Seems theres a bit of a dearth of information when it comes to 2006-2011 dim/flickering/dead odometer repair aside from 'send it away'. Yeah. Right. Sure. As if. Not gonna happen. I've had a soldering iron long before I could even drive, I make my paycheck using a soldering iron, so it would be a rather sad state of affairs if the repairer sent something away to get repaired.
Like most Ford cluster repair information you will find, the common theme is bad solder joints. That was no different for mine. What is different is that the 06+ cvgm cluster looks nothing like the common mustang/f150 clusters you find in the writeups. If anything, the Freestar is the closest match in construction and one writeup tipped me off to pay attention to the surface mount components under the odometer. Something I would have probably ignored otherwise just out of sheer laziness.
1.The blank odometer is what quickly came to trouble my cluster. Haven't even driven the car for a full oil change interval yet and the odo started flickering, multiple levels of brightness digit to digit soon followed, and then nearly fully dim almost all the time.
2.Backside of the cluster. Plastic sneeze shield still in place.
3.Guage needles removed, starting to free the board from the housing.
4.Front side.
5.Odometer closer up, arrows pointing to big resistors and surface mount components also "hidden" underneath that should be touched up. Patience and your magnifier of choice will make this easier.
6.Closerer up. Viewers will note that the legs of the odometer are essentially hanging in free air with only the backside solder pads anchoring it. No wonder these things go, bit of vibration under the best of circumstances will eventually crack anything mounted like this. Ever since everything went to being designed on a computer screen a lot of common sense best-practices have fallen by the wayside.
7.Cluster Connector. You'll want to inspect this closely, it doesn't get much stress, but having operated a wave solderer in the past, theres a few things to know when you have large areas of solder, namely, a cooling action if the wave solder ain't perfectly setup, and with that, poor solder joints. If it is very badly setup, you can tell what direction the baord traveled through the wave solderer. I had a crack on the top left pin, and pin number 3. Retouched all corners and anything that looked suspect.
8.Main odo pins that we are concerned with here. Hit the legs of the 1/2watt resistors with some heat, don't be afraid, and don't use no shity 35watt soldering iron. That is for people who don't know how to solder and just want to be able to say they own a soldering iron. 75watts or 100watts. Even more important with todays multi-layered boards, too low a wattage means all the copper sucks the heat away from your iron and you are just making solder drops at best. And tin your tips damnit. And since you are this far into it, look over the entire board and touch up if necessary. Did not find anything else on mine that was questionable.
9.After putting everything together, seems I did move things while trying not to. Bit of driving and adjusting will soon get that back to where it should be.
Tip: Don't fully assembly the dash when you are done, and leave the clear lens off the cluster. Go drive with a scan tool and verify where the needles are pointing. Your OBD scanner live data will give you vehicle speed, fuel guage percentage, temperature, and naturally, engine rpm to help you get things setup.
Tip: Don't put things back together after the first test drive/key cycle either. Seems the guage cluster needs a couple drive cycles to settle back into its proper location if you inadvertantly moved the motor shafts at some point. Unlike many vehicles, you will notice that the cvgm does not do a needle sweep when turning on the key.
10.A few more adjustments... and things are back to reflecting reality. And thats how you save your self a C-note, or two C-notes if you are a Canuck.
Finish assembling and enjoy seeing an evenly lit odometer.
Don't worry about the trip meter button, its just a long plastic rod that pushes on a surface mounted switch. Can't mess it up as it just drops through a hole in the cluster housing.
By comparison, getting this cluster out is a lot easier than getting a box cluster out. Kinda nice not having to have a blindly grope at a speedo cable barely long enough to give you enough slack to get your hand behind it.
Alex.
Like most Ford cluster repair information you will find, the common theme is bad solder joints. That was no different for mine. What is different is that the 06+ cvgm cluster looks nothing like the common mustang/f150 clusters you find in the writeups. If anything, the Freestar is the closest match in construction and one writeup tipped me off to pay attention to the surface mount components under the odometer. Something I would have probably ignored otherwise just out of sheer laziness.
1.The blank odometer is what quickly came to trouble my cluster. Haven't even driven the car for a full oil change interval yet and the odo started flickering, multiple levels of brightness digit to digit soon followed, and then nearly fully dim almost all the time.
2.Backside of the cluster. Plastic sneeze shield still in place.
3.Guage needles removed, starting to free the board from the housing.
4.Front side.
5.Odometer closer up, arrows pointing to big resistors and surface mount components also "hidden" underneath that should be touched up. Patience and your magnifier of choice will make this easier.
6.Closerer up. Viewers will note that the legs of the odometer are essentially hanging in free air with only the backside solder pads anchoring it. No wonder these things go, bit of vibration under the best of circumstances will eventually crack anything mounted like this. Ever since everything went to being designed on a computer screen a lot of common sense best-practices have fallen by the wayside.
7.Cluster Connector. You'll want to inspect this closely, it doesn't get much stress, but having operated a wave solderer in the past, theres a few things to know when you have large areas of solder, namely, a cooling action if the wave solder ain't perfectly setup, and with that, poor solder joints. If it is very badly setup, you can tell what direction the baord traveled through the wave solderer. I had a crack on the top left pin, and pin number 3. Retouched all corners and anything that looked suspect.
8.Main odo pins that we are concerned with here. Hit the legs of the 1/2watt resistors with some heat, don't be afraid, and don't use no shity 35watt soldering iron. That is for people who don't know how to solder and just want to be able to say they own a soldering iron. 75watts or 100watts. Even more important with todays multi-layered boards, too low a wattage means all the copper sucks the heat away from your iron and you are just making solder drops at best. And tin your tips damnit. And since you are this far into it, look over the entire board and touch up if necessary. Did not find anything else on mine that was questionable.
9.After putting everything together, seems I did move things while trying not to. Bit of driving and adjusting will soon get that back to where it should be.
Tip: Don't fully assembly the dash when you are done, and leave the clear lens off the cluster. Go drive with a scan tool and verify where the needles are pointing. Your OBD scanner live data will give you vehicle speed, fuel guage percentage, temperature, and naturally, engine rpm to help you get things setup.
Tip: Don't put things back together after the first test drive/key cycle either. Seems the guage cluster needs a couple drive cycles to settle back into its proper location if you inadvertantly moved the motor shafts at some point. Unlike many vehicles, you will notice that the cvgm does not do a needle sweep when turning on the key.
10.A few more adjustments... and things are back to reflecting reality. And thats how you save your self a C-note, or two C-notes if you are a Canuck.
Finish assembling and enjoy seeing an evenly lit odometer.
Don't worry about the trip meter button, its just a long plastic rod that pushes on a surface mounted switch. Can't mess it up as it just drops through a hole in the cluster housing.
By comparison, getting this cluster out is a lot easier than getting a box cluster out. Kinda nice not having to have a blindly grope at a speedo cable barely long enough to give you enough slack to get your hand behind it.
Alex.
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