My dash lights have been out for about 3 months now. They just came on today and went back out after I turned off the headlights (drove 20 miles with them on) and turned them back on. Has anyone else had this problem? I have read the post of how to replace the fuse, but that does not sound like my problem. How could they be out for so long and sudddenly come back on? If anyone can help me out I would appreciate it. It really sucks having to turn on the dome to check my speed!

 

I had the exact same problem. My dash lights would come on either never, or about 20 minutes after I turned the headlights on. The fuse checked out fine. It turns out that it was a bad gauge cluster and I had to replace it. If you order it from a Ford dealership and give yours back to them as a core it costs around $200 if my memory serves me correctly. It's been a couple years since I did that but it shouldn't be far off from that price. This was with me installing it in the parking lot and having them come out and program the odometer and whatever else they had to do after I hooked it up. I have no idea what labor would be like if you have them do it. Just look up some of the info on how to remove it to check for the fuse and that will tell you all you need to know about how to remove the cluster. Have fun getting the boost hose plugged back in too

 

If you mean the instrument cluster lights, do a search. There is a how-to to replace a teeny little fuse on the circuit board that goes bad.

Edit: the search term is "littelfuse"

 

The bad cluster was what I was afraid of. Thanks for the info "detail". Sounds like I will probably be doing the same thing you did. I've had pretty much the whole dash out before so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not in the mood to pay Ford $500 for labor to do some work that I can do. Plus I won't have to worry about some technician breaking mounting tabs or anything. Thanks again!

 

No problem bud. I hope it all works out. Let me know when you get it back in. My cluster has not had any problems since I replaced it.

 

The Littelfuse fix is a few cents. You might want to try that first.

 

^ That is the fix..............

 

It wasnt the problem on mine. I spent a lot of time reading about it since when I posted here EVERYONE said that was the issue. That would be the issue if the lights NEVER come on at all perhaps but not if they are intermittent. I pulled the fuse out of the cluster and it tested fine. By the sound of your symptoms that won't do anything.

 

That's a good point.