While driving the gauges would all drop to zero briefly under a minute, mechanics are baffled?

Tiny
CHRISTIAN DAWN CLARK
  • MEMBER
  • 2009 FORD ESCAPE
  • 3.0L
  • V6
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 130,000 MILES
The problem began while driving the gauges would all drop to zero briefly under a minute. When this happened, nothing would change about speed or performance except the A/C would stop blowing cold until the incident was over. This happened a few times here and there. Then the vehicle started cranking only sometimes. The only thing that seemed to help would be turning the steering wheel a little from the lock position. Then the issue progressed to the point of having issues getting it to crank at all. Tapping on the dash seemed to help at some point. Had it checked by code reader that showed misfire over and over like 6 or 7 times. That mechanic suggested a wire short. Next mechanic suggested changing the ECM. Next mechanic to change the ignition switch. Next mechanic to change the ignition module. Also, something was draining the battery during this time. So, I have changed the ignition switch, ignition module, replaced the battery, and the last mechanic suggested cluster. Changed that too. I am waiting for a mechanic to come by and flash the ECM. But not confident in his diagnosis either since he said that the cluster needs to be programmed to the vehicle. Pretty sure that's not true. Help! I don't know what to do next.
Thursday, July 20th, 2023 AT 9:31 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 42,913 POSTS
This is common when the instrument clusters is going out, but to be sure we should do a CAN scan which should give us a code for it, you can get a CAN scanner (Controller Area Network) which will work on most cars from Amazon.

here is a video to show you how:

https://youtu.be/u-4syLc-ifQ

and

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

Here is one for about $99.00 if you need it:

https://amzn.to/3ZixY4v

Here is how to change out the instrument cluster, you can get a preprogrammed unit by searching Google or Ebay. Check out the images (below). Let us know what happens and please upload pictures or videos of the problem so we can see what's going on.
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Saturday, July 22nd, 2023 AT 11:32 AM

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