Sometimes you look with a 🔎 and you can't see the cracks but you resolder them and there sweet, normally its the can bus joints that crack but I resolver them all
They removed lead from solder and now electronics are having all sorts of issues including satellites and deep space missions. On my Audi, modern solder joints have a low melting point and leaving the car outside in hot weather slowly desoldered some joints (fixed them this a soldering iron and leaded solder which will last forever like in my 70s hifi equipment and voyager, lol).
Cracked solder joints where the connector joins the board. Being worse in cold weather is a tell tale sign, as the joints contract and pull away from the board.
New to the channel as having same issue on my mk2.5. Just want to say what a great resource your channel is, im starting a level 3 in vehicle repair in sept at the grand old age of 38 so wish me luck! Wish i had you for a tutor ive learned so much in just a few videos
I did my own took about 2 hours its pretty easy to do but you have to be really careful with the needles that you mount them to show the correct reading afterwards
Hi Alan, I had the same , I opened mine up and tried fixing it, it worked 4 a while and finally proper died 😂 just sent mine off to the same company you recommended, fingers crossed
Hi, love the channel. Had this exact problem. It's cracked solder joints on the pin connectors on the cluster pcb. Solution is to reflow all joints and all good. All down to lead free solder used on the pcb I believe.
Similar to this intermittent fault, the dash is dead and the car won't crank. In the engine bay fuse box there's 2 brown square relays. 1 will be faulty. It may not give a strong click sound.
Behind the instrument cluster the solder joints become dry and cracks and this disrupts the connection. Remove the cluster and solder the main joints again and it will be good as new. I did this repair on a mk2 focus 1 year ago and it’s running great since.
Hi Alan thanks to you i have now sorted my instrument cluster after sending it to ecu testng who were great, unit now fully repaired focus now top notch thankyou.
Yep common issue dry/cracked solder joints needs taking apart and reflowing. If you can't solder then just buy a used unit with less miles on than your current ones and do miles correction with focccus software.
Had a Mk4 Mondeo where the stock radio would not power on or off with ignition, just the screen stayed on and killed the battery. Reflowed the dash clocks and it cured it as all coms go through the clocks. Was a real pain to diagnose.
There easy to repair Alan its the soldering drying out I had the same I repaired mine its been fine since. All you do is resolder the joints that's cracked and broken.
Lots of intermittent trouble with a Mk3 Mondeo cluster. Just needed the fuse pulling in and out a few times after taking the cluster out and trying cleaning connections etc.
Troeble was caused by the elf and saftee lot geting lead removed from the solder. Whatever they replaced it with is much more brittle and causes the little joints to become disconnected. By the way, what's happened to Monnie, we don't see her any more.
I have resoldered 3 different focus clocks now, i still dont like doing it cause i a half blind in one eye, but anyone good at soldering should be able to manage it
Might get solidifying iron out that's more than t my cars wotth 😂 it's always done the red flashing light thing occasionally, normally removing key and restoring fixed it
Very similar to my 2008 mk4 Mondeo dashboard failure. It was fine, but when it began to warm up, it could just freeze completely, needles. Digital part used to work always and I drove the car for couple months with only feel and reseting average speed when I needed to know exact speed :) I got it fixed by one electronics guy, but it failed like two years later similarly. I was annoyed as fix cost like 200 euros. I got myself cheap airf reflow station and and went through every single solder joint. Third time was the charm and it's now been working for I think couple years already. Apparently on Focus clusters it can be really easy fix of resoldering all wire connector solder joints. There's only like 20 and can be easily done with conventional soldering gun.
Surprised you did not open it up and take a look. As others have said solder dry joints or screws inside making electrical contacts need tightening. Its quite interesting how car electronics work; basically there is loads of can messages flying around the network and ecus on the network either respond to messages or put out their own messages.For example a speed sensor will be sending out how fast the car is going, and the instrument cluster will pick those up and convert them to the speed display.
Very informative video Alan.I want to see more videos.Your boss should get rid of all these old cars including the red taxis and get a new fleet of cars.
Iv'e got Engine Malfunction displayed on my Focus 09 plate.Its a 1.6 diesel tdci.i was told it was the instrument cluster so paid £180 to have it sorted.It didnt work and it still has the same fault,various garages have had a look but after spending over £500 on it i have given up.I really love the car and have looked after it over the years and it drives really great,even when the fault is on the dash it does affect the acceleration but cruises nicely.You do lose faith in garages.The fault message appears on the dash after about 3 miles,if i turn the the engine off it disappears but will eventually come on again.I would never dishonestly try and sell it privately or to a garage so will have to be honest when i do decide to sell.
Got 60ohm at obd socket, where it should have been 120ohm. (Can't remember the pin numbers) Resoldered all legs on the multi-connector on cluster and bingo.
My wifes Focus would just cut out when driving on the motorway. The garage said it was a chip on a board and need the whole dash removing so we scrapped the car which was perfect otherwise.
My car is at the moment off the road in the Repairs it simultaneously did its other favourite Focus fault and that is the oil cooler letting by and throwing oil in coolant water,,It caused a lot of confusion with both common faults occurring at the very same time
I went to a scrap breakers yard in Barnsley got one with the same part number for £20 Took it to Flash Dash in Sheffield it took him 5 minutes for £120
Same here. Started happening yesterday, as usual at the worst possible time in the worst possible place for it to happen. But at least this video and the comments here have saved me time and money.
Alan I just fixed an mk2 cluster however I am very curious as to what the 2 small red light offset so the middle of the cluster at the bottom of the big clocks are for. My neighbour who owns the car was concerned but for some reason there is no description in the user manual as to what they mean. (at the 0 of the speedo and the 8 of the taco).
Hello,Alan. Great fix! Are you interested in using a thermal camera to help troubleshoot efficiently? Such as bad injectors,engine misfires,etc. We can send you one sample to review.
Great Video Alan. I had the same issue with my CMax 1.6 petrol and sent it away to a company in Cannock. Since then it’s been reliable but occasionally I get a long crank….wonder if it’s connected??
Hello Alan wondering if you might have some idea as to why my MK2 focus automatic won't let me select years manually I can to P R N D no problem but knocking it over to manual doesn't do anything, any ideas where the fault might be?
Evening Big Fella , Remember Salvage Rebuilds taking a punt on an old Focus and this was fault they had too. common fault they got it sorted and sold Wednesday night hope you have had a beer tonight and a slice of pizza
You make it look sooo easy. But just getting those instruments out must be hard for someone who has not done it before. Anyway very interesting and I hope my Mk3 Mondy does not do that.
Happens a lot on these Solder joints in the cluster wont make good contact Can give a lot of codes Even destroy other connected modules Seen one destroy a pcm because it was shorting 12v to signal wire
That shouldn't be possible. Nothing is changing connections when solder joints are getting bad. Not even with diodes on the board. I think something else happened in your case.
@@jothain it sure can If the cluster shorts out it can damage a lot of other things Seen it happen a couple of times were the problem started like this and caused bcm or even pcm to break If the solderen joints break it can screw with the power distribution of the ipc witch can even cause it to catch fire
@@JasperTW-NL that is possible, though if poor connection actually breaks something else, well it's also poor circuit design in that case. That kind of stuff should never ever happen. Protection by fuses, diodes etc. is then missing.
The solder joints go dry and crack, its quite common.
Sometimes you look with a 🔎 and you can't see the cracks but you resolder them and there sweet, normally its the can bus joints that crack but I resolver them all
Lead free solder is a cancer
They removed lead from solder and now electronics are having all sorts of issues including satellites and deep space missions. On my Audi, modern solder joints have a low melting point and leaving the car outside in hot weather slowly desoldered some joints (fixed them this a soldering iron and leaded solder which will last forever like in my 70s hifi equipment and voyager, lol).
Cracked solder joints where the connector joins the board. Being worse in cold weather is a tell tale sign, as the joints contract and pull away from the board.
New to the channel as having same issue on my mk2.5. Just want to say what a great resource your channel is, im starting a level 3 in vehicle repair in sept at the grand old age of 38 so wish me luck! Wish i had you for a tutor ive learned so much in just a few videos
I did my own took about 2 hours its pretty easy to do but you have to be really careful with the needles that you mount them to show the correct reading afterwards
£173.40 for around 24 poor solder connection its no wounder there a cost of living crisis a very easy self repair. If you have a soldering iron.
It’s where the soldering joins the board. I had same problem, resoldered joints. Problem sorted
Hi Alan, I had the same , I opened mine up and tried fixing it, it worked 4 a while and finally proper died 😂 just sent mine off to the same company you recommended, fingers crossed
Soldier joints Go dry on back of connection resolder or clean with ipa as a short term fix
What is IPA?
@@reuben.holmes.9690 isopropyl
ecutesting are very good, used them several times and the service has been excellent.
Hi, love the channel. Had this exact problem. It's cracked solder joints on the pin connectors on the cluster pcb. Solution is to reflow all joints and all good. All down to lead free solder used on the pcb I believe.
Similar to this intermittent fault, the dash is dead and the car won't crank. In the engine bay fuse box there's 2 brown square relays. 1 will be faulty. It may not give a strong click sound.
Behind the instrument cluster the solder joints become dry and cracks and this disrupts the connection. Remove the cluster and solder the main joints again and it will be good as new. I did this repair on a mk2 focus 1 year ago and it’s running great since.
Hi Alan thanks to you i have now sorted my instrument cluster after sending it to ecu testng who were great, unit now fully repaired focus now top notch thankyou.
The mk1 dash used to do weird things from new back in the day. But it was 20yrs ago now so I don't think anybody would worry about it today lol.
That was usually the VSS in the gearbox, absolute twat to get out.
Yep common issue dry/cracked solder joints needs taking apart and reflowing. If you can't solder then just buy a used unit with less miles on than your current ones and do miles correction with focccus software.
Just resolder the main connector pins on the pcb that mate with the connector you unplugged. Easy job. Did it on my mk4 mondy
Had a Mk4 Mondeo where the stock radio would not power on or off with ignition, just the screen stayed on and killed the battery. Reflowed the dash clocks and it cured it as all coms go through the clocks. Was a real pain to diagnose.
dry Soldier joints on instrument cluster my Focus Mk2 did the same thing. auto spark fix my one £60 😊
I have done this job its an easy diy fix just a dry solder joint in side flux and new solder and fixed
Its the solder joints to the connector. Its easy to by your self. I have done it and i am rubbish at soldering.
Lots of guides out there.
That’s to do with a bit behind corroding over time send it away they add a bit of solder and it’s good as new
There easy to repair Alan its the soldering drying out I had the same I repaired mine its been fine since. All you do is resolder the joints that's cracked and broken.
Lots of intermittent trouble with a Mk3 Mondeo cluster. Just needed the fuse pulling in and out a few times after taking the cluster out and trying cleaning connections etc.
Troeble was caused by the elf and saftee lot geting lead removed from the solder. Whatever they replaced it with is much more brittle and causes the little joints to become disconnected.
By the way, what's happened to Monnie, we don't see her any more.
I have resoldered 3 different focus clocks now, i still dont like doing it cause i a half blind in one eye, but anyone good at soldering should be able to manage it
Might get solidifying iron out that's more than t my cars wotth 😂 it's always done the red flashing light thing occasionally, normally removing key and restoring fixed it
very good guess dry cracked solder joints done loads
had the same with my focus 2006 and you was right alan it was caused by dry solder
had this happen in my mk2 2 years ago its the solder connection issue i had to get another instrument cluster which messed up my keyless start
Very similar to my 2008 mk4 Mondeo dashboard failure. It was fine, but when it began to warm up, it could just freeze completely, needles. Digital part used to work always and I drove the car for couple months with only feel and reseting average speed when I needed to know exact speed :)
I got it fixed by one electronics guy, but it failed like two years later similarly. I was annoyed as fix cost like 200 euros. I got myself cheap airf reflow station and and went through every single solder joint. Third time was the charm and it's now been working for I think couple years already. Apparently on Focus clusters it can be really easy fix of resoldering all wire connector solder joints. There's only like 20 and can be easily done with conventional soldering gun.
Sounds like a phone or games repairer that does charging sockets could easily do it.
@@marklittler784 absolutely could. Same components everywhere.
Alan please make a video on swapping the automatic gearbox on those Focus Mk2. I have to that job on my wife´s focus this summer!
For £170 would off had a look at my self only a dry joint
cracked soldiers is normally the main reason and it is very easy to do it yourself
The connection pins like 99% of the time. Move them gently after disassembling the cluster and see which one needs new soldering 🎉
Surprised you did not open it up and take a look. As others have said solder dry joints or screws inside making electrical contacts need tightening. Its quite interesting how car electronics work; basically there is loads of can messages flying around the network and ecus on the network either respond to messages or put out their own messages.For example a speed sensor will be sending out how fast the car is going, and the instrument cluster will pick those up and convert them to the speed display.
Very informative video Alan.I want to see more videos.Your boss should get rid of all these old cars including the red taxis and get a new fleet of cars.
Because money grows on trees?
Who needs a business consultant with advice like that 😂
A dry solder joint on the board behind the connector, common problem
That Mondeo sounds like a brick in a cement mixer
Very informative video Alan - thanks for sharing. Our Focus hasn't done this yet but if it does, I'll have an idea of what to do - thanks again!
I have a galaxy.2008 2.2. Similar problem. But slapping the dash don't work. Is.there a plug in the engine bay that controls the cluster?
I think their prices have gone up as with everything else these days. Phone showing first signs of Parkinsons 😂
Mind you not a surprise cracked solder joints being a problem probably caused by the state of the roads too.☹️
Solder joints happened on my dads Mk2.5 very common issue.
Iv'e got Engine Malfunction displayed on my Focus 09 plate.Its a 1.6 diesel tdci.i was told it was the instrument cluster so paid £180 to have it sorted.It didnt work and it still has the same fault,various garages have had a look but after spending over £500 on it i have given up.I really love the car and have looked after it over the years and it drives really great,even when the fault is on the dash it does affect the acceleration but cruises nicely.You do lose faith in garages.The fault message appears on the dash after about 3 miles,if i turn the the engine off it disappears but will eventually come on again.I would never dishonestly try and sell it privately or to a garage so will have to be honest when i do decide to sell.
did you fix it
Can someone please answer this question, does Allan own the yard, Steve’s taxis and the service centre
Common fault on Focus, solder dry, splits
Got 60ohm at obd socket, where it should have been 120ohm.
(Can't remember the pin numbers)
Resoldered all legs on the multi-connector on cluster and bingo.
My wifes Focus would just cut out when driving on the motorway. The garage said it was a chip on a board and need the whole dash removing so we scrapped the car which was perfect otherwise.
My car is at the moment off the road in the Repairs it simultaneously did its other favourite Focus fault and that is the oil cooler letting by and throwing oil in coolant water,,It caused a lot of confusion with both common faults occurring at the very same time
Alan, do you fancy making a video of what aftermarket parts are worth getting as not all are made the same, particularly clutch components?
I went to a scrap breakers yard in Barnsley got one with the same part number for £20
Took it to Flash Dash in Sheffield it took him 5 minutes for £120
You sir are a legend
Hi 👋🏻 Alan the Ford mondingo man. Love these little fixes 👍🏻
Hi Alan have you come across fault code P1102 on a 1.5 tdci engine MAF sensor in range but lower than expected?
I have made a lot of money by fixing this solder issue on cars that were almost given to me because they were given up by their owners
Top man, as usual and I do enjoy your commentaries.
This is happening to me at the moment!
Same here. Started happening yesterday, as usual at the worst possible time in the worst possible place for it to happen. But at least this video and the comments here have saved me time and money.
Alan I just fixed an mk2 cluster however I am very curious as to what the 2 small red light offset so the middle of the cluster at the bottom of the big clocks are for. My neighbour who owns the car was concerned but for some reason there is no description in the user manual as to what they mean. (at the 0 of the speedo and the 8 of the taco).
A very common and easy to fix... If you solder... issue.
Yep comment fault on the MK2. It'd make a nice video of yourself repairing one of these. Plenty of you tube videos of it
Hello,Alan. Great fix! Are you interested in using a thermal camera to help troubleshoot efficiently? Such as bad injectors,engine misfires,etc. We can send you one sample to review.
£255 is very expensive, any autoelectrician would do these all day for £100-150.
Great Video Alan. I had the same issue with my CMax 1.6 petrol and sent it away to a company in Cannock. Since then it’s been reliable but occasionally I get a long crank….wonder if it’s connected??
Hi can I have the name of the company in Cannock please as mine is playing up?
Did you ever had problems with clutch retainer springs on mk5 mondeo 2.0 tdci?
Part nr F2318790 N/STK KIT - CLUTCH R got replacement from ALEN FORD for £18.36
£173!!! Do it yourself
Hello Alan wondering if you might have some idea as to why my MK2 focus automatic won't let me select years manually I can to P R N D no problem but knocking it over to manual doesn't do anything, any ideas where the fault might be?
Very helpful information
had the rac confirm it would be the cluster too so it a mystery as it does what you said on the video ???>?
Great stuff Alan, Thank You👌👍🙏😎
Where's Moni???
Good detail video alan... keep up the good work 👏
Ford or whoever made the cluster should be paying for this fix by rights.
Is it just the soldered joints that go dry or is that the components on the PCB that need replacing in some cases
Hello, I have a ford c max 2007, and neither the seat alarm work nor the seat sign shows on the dash board. Can you please help me to fix it?
Regards
I would check the wiring under your drivers seat, pull the connectors apart and refit them while checking for any visible broken wires
Top info as always.
Evening Big Fella ,
Remember Salvage Rebuilds taking a punt on an old Focus and this was fault they had too. common fault they got it sorted and sold
Wednesday night hope you have had a beer tonight and a slice of pizza
Yes that's the correct way to open your parcels whilst its being filmed😊😅😊
You make it look sooo easy. But just getting those instruments out must be hard for someone who has not done it before. Anyway very interesting and I hope my Mk3 Mondy does not do that.
Had the same thing happen years ago on an 07 SMax tdci👍😉💪
Ford fox it in catford South london replaces this cheap if it fails and reprograms it to the cars ecu
Happens a lot on these
Solder joints in the cluster wont make good contact
Can give a lot of codes
Even destroy other connected modules
Seen one destroy a pcm because it was shorting 12v to signal wire
That shouldn't be possible. Nothing is changing connections when solder joints are getting bad. Not even with diodes on the board. I think something else happened in your case.
@@jothain it sure can
If the cluster shorts out it can damage a lot of other things
Seen it happen a couple of times were the problem started like this and caused bcm or even pcm to break
If the solderen joints break it can screw with the power distribution of the ipc witch can even cause it to catch fire
@@JasperTW-NL short and circuit break are generally very different things.
@@jothain thats right
Wont mean one cant cause the other
@@JasperTW-NL that is possible, though if poor connection actually breaks something else, well it's also poor circuit design in that case. That kind of stuff should never ever happen. Protection by fuses, diodes etc. is then missing.
Can be U0073 eror for dashboard faulire.
computers and Engines dont Mix
How do 1 disable it 2012 Mondeo
they are fast cars MK2 ford focus
I spent 100 pounds but did get refund as they have no answer why the cluster failed
sent mine off sent email news said it cluster test result faulty ,rebuilt payed for it.
i found it did not fix what a R i p off
Where did you send it off to?