I'm not sure what to make of this and was curious if anyone has had something similar happen.

Was driving the last week and happened to look down and notice the display for my climate controls was completely black. They were still running at whatever I had them last set at but couldn't change anything or turn the system off. Pulled into a parking lot, turned the truck off then started it again and everything was working fine.

Couple days later, was driving down the road again, glanced down and now my climate display, stereo display and odometer display were all black but once again everything was still functioning, just couldn't change anything. Turned my wipers on to check those, heard a little click, and all the displays popped back on like normal???? Wipers worked just fine too.

I'm assuming a short somewhere but wouldn't even know where to start to look or if it's even within my limited skill set to try and track down.

 

Accessory power relay? You need to look up the fuse box and relay diagrams for inside and outside the truck cab. Search those out by looking up fuse panel 6.0.

 

If you can't find the issue with the wireing to the cluster you may have to have circuitboard medics or ficm repair.com look at it. The 06 cluster is sealed and most modules are now integrated in it. Takes some special tools to take it apart without destroying it.

 

There is some trick here, when the climate controls go blank, cycle the headlights. It resets some relay, and brings the dash back to life. I had this happen to me once when I first bought my truck about two years ago. There is a thread with more information about it, I just don't have a link handy.

Edit:
Found it https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...t-working.html

 

Mine is blank sometimes when I first start the truck but in my case the A/C isn't blowing. I have to shut off the truck and open the door and it works fine after that. It happens once every 2 or 3 months.

 

My '05 has done this maybe a handful of times.

Somehow, the climate unit needs to be reset, and cycling the headlight switch seems to reset it.

The first couple of times it happened, it somehow reset itself after cycling the engine off/on. Then I read about it here, and the light switch seems to get it working again.


What I don't know is why it happens or what the trigger is.

 

not to thread jack here, but sometimes when i KOEO my gauges sweep from bottom to top?
most of the times it does not do it. any idea what that is?

 

thanks for all the replies. good to know it's probably just a weird glitch rather than an ominous sign. if there's a next time, I'll have to try and headlight thing.