O.K. Gentlemen, here is your chance to do a good deed during this season of giving. I jumped in my '99 last night while I was
Christmas shopping with the kids and the gauge lights would
not come on. The turn signal , high beam, brake and theft
indicators all continue to work so the only conclusion I can come
to is that the electroluminesent device ( that is specific only to
the Lightning) behind the gauge cluster has failed. I have
read all the appends in this forum about this problem and it seems to be fairly common. Also, most all of the solutions to it seem to involve warrenty repairs. My truck is long out of warrenty. My question is, has anyone fixed this problem on their own? Does anyone have a P/N for the electroluminesent
unit inside the gauge cluster? I've read about the replacement gauge clusters and reprogrammed security modules which may
work fine for warrenty repairs but when you have to pay for this
stuff yourself it's crazy. Thanks for the help.

 

fcmiller

I had same problem with my 99. Had to replace the gauge cluster. My 99 only had 26000 and i had extended warrenty. If you could find a wrecked 99 maybe you could use that. Good luck tring to get it fixed.

 

There is a insterment cluster on ebay for sale. 2448961293 . It is very expensive. Sure am glad my warrenty was good.

 

Same problem here, been like that for the last year. I hope to fix this before next spring when I pull her out again. Maybe we can get a svt tech or a parts dept. employee here to help with a part #. My local dealer's parts dept. can't seem to pull their head all the way out of their a**.

 

my friends went out a week ago in his 99L. It only has 15,000 miles on it and i told him this was gonna be an expensive item to fix. The bad thing is that he is only 15 and wanted to spend the money he had saved up on mods insetead of this.

 

Here is what I think I have found out. If anyone knows any different please jump on in. The learning curve here is kind of slow. The electroluminescent unit actually has a couple of components. It consists of a the actual guage face that is made
in a sandwich construction. The front and back are thin plastic.
The middle of the sandwich is an chemical gel that glows when
a voltage is applied to it. I have been told that all units like this
,either factory or aftermarket, are 110 volt. Therefore, there is a stepup transformer mounted somewhere on the cluster assembly, __ we think. The fellow I spoke with said that the electroluminescent sandwich is very reliable. That would lead one to believe that either the transformer has gone bad or a wire to the transformer is broken. I can understand now why
the dealer fix is to replace the whole cluster but unfortunately that does not help us any. I have contacted FORD SVT and told them I think it is ridiculous for a customer to incurr a $600 bill to replace a light bulb. Remember, this is what you are looking at: $350 for a guage cluster, $150 labor ( at least) and $100 to down load and up load your security info to the module on the back of the new cluster. My suggestion is to call FORD SVT at 800- 367-3788 and ask for Rob. Don't bust his chops too much because I think he is trying to help us but make the point in no uncertain terms that $600 for a light bulb is nuts.

 

Is the fuse blowing? Thats what happened with mine and they had to change the whole cluster.

 

Heh Rhinoslug, that's what we are thinking. Are you referring
to the 15A dash fuse or a small one on the back of the cluster that protects the inverter for the electro panel.

 

Hi

The EL panel is fairly reliable and usually just dims over time. There is a transformer that not only jumps the voltage up but converts it to an AC signal. Im not positive but I dont think its a normal sine wave but a square wave. The circuit boards that run these things are fairly simple so I think I would try to rule out a bad connection first. Also, the boards are fairly cheap for other applications so if someone can determine it is the transformer and find the location of it, maybe one from another application can be used. I can find out more info in the next day or two about the transformers if anyone is interested...

 

You guys should feel good about your 99s. My 2002 has the same freakin problem! Im taking it in Monday. Luckily Im still under warranty.

Andy