How to Repair a Ford Odometer Digital Display

This video demonstrates the repair of a Ford odometer that was intermittently working. This repair was performed on a 2003 Ford F-150 pick-up truck but the process should be similar on other Ford truck and SUV models of the late 90's through early-mid 2000's.

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The odometer display on this vehicle was going through cycles of functioning and not functioning. It turns out this is a common problem on these types of vehicles. The culprit is a bad solder connection that simply needs to be re-soldered. This video shows how to disassemble the dash, remove the instrument panel, and how to solder faulty connection to fix the odometer display.

[nmel]

Thanks. This suggested work on my 2001 Ford 150. Took me an 1.5 hr and likely saved me 500+ $

[bachmanncarl]

This worked like a charm on my 2003 f150. Been driving me crazy for years having my odometer come and go intermittently. Thanks a million!

[lancepatterson]

This video reminds me of why I kept my old ford running. Very little problems like this over 20 years. 327K miles and still looking and running GREAT!!

[Fairliner]

Thanks so much for sharing this information. I have been fixing a few electrical gremlins in my brother-in-law's 2003 F150. Now I can cross the "ghost" odometer reading off of the list as I just fixed it thanks to you :)

[williamparish]

A great help. i used a jeweler's loop (because my unaided eye couldn't tell if it was damaged) and several of them looked damaged, so I touched the whole connector up and it works great. Way too hot today to want to dismantle that thing twice. I'm glad it worked on the first go-round. The only extra thing I did based off several other videos/articles was I disconnected the positive battery first so the airbag didn't blow up in my face. I'm sure it's safe enough without that step, but it only took an extra minute. I also removed all the light bulbs because I didn't want to force the clips off to find out I was pulling off the lights, but now I re-watched your video I realize I could have left those in. I wasn't expecting the board to take that much force to slide off but that was probably just 17 years of oxidation build up.

[danielsledge]

This worked like a champ on my 2002 f150!

Years ago, the odo display started going out intermittently...and the last few years it's almost always off, but it would come on for a day or so after a really heavy rain. And if it was around inspection time I'd have to race to the shop and try and get the inspection done before it went back out lol.

Thanks for the great video man, it was super helpful! Cheers!

[kenjackson]

Just got around to tackling my display repair after years of putting it off. I have a 2001 Ford F-150 Supercrew. I found the crack on the pin mentioned. Applied fresh solder. It appears I have finally solved the problem of the disappearing odometer!! Thanks for the video.

[albertwelling]

Thank you so much for this video. My truck made it 20 years and 148246.0 miles before the odometer quit working. I have the ford shop manuals, but they are no help on this problem. Fords solution when the pin test fails, is to replace the cluster. This saved me hundreds of dollars. I, like some other people commented, had to struggle a little to get the gear position indicator out as my cluster has no tach, but with a little work was able to figure out how it comes out. The whole process took me about an hour to complete and it worked great. Could not have done this without your video. Your clarity in this process made this task not only doable but allowed me to enjoy the process of the repair. Thank you again for taking the time to share your knowledge on this fix.

[mnorton]

Just followed all of these instructions and it completely worked . Lifesaver, thank you so much!

[barrygregg]

Thank you. Very nicely done and it helped a lot. The only thing I needed to get from someplace else is how to disconnect the gear shift display. My odometer was intermittent so I'm hoping this will have fixed the problem for good. I only touched the one solder point that you mention instead of doing them all like another video suggested. I understand doing them all while in there after all the work getting it undone, but I didn't want to touch anything more than I had to, so I went with your one point. Hopefully, I won't have to go in again. The hardest part for me was getting the plugs undone from behind the console. I also scratched my dash trying to get out the light switch panel, but that's partially due to my truck being so old (2002) that I think it just scratched easily - took off the gray overlay/plastic. They don't put much quality into a lot of this plastic stuff. Anyway, thanks, I'm crossing my fingers that this works, but I won't know for a few weeks if it consistently displays.

[scotttolar]

Thank you! That worked perfectly and it was my first time soldering anything!

[robertemery]

Worked perfectly. Took 2 hours to remove and replace and five minutes or less to solder. Both outside pins had cracked solder. I would recommend you pay close attention to how the shift indicator comes out for reassembly. I would also recommend a flex screwdriver for the socket. My problem was intermittent. Worked when cold and then would turn off. I live in Denver, and I was always nervous the odometer wouldn't come on for the emissions test. Thank You Very Much!

[GriffinsFanChris]

I had an odometer that would sometimes work, sometimes not. This was the 3rd YouTube video I watched on this repair, and all showed the same repair. Last night I re-soldered all the pins on that particular connector, and I think it worked! Time will tell.

[jimmygearheart]

I have a 2002 F-150 that's had an intermittent issue for years, then it finally quit all together this year.  This fix worked as advertised and it only took 1 hour!  Thanks for the video!!

[gloriacowgill]

Excellent video including that pesky gear shift cable! The rest was straightforward, but that cable was hard to see without pulling that extra panel. The soldering is the easy part for me since that's what I do for a living. I have a 2002 F150 FX4 late model (after Feb 2002). Thanks!

[tiger.]

Hey, shout out to you thank you 9 year old video but it helped took me 40 minutes mileage lights up. Thank you again. Took it to the dealership and they wanted to replace the cluster $500 intermittent, would light up when it wanted to. it’s really getting, to be a pain it was staying off longer now.

[CiscoWes]

Thanks for this video. My odo has been going out for a while. I didn't know it was this easy to access, so I took it out. I noticed I had two dry solder joints. The far left pin and the far right pin. Put some fresh solder on those and it works like a charm. While I was in the cluster, I went ahead and cleaned the clear bezel, and 18 years worth of dust trapped inside. Looks brand new and now my odo works. And I've got almost 408, 000 miles on my truck!

[maxquad]

Thanks for the video.
I have a 99 F150 with an
odometer display issue
for a while.

[scottsabol]

just did this to my 2002 F-150. Worked like a charm. Thank you for the content.

[dailygrinders]

I have been searching all over for this video thanks so much