I was just wondering if anyone has doen any work on their gauge cluster before and if they've ever had any issues. As many of you know I have a 2000 F-150 XLT which has the common Ford odometer black out issue. Basically your odometer display vanishes and comes back on whenever it wants to. I researched the problem and found out its a solder thats usually cracked or as they called it a cold solder. I looked up how to remove the cluster and take it apart and what to solder. You use a soldering pencil and fix one little solder behind the ribbon on the cluster circut board. Anyway I found very very few cases I'd say 1 out of every 100 people that have done this sometimes have issues with PATS I forgot what it mean basically its a security issue that makes it so you can't start your vehicle and you have to have a Ford dealer do something with your keys. My truck came with no keyless and after searching and trying many things I've found it has no module for one. So my question is if I and do all of this and put it back correctly do you think I'll have any problems?

 

Forgot to add also after researching many had taken theirs in to get it fixed. Ford wants $500 for a new gauge cluster that only temporarily fixes the problem because they are the same cluster and the same problems with reoccur shortly after. I'd like to be able to fix this since the truck only had 70,400 miles and its very annoying to have a vanishing odometer.

 

me & my dad actually pulled the cluster out of his van to fix a similar issue, cold sodder broke and the entire guage cluster would crap out. he soddered it back togeather, installed it and it's been fine ever scince.

as for the PATS ("passive anti-theft system") system, i don't know if you'll have problems with it or not, but so you know it's not related to keyless entry as far as i know. if you've got a large ignition key like mine and a light on the dash that blinks "theft", you've got the PATS system. you may want to look up an owners manual for your truck online to find out what will activate the PATS system and such.

more than likely though if you disconnect the battery before you start i don't think you'll have an issue.