2001 Ford F-150 Instement cluster

DETAILNY

MEMBER
2001 FORD F-150
V8
4WD
AUTOMATIC
150,000 MILES

On hard acceleration or if wheel spin in rain the cluster will peg all gauges and then all fall to bottom of scale. At the same time the battery light will come on as well as the ABS light. The speakers will also begin crackling if radio is on. Bring vehicle to a stop and cluster will reset, lights go out and all is good till next RPM increase. Sometimes only normal start from a stop will cause this. It will however only do this if in gear. You can sit in park or neutral and rev all you want and its fine.I have pulled the cluster thinking I have a bad connection. Resitance check of both connectors while plugged in showed all good connections. I have not been able to get my local ford dealer to let me look at factory wiring book to see what conection is between ABS, Bat, Trans, and radio circuts. Anyone seen this or can tell me if a module maybe sees input from all hese areas?

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 AT 3:36 PM

2 Replies

BMRFIXIT

MECHANIC
19,053 POSTS

Since its only does it when its in gear I would suspect bad wiring and or ground that is moving with engine movement
check battery terminals and cables
check wiring harness by the firewall
check for a good ground at the engine
run a temp ground wire and secure at engine block
good luck

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Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 AT 5:58 AM

MJR346

MECHANIC
132 POSTS

The sweeping gauges tell me the cluster is loosing power (it does this gauge check when power is put back on)

However with alternator light on, I'd check wiring going to alternator and from alternator to battery. The last part is the one I see most issues with as people use the aftermarket clamps which bolt together on the batteries and cause high resistance issues when the connections corrode or loosen up.

Another thing is to check for dirty contacts on all connections underhood, and make sure no water issues hitting fuse box on inside

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Monday, August 24th, 2009 AT 3:16 PM