curt0722

Hey there,
Hoping someone can direct me as to where to start on my issues. A few weeks back, car started hard in morning, checked out and found the gauge cluster fuse to be the drain. Now in the last week, with fully charged battery, car will turn over but won't start intermittently. Last but not least, while driving the other day, car shut off completely as if I had turned the key off, came back on a second later and ran the way home.
Are all the problems related? I have not changed out gauge cluster yet for I am not sure what else powers off of it, Radio?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

SVT_MAN

I have a 99 Mustang GT that I've battled electrical gremlins on.

Could be a number of things. The electrical systems on these cars have been known to cause headaches at times, but they are fairly simple to troubleshoot. What do you mean by the gauge cluster fuse was the drain? Do you mean the fuse was bad or is there a short in the gauge cluster itself?

The best thing to do when you have electrical issues is check your electrical grounds. Make sure they are shiney bare metal and make sure you don't have any loose connections.

The other thing you can do is run a parasitic draw test to see if anything is drawing current when your car is at rest. That typically indicates that some part within your electrical system has shorted internally in some way. (I can explain how to do this test if you want.)

Using my ammeter, I found that my rear amplifier on my Mach 460 audio system was bad. Once I replaced that, I was back to normal current draws and my problems seem to be better now.

Another thing to check is to make sure you don't have a bad battery. In some cases, a battery with a bad cell can cause erratic behavior like that.

Just some ideas. Good luck. Electrical problems are not always obvious how to fix them.

curt0722

SVT_man
Thanks for the reply. I should have been more informative- the drain on the battery was found to be from the gauge cluster, so when I removed the fuse and installed amp meter, it would show amps draw when all was shut off. That amps draw would diminish some in time, but never get to acceptable range.
From what I see in the simple electrical drawings that Chilton book provide, the hot at all times power from cluster fuse goes directly to the PCM, then it inturn directs power as required to cluster, airbags, etc.
Any good way of narrowing the draw of power other than replacing cluster and hoping for the best? Or am I missing something else that could be used to isolate things apart.


Thanks for your time and replies..

imp

My 2004 has the main part of the instrument panel separate as a unit, having a microprocessor of it's own. One thing to determine is whether 2002 had gone to a similar concept. Mine has 4 fuses feeding the instrument cluster, some not directly, 1 only for the fuel gauge, which also is operated by the microprocessor. What exactly was the fuse labeled that you determined was carrying current when everything was "off"? Do you have access to Ford wiring diagrams? imp

curt0722

IMP,
According to the owners manual, slot #6 under the hood marked instrument panel is the one that the draw is coming from.
I have tried to find a wiring diagram from ford on some of these sites but have had no luck, sounds like on your 2004, the gauge cluster fuse also powers IP panel fuses inside the car? That would certainly help me narrow my search if my 2002 is the same.
Anyone out there able to attach a ford wiring diagram for 2002 mustang w/ 3.8?


Thanks for your post!