Hey all,

Driving a 2004 4.6 Reg Flareside 2WD with 138K km on her, parked outside 24/7/365. All maintenance up to date, purs like a kitten, lots of power when asked for, no issues.

Except...

Every so often, on startup, the dash is in "Test" model. It seems to show no issues, just in test mode. Any thoughts or concerns about this?? Is it an issue, or just possessed??

Thanks in advance.

 

Wtf is test mode?

 

It puts the truck's electronics into a mode that allows you to test/set many of it's functions. Press and hold the Odometer / Trip Meter button down, and the dash will switch to test mode. You can check to see if your gauges are working, and a ton of other things.

My truck goes into this mode WITHOUT pressing that button intermittently on startup. I'm assuming that it shouldn't do that by itself.

 

Have you tried banging it while cursing and waving your fist in the air? May not help, but you'll look super cool lol

 

No, I have not tried that. But I have done the "squinting WTF face" with my arms out, palms up procedure. Several times in fact. No effect.

 

Sounds like the button is sticking, perhaps internally. Either that, or the cluster's electronics are having an issue so that they "see" the switch as being pressed at powerup.

 

Thought about it sticking. It pops back out nicely. But on the board... Good question. Not sure if that's a physical switch or membrane. Someone in the past might have smashed that thing hard, and deformed the membrane. Strange thing is, it's ONLY on startup. It never slips into Test mode while driving, no matter how rough/bumpy the road is. Most of the time I only have a 3 minute drive, so don't worry about it. If it's longer, I'll shut the truck off, and start her up again. 99.99% of the time, this gets it out of test mode. It doesn't cause any issues, so not really worried about it. But just curious IF I SHOULD be worried about it.

 

DTM can be activated ONLY at power up.

Just convince yourself it gives the truck "character".