So the odometer does not light up green when you turn on the headlights but all other positions lit just fine. This has been this way for a very long time.

Now today the back lighting is completely out on just the cluster. The radio and heater controls are lighting up just fine.

Is this an issue with solder joints and stuff on the cluster?

 

Does the odometer still display the mileage or is it completely blank?

 

This may help for the odometer light. Post #7 gives a way to test its bulb.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...ht-repair.html



For the backlight, I read about a case where the ICs fuses were taken out and put back in and that fixed it. The IC’S fuses on my 2004 are 01, 15, 21 and 27. One could be bad too. But my bet would be on a bad solder joint, or fault at one of the two IC wire connectors. Jiggling the wires there before disconnecting the connectors may cause backlight to flicker or come back on.

 

The digital readout, and all guages are still working perfect.

 

Getterdun has some good suggestions. You can also follow the troubleshooting below.

"With the headlights turned ON, you will need to look for voltage on C220A-1 (should be a light blue/red wire), which is the 32 pin plug. If the dimmer is turned all the way up then it should read battery voltage, if the dimmer is being utilized at all then the voltage may be less. Also need to check for ground on the same plug at pin 17 (black wire)."

 

Stupid question.....becuase the center stack is lighting properly (radio / heater controls / and a/c swtiches) would this indicate the fuses are good?

Or is the cluster fed power from a different circuit than the rest?

 

This generation is infamous for cracked solders that often exhibit with; parking brake light staying on, dim/no light on odometer (numbers still there) and low fuel light not lighting (audio ding still works). There are shops that fix them and you-tube videos that show some repairing.
My 2006 has all three going on.

 

Yep, almost surely a solder issue. Try a few swift whacks to dash above cluster with the palm of your hand -- it may come back. My '07 was this way when I first got it.

I wound up upgrading from my XL cluster to XLT to gain the tach. Transferred ABD with Forscan. Of course a used cluster will probably have its own issues, but still it was THE time to upgrade -- no sense in having a cluster repaired that I'm going to replace anyway

 

I do pinball circuit board repair, and also mastered rebuilding about 30 crown vic instrument clusters so this will be a piece of cake if that is the issue. My concern it may not be the cluster. I am not good at unwrapping wires, I never find the problem.

Was wondering of the power feed that illuminuates the center stack is the same for the cluster.

 

You can find the wiring diagrams here:

https://charm.li/Ford%20Truck/

 

My take is that they are on the same circuit, #19, on a light blue with red stripe wire.

 

UPDATE:

It was NOT the cluster. The lt blue with red stripe wire had no friction / drag to engauge to the pin on the instrument cluster molex. I had to use a sewing pin and extract the terminal, then bend the little tab and re-insert. Problem fixed,

 

Thanks for taking the time to let us know. Glad to hear you fixed it; and impressed with your skill to remove and repair the faulty pin.

 

Pin fit issues are always a pain. Great job in solving the problem!

 

Thank y'all for this thread!

In my case (2008 F-150) all pins were good (I pulled them one-by-one, checked and re-inserted back), but the true problem was in the group of 751 resistors next to the connector. Resolved by re-soldering. Just in case, also resoldered the terminal and a group of smaller resistors on the back of it.

This is pretty bad design of the instrument cluster. The board is long enough, but doesn't have proper support, so it gets all the hit-and-twist forces coming from the vibrations when you drive the truck. No wonder the soldering points are the weakest links.

You should also know that the mileage is kept on this board, so replacing it would require re-programming (presumably, by the authorized Ford dealer), which will cost you $$$

Front of the instrument panel board on 2008 F-150

Back of the instrument panel on 2008 F-150