stuck. The battery seems to be strong, but I will have it checked out.

Thanks

 

the reset button is not your problem. You have a failing battery causing the voltage to drop below 10.5 volts each time you crank it causing the gauges to reset.

 

The button that I was referring to is the odometer select button that is used to toggle between the trip odometer and the regular odometer. This buttom being stuck was only a guess on my part. What ford390gashog said about a low voltage condition sounds much more likely as the source of your problem.

 

Cool! I will have the battery checked out.

Thanks

 

I would replace the battery. That is one of the "dead givaways" on some vehicles that your battery is lacking.

 

I had to replace my battery last weekend because it died, and I never got the sweeping guages....

 

Did it go dead while the truck was sitting? Many vehicles guages sweep when a cell is letting go in the battery, I guess diffirent variables for diffirent vehicles. Every vehicle I have ever heard of where the guages start sweeping upon startup ends up leaving whoever is driving stranded in less than a month. I had an S-dime that started doing that and I thought it looked cool so I didnt think nothing of it, truck started like normal and didnt make any noises so I was good to go. Than the truck wouldnt crank, than 5 minutes it would, I never thought about the battery, it did this for about a week and became worse and worse, finally I opened the hood and saw that the eye on the battery was red, replaced battery, bye bye guage sweeps.

 

I'm thinking the time to replace the battery is near!! Everybody agrees that sweeping guages is the beginning of the end. Will let you all know how it works out!!

I guess I'm not going to be on the news after all, talking about my "close encounter"!!

Tim

 

We won't probe as to what caused your physical problems.

 

Well...a month ago I was pretty sick, so the truck didnt move for 4 days. When I went out to start it up, it would barely crank over. After that, it was fine for a couple of weeks. I ran down to AdvanceAuto for a friend, and then back to his house. The truck sat for 2 hours, and it was dead when I went to go home. We took it down to A-A again and it tested at 247 CCA's. So, I got a new 850 CCA for $80

It was the origional Motorcraft battery from 1997 though

 

I changed my original Motorcraft from yesterday out toward the end of last year. They are pretty tough batteries, I replaced mine with a Maxx Start from Waly World so we will see how long this one will last, good thing is that it has a super warrenty.