Odometer Light Out and Radio Lighting - Ford Forums

rick555 · 07-08-2007, 16:44

I have a 99 expedition and the odometer light has always gone in and out from time to time. Now it will not come back on and the lighting for the radio/cd stereo is not working either. the radio works but there is no lighting. Anybody have any ideas?

RickMN · 07-12-2007, 15:21

The most likely cause of intermittent dash lights is usually a bad dimmer switch. However, that wouldn't affect just the single bulb to the odometer or the radio, even though all those bulbs are run through the dimmer. Six bulbs in the instrument panel are all controlled by the dimmer. Your problem should affect all bulbs. But since it isn't, have you employed the possibility that you have a bad bulb in each?

rick555 · 07-12-2007, 20:33

Thanks for the input. I may check the bulbs however my wife just told me that the odometer light came back on but it is in the trip odometer mode and we have not set it to the trip mode. Sounds like a short or something. About 3-4 years ago a friend used to visit a ford forum and mentioned to me that he seen a discussion about 99 expeditions having a problem with the odometer lighting going in and out and apparently somebody figured out what was causing the problem. However we can't remember what it was.

siggy · 08-03-2007, 16:17

I have also a 99 Expedition that does the same thing with the odometer. Were you able to figure it out. By the way, I know of one other that is doing the same.

garytmb · 09-01-2007, 21:29

This relpy is probably too late, but --- I read postings on another forum about this, the odometer/trip is an LED disply assy soldered to the instrument cluster PC board. It is a common problem for the solder connections of this display to crack, causing what is known as a "cold solder joint". This causes an intermittant connection, IE the display will cut off/on without warning. The condition gets worse until one day the display goes out and doesn't return. There are 2 ways to solve the problem, replace the instrument cluster, about $200+ your time or the mechanic$ time, or remove the cluster, heat up/resolder the connections yourself with a 20 - 40 watt soldering pencil. DON'T USE A HIGH WATTAGE SOLDERING GUN, it will melt/damage the PC board. I believe the hardest part of the repair is actually the dash tear down to R/R the cluster. I doubt if the radio lighting problem is linked to this fix, but ... I can't remember where I read the post, but it was incredibly detailed in tear down aand soldering the connections, photos/illustrations and all. If there's any interest, I'll try to locate the site/forum.