Ford Focus Dashboard Problem

Greenhill1911

Hi all my 54 plate focus went in to local ford dealer speedo, dropping, they said needs new speedo give me bill for £300 just found out it should have cost £100 because of watchdog but dealer ripped me off for extra £200 wont go back there, found a honest dealer 10 miles away..Don't get ripped off quote watchdog..

Bajansoldier

Three weeks ago, my speedometer on my 2001 Ford Focus danced erractically to the music playing on my car radio! Weird I thought and only happened twice. Two weeks ago,the digital mileage counter went blank, the speedometer, petrol and water gage played statues and have not moved ever since. I called out my breakdown company, who checked all the fuse boxes and everything was fine. It has now been suggested this is the instrument cluster. I called Fords, to see if the Watchdog offer of instrument cluster replacement @ gbp99.00 was still on offer. The young lady kindly opened a log and said to contact a local Ford Dealer to see if they could still offer a replacement @ GBP99.00. Also offered to call me back in a few days to see how I have got on. I ahve contacted my local Ford dealer- who will replace it if the fault is deemed as the Watchdog problem, if not I will be liable for the diagnostic check costs. Will keep you posted as car to be booked in later this week. Thanks to everyone who posted before as I was not aware this was an issue before..so thumps up to the power of the internet!

Chris_P._Bacon_3

My first post.....!!

My wifes car suffered this problem over the Christmas holidays & this thread helped me enourmously & saved me a whole load of cash so I thought it only fair to share my experiences in the hope of helping others....

As has been described by others the speedo tacho & warning lights stated behaving erratically on my wifes 53 plate Focus.... I rang the ford Help line (0800 166 166 for anyone who is interested!!) but lost the will to live whilst waiting for one of their operators to become available. Apparently my call was important to them however, so thats alright then.... So I checked with my local dealer in Chorley who knew of the problem but told me that the Ford "offer" had ended some time ago & they were full price now. He quoted me £154 to fit a replacement.

Nothing ventured nothing gained so I tried a different dealer in Wigan who said he knew of the problem & that he needed the part number of the existing dash to check as there was a lower price available on the dashboard for older Focii..... A few minutes work had the instrument binnacle out of the car. I quoted the part number & was told that was the problem unit & was quoted £63.51 plus VAT for the part....they are in stock at the Manchester warehouse & I will have one tomorrow (Wednesday).

So it would appear that the Ford "offer" still stands so don't be put off if you get a negative response from your first dealer...shop around.

& don't pay someone to fit it either....it really is a 10 minute job provided you know one end of a screwdriver from the other....here's what you do...

You need a "chubby" cross head screw driver to take the three screws from the trim around the instruments....these screw into the top cowl from underneath. Remove the three screws. The plastic surround should now come away with a gentle pull...use the coin tray to help grip the moulding. Once unclipped you can remove the wiring plug from the rear boot release...depress the plunger on top of the connector to release it. There is also a rubber moulding between the steering wheel housing & the plastic surround. This is clipped into the plastic so get your hand behind the surround & seperate the two parts. They just need pulling apart....

Remove the 4 screws holding the binnacle in place & withdraw it.....the wiring plugs into the rear & is a bit short so don't pull. To release the plug you need to get both hands behind the binnacle & look over the top to see the connector which is towards the top & in the middle of the instruments. You will see a small black lever across the top of this connector. Using your left forefinger press just to the left of this black bar. With your right forefinger push the bar to the left to release the lever. This lever then needs to be pushed through 90 degrees to unlock & release the connector. The instruments can now be withdrawn.

The part number is on a sticker & starts 98 something. Give this to your local friendly Ford parts man & he will be able to tel you if it qualifies...

I hope this helps someone save some money & a big Yah Boo!! to my local Ford dealer who told me the offer had ended....

Strider590

Thomas_Crown wrote: »

I've not had time to read all the links provided in previous posts. The problem is caused by the use of lead free solder by Ford when connecting the circuit boards in the dashboard. Lead free solder is porous & absorbs moisture resulting in corrosion.

Lead free solder is banned from use in Aviation, Medical & Astronautical enviroments. Why?

RoHS

It's not that it absorbs moisture as such, it just lacks the flexibility of tin/lead solder, it can crack under heat/cold/physicall stress and the lack of lead allows tin whiskers to cause short circuits on the smallest of surface mount devices.
Certain safety critical parts on cars (like ABS and EPAS) are exempt from using lead free soldering processes.

It's not generally used in Aviation, Medical, Astronautical and Defence applications because they're specifically exempt from it's use..... But it isn't actually banned. A person VERY high up in the aviation sector has already stated that the day that planes are fitted with RoHS compliant equipment, is the day he stops flying.

In consumer grade products, all it seems to have done is to increase failure rates, decrease life expectancy and boost consumerism. In the early days of RoHS, manufacturers struggled with lead free soldering, the result was things like the Xbox and it's "ring of death", which was to be repaired by high temp solder reflow of the entire motherboard.
I have a broken laptop with the same issue, suspected solder fracture underneath the GPU, built around 2004 (1 year after the RoHS directive was passed by the EU).

cdubya

Hi, After some advice. The ABS and sometimes the handbrake light on my Focus (03 1.8 TDCI) have just started acting up. My garage have checked both the breaks and the handbrake but can find no issues.

Any idea how i find out if I have a "Faulty Dash" without having to pay Fords a lot of money??

:mad:

emma2007

Hi Guys,

Looks like we are having the same problem with our 06 Focus. Engine management light comes on, speedo drops, slight loss of power etc. Was wondering if any of you have had any luck with the £99 offer recently? We have just had a quote from a local garage for £800 and would much rather pay £99!

gaznets

Hi all, my wifes recently been having some problems with her fuel and water temp gauge, what happens is when the car starts they both have a tremble and then go back to where they should be, sometimes this happens a few times, so in this respect they are both reading correct but was wondering what this could be.
ive had a diagnostics ran (nothing came back as wrong), checked battery connections and amp and had a quick look at the fuses.

any help to what could be the problem would be greatly appriciated.

z4phill

I have the same issue just bought the car but done a little reserch and this company will repair you dash with a sevice exchange for £99 + vat and postage,

all your original milage will be on the exchange unit , follow the link use the General public form, post your dash to them and they will send a recon one out within 24 hours

its easy to remove the clocks 3 screws on the dash binical drop your steering down to the lowest point and unclip the top steering colum cover there is 4 screws that hold the clocks in remove them and tilt the cluster forward to remove the multi plug there is a cam clip flip it over and it will un plug its as simple as that 10 mins and its out !

ok as a new user I am not allowed to post links the company is CLUSTER REPAIRS UK you will have to look them up on google

z4phill

z4phill wrote: »

I have the same issue just bought the car but done a little reserch and this company will repair you dash with a sevice exchange for £99 + vat and postage,

all your original milage will be on the exchange unit , follow the link use the General public form, post your dash to them and they will send a recon one out within 24 hours

its easy to remove the clocks 3 screws on the dash binical drop your steering down to the lowest point and unclip the top steering colum cover there is 4 screws that hold the clocks in remove them and tilt the cluster forward to remove the multi plug there is a cam clip flip it over and it will un plug its as simple as that 10 mins and its out !

ok as a new user I am not allowed to post links the company is CLUSTER REPAIRS UK you will have to look them up on google

if you put this in to a youtube search you will be shown how to remove the dash pay close attention to the cam clip it can be seen clearly at the end of the vidio

How to remove a Ford Focus instrument cluster [HD]

z4phill

Ha ha fix it myself went round every contact with a small soldering iron and its all working fixed for free hows that for a money saving expert !!!!!