Any car mechanics online?

[hanau]

Daughter went to leave this evening and her gauges started acting funny.
This is a picture of the dash.



Check Eng light is on, fuel cap light on, speed odometer doesn't work, seat belt doesn't go out when bucking seat belt, mileage odometer and trip odometer not registering, battery light is on.

blinker to the left been on before this problem started.

gas gauge appears to be working

not sure about temperature.

disconnected battery for 30 mins.

Have 13-14 volts at battery while car running

Bluetooth OBDII would not link (think my Bluetooth reader was going bad anyways.), so went to the store and purchased a Actron pocket-scan it will not link, but it does link on my other cars.

Changed batteries still same problems.
Checked instrument panel fuses look good.
Any ideas on what may be the problem?

 

[BackyardSmokin]

Not a mechanic but I have had this happen twice. First was the computer fuse/relay leading to the computer. This is located in the fuse box under the hood.

The other time the computer the computer was fried.

Hope that it is only the fuse/relay, replacing the computer can be expensive. Even used the computer will need to be reprogrammed.

 

[hanau]

Do you remember the name of tge relay?

 

[jd420214]

I'm a engineering tech for one of the car company's depending on year and car these thing usually have there own board in back that communicates with the body controller and eng controller one of these probably going bad since it's still running it's probably the cluster or body controller it also could be as simple as a bad connection some were.
Dave

 

[hanau]

It's a 05 focus.

I figured out the fuses and relays will be checking them in a little bit. If the rain slacks off.

 

[EBorraga]

There is a problem with these building up corrosion in the connector for the instrument cluster. Ford replaces the entire cluster as a fix. But if you have any mechanical ability, you can fix it yourself. Just take out the cluster and use contact cleaner on the connections.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

Look for a corroded wire or splice going into your fuse panels... check the fuses too, and make sure none are blown - ECU fuse or the like....

 

[maxwell_smart007]

Here's a very likely answer:
Chasing common electrical problems with the Ford Focus - Automotive Service Professional

 

[Sabaharr]

F O R D

 

[truckfixr]

The Ford Focus is also well known for having multiple glitches caused by bad grounds. Inspect and clean all of the wire harness grounds to the body under the hood.

 

[hanau]

well car was stuck in the side yard, didn't think about that last night when we parked it. Been raining most of the weekend.
Ended up pulling it out of the yard and while doing so threw mud all over the house.
We got it to a garage for them to work on.
came back home drug the pressure washer out while it was raining just to find out that the house doesn't connect to the pressure washer.

Dog chew the house end of and i put the wrong end on the hose. So have to buy a new hose since it needs a new end and has a couple more holes in it.

Looks like the house wash will have to wait till later this week.

 

[hanau]

a little update on this.
Mechanic thought it was the computer and after 3 attempts could not get the computers to work with the cars. $239

I sent back 3 times for them to check it. Final time told them to keep it got $130 back had to pay for the keys that needed to be cut for the new computers.

Told mechanic I would just take it home and take it to ford after Christmas.

Doing some research on line came to a focus forum had suggestions that cluster has know issues and to take it and have it rebuilt.
Found local place that been doing cluster for years. Said yeah it had some issues and they repaired it, $192

Got home hoping this was the issue, nope same problems.

Tried to find wiring diagram for car.
Went to all ALLDATAdiy.com Leading Source of Factory Automotive Repair Information this is for the DIY people.
Found a coupon and got a 1 year subscription for the car for $13.
Found area that walk me thru testing issues.
Found a open wire between the OBD2 port and the cars computer.

Wiring diagram a little hard to follow on there prefer to have them in hand and not on a tablet.

Off to ebay found ford wiring book for the car $20 shipped.

Finally got time today to trace the wiring .

Found a broken wire under the passenger seat that went to the seat belt system was broken. Repaired wire and now everything works.


I was fortunate enough to have a couple spare cars that this didn't cause a hardship on the family I could take the time to figure it out myself and not took it to ford and paid who knows how much.

 

[low_48]

So how much did you spend trying to save money and not go to Ford? I had a little trouble following the money trail.

 

[hanau]

About $350
$192 Instrument repair.
$20 for wiring manual.
$13 alldata.
$120 for restock fee of computer.

But did learn a lot on chasing wiring

No idea what ford would of charged.