I have a 1999 Expedition and had the odometer come on and off for the last 8 years. I read Greg's instructions on how to fix the odometer and was very unsure if I could accomplish this. With the detailed pictures that Greg included, I was able to fix the odometer in 1.5 hours. For anyone who is going to try this, getting the light switch out of the dash was the only tricky part. The rest was a breeze if you follow Greg's instructions. A BIG THANK YOU to Greg!

 

Thanks a million for this. It took me about and hour and a half, but it would have taken much longer without this guide.

 

I just did this in my truck..took me about an hour and half for this part (did some other things under there while i was at it..)

GREAT thread, easy to follow. I had the same exact solder joint problem. I just heated it up a bit and added a tiny bit of solder with my crappy soldering gun. Just to reiterate a few points..

1.) DEFINATELY put a towel over the steering column cover, as I too had put a few scratches in it, even when I was being careful.

2.) Make a note of how many screws you take out of what, and what order you took out the panels, etc. I finished the job with a screw left over.. not enough to make a loose piece, but enough to question next time.

3.) If you need to take your gauge needles out, DEFINATELY mark where they were. You can get most of them by running the engine warm, and running the vehicle in test mode to get the tach, but its' easier if you just mark them, or take a picture.

THANKS again for the great post!!

 

I recently bought a 99 f150 with this problem thanks to this post its fixed for the 5 bucks it cost me for some fine soder.. Thank a million for the fix..

 

Does this repair also work for 2005 models?

My odometer has been cutting out the last few months and now it is altogether off. I found paperwork in the glove box when I bought it showing the original owner had the same problem since it was new.

Thank you.

 

I bought a 99 F150 this week with this problem. It took 2 hours with frequent breaks and no problems. Thank you.

 

It happened on my 2006 within a few months of buying it new...I found this thread in my research back then, but that was mostly curiosity - the truck was obviously still under warranty, I brought it back and my dealer fixed it under warranty at no cost. Only thing was they had to order the dash cluster so it took an extra day (dropped off in the morning, picked it up the next afternoon).

 

how do you remove the light switch without breaking it?

 

99 - 04 Heritage pop out. What year truck? 97-98 use a different method.

JMC

 

Greg Upton, I bet when you posted this, nearly 4 years ago, you probably had no idea how many people you'd be helping! I bought my 99 Lariat Supercab a couple years ago and this problem just became irritating enough for me to look for a cure. Your pictures and instructions were wonderful and I fixed this in about 2 hours. The most difficult parts of the fix were the removal of the light switch and the undoing the clips holding the auto trans indicator in the cluster.

I hadn't read post # 9 in this thread from "girlwithtruck", posted 6-26-2004, or removing the light switch would have been easier. Actually, mine was pre-broken by someone attempting a previous fix, but it is in such a condition that the face now snaps off and back on. With the face snapped off, it was easy for me to see that there is a spring loaded trigger mechanism that slides from left to right, allowing two fingers to line up with slots in panel and thus allowing the switch to slide right out. The instructions from girlwithtruck explain the appropriate way to activate that slide switch by using the ****!

As far as the clips holding the automatic trans indicator, they might not be a problem for a younger pair of eyes, but going on 60, my presbyopia is problematic for such tasks!

Greg and girlwithtruck, you both have cold ones waiting for you in
Castle Rock Colorado when you're here. Hats off to both of you!

 

Thanks, I've just bought a 1999 F-150 Lariat. It has this problem. Now I know how to fix it.

 

thanks to all above, I just fixed mine. Didn't solder that post myself, I took it to a place that fixes tv's and car stereos. They have a microscope,etc. 30 seconds to solder and charged me 2 bucks. Great.
On my 2000 f150 headlight switch removal---if you see a small opening in the bottom of the switch cover where it meets the dash trim, insert a small screwdriver into that opening, push in about half inch, and you will release the bottom of 3 total metal clips holding the switch in place. once that clip releases, there are 2 more, on on top and one on the side. If you pull hard once the bottom clip is released, they both release and it pops out. It is just a press fit with 3 spring metal clips, no screws.

 

I just had the same problem with my 2003 supercrew. I would be driving and the odomiter would just blank out. This started to get worse so I found this post and just spent some time fixing it. Thanks for taking your time to post the fix on here. By the way mine was cracked in the same place.

 

RustyCannon,

You are right. When I first started this thread I never imagined it would continue as it has. I'm glad I was able to help a few other people. The other posters here help people everyday, mine was just a single submission. I still like to visit it every now and then and read other people's replies.

Apparently there is a difference in removing the light switch in the 1999 and 2000 models. My only experience was with the 2000 model. Girlwithtruck gave good advice on the 1999 models.

3F150, thanks for sharing your experience with a 2003 model. I didn't realize the same problem was occuring with the later models.

My 2000 F150 is still running strong. It now has 240,000 miles on it and has been the most dependable vehicle I have ever owned. Besides the odometer problem the only other repairs I have done to it is to replace the rear ABS sensor, clean and lubricate the idle air control valve (a repair I learned here) and add some freon to it.

Thanks everyone for posting their experiences.

 

Thank you Greg Upton!

I have a similar problem with a 1997 F150 that loses power to the whole cluster (relays etc check good by swapout).
We just swapped in a good used cluster today, but now I'm gonna inspect every solder joint on the old cluster PC boards (by taking hi-res pics and enlarging them on my PC).