Flickering Dash & Gauge Lights

[Aeroman]

Learned on this forum that some 03 MM's had dash & gauge lights that flickered. Checked mine out and it also had the problem, also had squeaking brakes. Took it to my dealer on a Monday. They still have it on Tuesday night. They gave me a loaner put put and promised to have it back to me on Wednesday. Service tech was on phone with Mercury Service Hotline several times today. They now have instrument cluster almost completely disassembled. They are trying to get to something deep in system. So at this time, it is a work in progress. Will keep you all posted as to "cure" if they succeed in stopping the flickering. It seems "according to them" not many people have complained officially because they don't have much input from field on this problem. Who do you believe? :scream:

[TAF]

Please let us know the results.

BTW...nice pic!

[Aeroman]

I picked up my MM last night from the dealer. Waited till it was dark outside, started her up, WOW, NO flickering lights at all. They did a good job with a lot of hours behind the dash and on the phone to Ford. I will pick up the paperwork tomorrow (Friday) and will provide the verbiage of the work done.

[Fourth Horseman]

Trying to decide if the flickering is annoying enough to have them rip my dash apart to fix it. I'm thinking not.

[LincMercLover]

Same here, but my dealer already had it appart for the shifter plate replacement. Now theirs scratches on the center cousel and vacuum lines hanning down under the dash. They gotta do that, so I may mention it.

[bugsys03]

mine flicker too-i will live with it for that very reason-

[CRUZTAKER]

Originally posted by Aeroman
"according to them" not many people have complained officially because they don't have much input from field on this problem. Who do you believe?

My god, these people must be in cahoots, they said the same thing to me with EVERY problem I have noticed.

I thought I was loosing my mind, cause I don't drive at night much yet, but during the day the headlights are always on (I'm coming warning) and I hear clicks and swear by god something is flickering. Every time I turn my head it stops. I am NOTlosing it apparently.

[Aeroman]

I picked up the invoice today from my dealer. It did take care of the flickering lights. The dealer invoice reads: "Dash lights flicker when car in neutral. Run vehicle head lamps on. Alt reads 14.30 - 14.5. Check load on battery 12.96. PID monitor gem. Seelf test pcm and lcm. All pass. Hot line advised to run independent ground from gauges to circuit G201. At this time the flickering has stopped." Dealer put it all back together with no hanging wires and no scratches on center console. Problem is taken care of. Dealer did a great job.

[grzellmer]

So it appears as though the gauges flicker because they're not grounded properly?

(Mine have flickered on occasion - Not serious enough to let the gorilla's with a wrench touch it!)


OT Why is it that a guys wife will question his mechanical ability but will totally trust the high school dropout with a blue shirt and name tag?

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by CRUZTAKER
I thought I was loosing my mind, cause I don't drive at night much yet, but during the day the headlights are always on (I'm coming warning) and I hear clicks and swear by god something is flickering. Every time I turn my head it stops. I am NOTlosing it apparently.

I drive with lights on full time too, CRUZ, and the lights flicker, but only when shaded from the sun, like under an overpass. It happens so consistently, that I must presume it is an automatic adjustment for extra brightness when called for. I do not see flicker when not shaded in this manner. Try a few shade tests, there may be nothing wrong.

[CRUZTAKER]

Sun, what sun? I understand, and will try it. But I think we saw the sun once in two months. You know the deal....I think it's worse (days without sun) here than there.
Anyway, I did not know the lights AUTODIM. I have to search that one. Irecall reading in the manual about dash lights are on all the time headlights are on and DO NOT DIM, as they did in my Marquis. I could have sworn I read that somewhere.....

[Clarkitus]

It seems to stop if I turn the gauge/radio background dimmer(?) higher. (I like the background illumination at a lower setting.)

I haven't seen the gauges flicker though.

[SergntMac]

So, is there an auto dim when the lights are on? If so, I wonder how much of this reported "flickering" is a bad ground, or an auto dim program? I'm confused...

[FordNut]

No, it doesn't have AUTODIM. It sounds like what may be happening is the sensor for the AUTOLAMP function to turn on the lights is triggering a relay. If the lights are already on, I can understand that it sould click, but I don't see why it would make any difference at all to the brightness of the lights.

[Blue Marauder]

Originally posted by Aeroman
I picked up the invoice today from my dealer. It did take care of the flickering lights. The dealer invoice reads: "Dash lights flicker when car in neutral. Run vehicle head lamps on. Alt reads 14.30 - 14.5. Check load on battery 12.96. PID monitor gem. Seelf test pcm and lcm. All pass. Hot line advised to run independent ground from gauges to circuit G201. At this time the flickering has stopped." Dealer put it all back together with no hanging wires and no scratches on center console. Problem is taken care of. Dealer did a great job.

I had a problem with flickering gauges and radio lights, also. My dealer said they cleaned all the ground connections. Didn't say anything about running a separate ground wire, but the flickering has stopped.