murf

So most of you know that the 99-03 F150s that have their Odometer, Compass, and temp stop displaying have a fix. They just pull their clusters and solder a bad joint on the circuit board. Well I have an 06 XLT and I haven't had my odometer for 2 years and I see a lot of you haven't either. Well I was just about to get a new cluster (dealer) when I decided to dig into my old one. Their are threads to show you how remove your cluster, I'm going to take it one step further and explain how I fixed my LCD display. I had bought a used cluster (ebay $60) and put it in, but it just wasn't working properly (radio stayed on, no compass) so since I had a used cluster on ebay for $60 I tore it apart to see what the LCD screen looked like.

The Fix: (Not banging on the dash )
Take your original cluster and remove it. Then there is 6 black clips that remove the clear plastic shield. Then on the back their is 7 star bolts holding the circuit board and a piece of white plastic to the white housing. Now you have the circuit board and the gauges. The black skin under the needles is attached to a clear plastic plate. You lift carefully on the corner and the needles will come off one by one until they are all off. Now you can remove the black skin with the clear plate it's attached to. Now you have just the circuit board and the white housing. The only thing holding them together now is the LCD display. Gently pull the display out of it's holder. It has 6 long pins (about an inch) that are seated onto the circuit board (they just pull right out). This is where our problem is. The solder on the back is fine but if one of those pins has lost connection you lose your LCD display. Take the LCD display and push it in and out of the holder a couple times. Then take a little connection grease (very little) and put it on each end. Now it's just a matter of putting it all back together and seeing if it worked. I actually replaced my LCD screen with the one I purchased and it worked, so I wanted to see if my old one still worked. After cleaning the old LCD screen pins it worked just fine too. And both screens displayed the proper mileage of the original cluster. My $60 extra cluster is was worth finding out how to fix the odometer! Hope this helps anyone else who doesn't want to drop $600 at the dealer for a new cluster! Oh yeah be very careful to mark where the needles are when you pop them off, and put them back EXACTLY!

This is the used cluster I'm just using it for pics. (you see needles and light bulbs floating around


This is the back, all the star bolts and the white plastic is off


Make sure you pull up on the clear plastic UNDER the black skin. The clear plastic and the skin are glued together, and no need to seperate the two.

The Little black you see on the 5th pin is just marker. Don't think it does anything.

Put it all back together, install it in the truck and hopfully you come up with this!

techrep

iTrader: (1)

Nice job Murf

blackbetty

sticky worthy....


would be better if you had pictures!

good job.

murf

I have pics, I'll get them on today at work.

Mod (Ret.)

Once the pictures are added, we will place it into the sticky: "Stop! Before you post Read this! Common useful links! "

Excellent post.

Ford_FX4

Def got to do this with my Fiancee's 2007 F150 stx..

Good stuff man!!

TheRedBullet

What brand of connection grease did you use? Also, where did you buy it?

murf

Just regular dielectrical grease, very sparingly. (any auto store) I know it doesn't technically "conduct electricity" but it also doesn't stop current. So if one of of your prongs moves a little losing it's connection the grease will help out with that. Its been a month and still hasn't even flickered!

Mod (Ret.)

Done (added to the "Stop! Before you post Read this! Common useful links")

Flintlock

Beautiful! Good job man.........