To all,
Here is my story I purchased a 2010 F150 on March 30th of 2010. It now has 12,150 miles on it and has been sitting at Mac Haik Ford in Houston for 9 days and counting. About 4 months ago when I would get in the truck and put the key in the ignition and start it the instrument panel would go crazy and start cycling through all of the messages the computer could produce so I would take the key out and the seat would not move back like it was supposed to but when I would start it again the messages would stop. It did this for a few days so I took it into the dealer and as usual they could not get it to do it again. On the 3rd of February it started doing it again and stoped but on the 11th it started doing it again on the way to work so I took it right to the dealer at 6:50 and they opened at 7 it stopped again before they opened the doors to let me in but they did call me that afternoon to tell me that it was the instrument cluster. They said Ford does not make it and they had to order it from this certain vendor and that is was on back order! The best part of it is that it disables the ignition for some reason thinking the truck is getting stolen so it will not start. Mac Haik Ford said Ford would pick up $30 of the rental car rate but they charge $36 minimum for their cars so I have taken it to Ford customer service for them to pay the difference because I will not. It is the principal of the matter not so much the money. Has anyone else had this problem? Sorry for the long post I just had to get that off my chest and thanks for listening.

 

I know it sounds weird but have the battery replaced. I had the same issues on my 04 and after months of changing everything you could think of I suggested the battery. They wouldn't change it so I bought one from Autozone and swapped it out, bam power windows started working, heater would blow heat, my instrument cluster worked worked, etc.... The battery would start and run the truck fine but it was just bad enough to cause goofy things like what you are speaking of. Good luck and sorry for your trouble.

 

Assuming that you have taken the truck to your selling dealer, have you tried asking them to take the parts from a truck on the lot? Put the original part back in until the parts come in? I would keep telling the person in front of me that I am not happy, and if that person is not giving me the answers I am looking for, ask for thier superior. I assume that the GM of your dealer could apply a little pressure on ford to make his customer happy. the $6 extra a day is not worth the unhappy customer he has in front of him. If nothing else, he'll eat it. The service writer you see when you drive in can not make any decisions. He's a puppet.

 

I would lemon law it. Make Ford give you another one.

 

I had a similar situation happen to me in 2004 on my '01 XLT 5.4L SCab. The wife and I went to Target one Sunday afternoon and came out an hour later and went to start the truck and it went crazy. All the same issues you mentioned plus a audible click under the dash. The OEM battery appeared to be good. I disconnected and reconnected the battery with no improvement. I had to take a Taxi Cab home that evening. The next day I had it towed to the dealer. They ran a charging system diagnostic and had it repaired in about 1.5 hours. I was ticked that I had to pay around $200 for a new battery; at least it was fixed.

Ask the dealer if they ran a charging system diagnostic. Sometimes the simplest items are overlooked.

 

I am having the same issue with my 2010 lariat. Please help with the solution to this problem.

 

Tell them to check the instrument cluster and the battery as it is probably one or both of these that is messed up. Good luck and I hope you dont have to wait a month like I did.

 

READ THIS WHOLE THING......... Hello all, first thanks to all that post good thing. You truly saved me a lot of money. I was having issues with my 2010 F150. The problems were, my messages on my cluster were cycling through a lot of things. It was saying ( tire pressure module failure, 4x2, traction control, door ajar, and it would ding over and over again. When this would happen the AC would stop producing cold air. I took a look at this website we are on now and someone said the same thing. I have the FIX. I wiggled the wire onto of the insterment cluster and the problem was found. When I wiggled the wires the gauges went crazy and the troubles did things as if I were driving. I removed the cluster and found the the female end going into the cluster was loose from the mother board, no much at all, but loose. I put 2 screws going through the white plastic just enough to go throughout the white plastic and push on the female end of the plug. Screwing in with a little screw driver I tightened the screws enough to push the black female plug into the motherboard enough to hold it securely causing it not to move. I reinstalled the cluster and the problems are GONE.. If this dosent work I will be amazed.. But this was the issue for me....

 

I'm having similar issues with my 2010 F150 FX4. Two days ago I started gettting all the cluster messages (tire pressure monitor fault, 4x2, traction, door ajar, brake light). My turn indicators also pause. The next day the tach and speedo are out of wack, and resting in the middle of the dial sometimes. Today i started having issues with the radio and not being able to see the channel or change the clock. I removed the instrument cluster, and the radio seemed to work. I'm going to check the cluster circuit board to see if I can see any bad solder points.

 

Just checking on your issue. Have you checked the plug to the instrument cluster yet? That is the problem. I just don't want you to spend money till you check the first. You can always take the trim off the dash to give you the ability to see the wire harness to the cluster, drive down the road and wiggle the harness and I am sure that you will make it do the weird things it's doing. Please let me know if that helps you.

 

Cameronark, I did try wiggling the wire while driving, and it didn't have any effect. I also tried to inspect the circuit board with a magnifying glass and couldn't see any cracks of deformities. I could not get the needles off the gauges so could not look at both sides of the board. If I unplug the instrument cluster, my radio display comes back to life. Weird thing this weekend. Drove for 3 hrs to our cabin and had the dash dinging the whole way. Drove a little on Saturday, same thing. Got in the truck last night to drive 3 hrs home, and there was no dinging at all, radio worked, lights on dash didn't fade every few minutes. Only thing was my speedo was reading 25 km/h high. I have found a used cluster for $100 and have it arriving this week. Will put that in when I get it and see if the problem goes away.

 

Out of no where my tire pressure monitor fault light came on, then door ajar light. the traction control light was also on and couldn't be changed, and the dome light would not go on when the door was opened. the blinkers worked, however no light in the cabin signaled and no sound could be heard. next day the door ajar went away, but the brake light came on. that only lasted a day but the other issues remained. also, each time I released the brake I could hear a little clicking noise.


I took the truck to Ford dealer, and they said the diagnostic revealed that the module in the smart junction box was the issue, and it was "cheaper" to replace the whole box. After installing that I was informed only some of the issues were fixed, and now they determine I need to replace the instrument cluster as well! I'm not convinced I ever needed the smart junction box replaced. for those with similar issues, did just replacing the instrument cluster work???

 

I had the same problem on my 2010 STX. The cluster connector was my problem too. Found it by the flat hand slap to the top right of the dash above the cluster. I tweaked the connector pins a little and put a few tie wraps around the wires at the connector. So far so good.

 

Update on this issue The problem came back with a no start condition. Shout out to Cameronark for the fix on this menace. I did exactly what he said about the two screws through the white plastic cover to push on the cluster connector. WORKED LIKE A CHARM! Thanks again for the write up.

 

I am having the same problem but moving the female plug and wires on the top of the instrument cluster make no difference. Is there anyway to check the cluster before buying a new one?