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I was driving my 2011 f150 a month or so ago, when the gauge cluster started going crazy. Warnings were popping up and all of the gauges were bouncing all over the place. Got home, parked the truck, and had to go away so it sat unused for a month. Came back and tried to start it up, and the battery was 100% dead, power locks wouldn't even work (battery is only 6 months old). Charged up the battery, and now the truck starts and runs fine, but the cluster is dead, and there is a loud ticking sound coming from it even when the truck is off (maybe turn signal ticker?). I pulled the cluster out and tried to see if there was any loose connections but nothing obvious.
Anyone had a similar issue or know what may be causing this?
Cheers
It’s most likely a power or ground issue. Instrument clusters act just as you describe when the primary feeds become intermittent (the effect is the same if it’s due to internal cluster failure) or when there’s low system voltage like when the alternator output can’t keep up with demand. You’ll have to verify all the power and ground feeds to rule out intermittent/low voltage issues from the wiring harness side.
The battery drain is probably the result of the cluster (and possibly other modules) turning on and off repeatedly due to the intermittent connection.
I’m having issues accessing the wiring diagram at the moment, but here’s a couple of other checks/tests you can do. I’ll provide more specific info when I can access the diagram again.
1) Verify the battery cables are clean and tight at both ends of the cables.
2) Verify all fuses and relays are tightly seated (look for any that appear to be “tilted” in comparison to the others).
3) With the engine running, operate all lights and equipment to see if one particular component triggers the cluster to act up (typically it will be a higher amperage load such as power windows or the blower motor, but turn everything on and off just to be thorough).
4) If the above steps don’t reveal anything, try wiggle testing the harness wherever you can access it, both under the dash and under the hood.
Here’s the cluster diagram. The primary feeds are:
Power - pin 21 - blue/red wire - note that it’s supposed to be hot at all times, so I’d recommend checking it with the ignition switch off and in run.
Ground - pin 5 - black wire
The easiest test will be to connect a test light in series between the power and ground feeds, then wiggle test the harness. Since the power comes from the BCM (fuse box behind passenger kick panel), you should also verify all the connections there are tight as well in addition to wiggle testing the harnesses that connect to it.
I did some quick testing, all fuses and relay seem to be seated correctly and wiggle testing has not yet shown anything obvious.
I did notice however that my horn has stopped working as well. Do you know if these share a common ground or is there a reason both the cluster and the horn would fail at the same time?
I am also trying to find ground G202 but I have not yet been successful, I pulled the panel on the left of the dash but could not see anything resembling a ground.
NOTE: This view is from the back of the dash, as if you’re looking at it from the firewall side. The detail is hard to see, but it looks like G202 connects to a cross member on the side that faces the firewall. You will either need a good mirror or have to lay on your back on the driver floor well to be able to see it.
Did some more testing, test light stays on with lots of wiggling, and getting good voltage from the plug.
The ground was fine, pulled it off, cleaned it off and replaced it.
Unrelated, the horn came back to life after I unplugged and reconnected it, so I am assuming this was just an loose/corroded connection on the horn end of the harness.
Starting to think this is a problem with it he cluster itself unfortunately. Spoke to circuit board medics but they said they are unable to fix this, scared to see how much a replacement cluster will be from a dealer
I don’t know what it takes to get the cluster out, but make sure the feeds at the cluster connector are good before you replace it.
You could also take it apart yourself for a good visual inspection - maybe the problem will show itself. Look for signs of arcing and corrosion. You don’t have anything to lose but time.
So, I found a replacement cluster on eBay for about $80 (Canadian). It was from the same year truck, but the last two numbers of the serial for the part are different so it is for a different model, but I I thought I’d give it a try to narrow down the problem more than anything else as that price.
It just arrived, and I plugged it in and it worked great. Everything seems to be the same.
The only issue is that the mileage is wrong now, as the cluster has ~41k Km rather than the ~280k Km that the truck actually has. I can live with that though saving about $900 by not taking it to a ford dealership.
Now I have a replacement I’m a bit more comfortable about stripping down the old cluster and having a look at the circuit board. I have a few electrical engineer friends that could potentially fix it if I find anything obvious.
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