We have a 2002 ford focus ZTS dual cam, 5 speed. When driving the gauges will peg themselfs to the right, hold there for a second then drop to the " 0 " at the left. Sometime they come back to where they were before going to the right and sometimes they don't come back for miles. All the gauges do this. We have 124,000 miles on the car.
Any ideas will help out~
Thanks Scooter
P.S. Sometimes when I start the car the speed~o jumps up then drops back to "0" it does not do it all the time. I checked w/Ford & they said to check the grounds. Once again thanks ~Scooter
P.S. No one had it correct. The problem was in the alternator (regulator)is bad. When it charges it over charges screwing with
the gauges. All the back to normal. So LOOK at the Alternator 1st!!!

 

Your instrument cluster is dying

 

it sounds like a earthing fault to me.

 

Possibly a dash problem or wiring problem, you can see if there are any DTC'S that have been logged?

Martin

 

Well known instrument cluster (year related) problem - as reported on Watchdog (BBC1 TV) ! Needs new/pre-owned replacement.

Ford UK were doing a special price on new clusters to avoid bad publicity.

Martin

 

Was that not the problem where the fuel and temp gauges go to half way when switched off?

Martin

 

Vehicle speed sensor's dying.

Common fault - cheap to buy but a massive pain in the arse to get the old one out of the gearbox.

Get it sorted before the car starts cutting out while you are driving along as that's the next step as the fault worsen.

 

Martin - There were all sorts of variations on the symptoms because it was fundamentally a failure of the PCB structure with layer shorting or connection failure. The most interesting one was the complete speedo display failure when driving. That of course immediately causes you to crash!!

Dave - Could be VSS failure, but not likely as it doesn't usually affect the small dials. Also, as its an American vehicle its more than likely a MTX gearbox, so only one bolt to remove to change the VSS. Easy peasey.

Martin