Hey all,

Been having a weird issue with my 2005 Ford Ranger Edge, 3.0, rwd, auto. The indicator lights for my left turn signal and high beam lights often stop coming on, after I drive for a while (e.g., on the highway for 40 minutes, or on a day at work where I'm driving a lot between sites). All the actual outside signal lights and high-beam lights work; it's just the indicators. Once they stop working, they'll stop the whole day (usually); but will often come back on a day or two later, in the morning. Any thoughts?

Other stuff that doesn't work on this dashboard gauge cluster, in case it's relevant: engine coolant temperature gauge and one illuminator bulb behind the tachometer. Also, in case it's relevant, the issue with the left turn indicator only started while sitting at a particularly long left turn, after hitting some deep water which caused some electrical issues the day before. The hi-indicator has been with me ever since I owned the truck.

Any thoughts? If anyone has suggestions, or even just a similar experience, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Thanks :-)

 

2005 does have a Digital cluster(HEC) so turn and high beam issue could indicate an problem with the microprocessor in the cluster, might try unhooking either battery cable for 5min, if it has not been done recently for other work, see if Cluster resets and works

Google: HEC test mode
Not sure if the 2005 will do this test, but free to try

HEC Clusters can't just be swapped out like older clusters, they have to be re-married to the other modules and computer, I thought I read that Forscan can do that but not sure

Temp gauge may be the Sender on the engine, common failure and not hard to replace

Back light bulbs burn out, 2005 still had analog bulbs, replace all 6 when cluster is out, not just the 1, and you can use LEDs if you want, but test first to make sure all 6 bulbs work before fastening cluster in place, LEDs have a + and - side and regular bulbs do not, so you may need to reverse a bulb or two so they work

 

Thanks Ron! I'll look that up. When you say the battery cable, is this a battery cable on the microprocessor, or is this the vehicle battery?

I did remove the gauge cluster several months ago to replace the lights - one was probably a dud, because all the others worked. Do you think it's possible I disturbed anything then, to cause the indicator lights to misbehave?

I'll check out your suggestion on the temp sender. Thanks!

 

Yes, battery cable, unhook one and that cuts voltage to all modules/processors, after a few minutes their capacitors will be drained so when you reconnect battery cable each module will reboot its Factory software, and hopefully clear out any glitches that may have been causing an issue
Just like rebooting a smart phone or laptop or home PC, can get it working without previous glitch

If you noticed the absence of those indicator lights after the bulb replacement then yes, there is a good chance something/connection is loose on the back of cluster

 

Gotcha. OK, I'll give that a look. I poked around and found a video that seems helpful, re: dealership test mode, I'll try that later. (Here: ) Thanks!

 

Well, I couldn't get the HEC dealership test to work, but I'll see if simply removing battery cables helps. Thanks again for the suggestions!