2003 Ford Focus Dash Question

[jcelee]

I have a 27k mile, 1.6 Focus Flight that I use as an occasional 'station' type car. This means that it spends some time on the drive not being used. By the beginning of this week I don't think it had been used for a couple of weeks but I washed in on Sunday.

This week I've used it for 4 commutes to work and for the first 3 of these commutes (20 mile round trip), the whole instrument binnacle was playing up, either very intermittent or most of the time not working at all - no needles, completely blank digital displays (no dashes like some report), only back-lighting and indicators working. The car was otherwise functioning perfectly, starting fine, running smoothly.

Having read up, I found instrument binnacle failure to be a common problem due to lead free solder and condensation (best repaired by a car electronics specialist) but with a few reports of battery/earth/alternator issues causing the problem. Today, the instrument binnacle worked fine all the way to work and worked fine during a trip out for lunch.

Is this likely to have been a slightly low battery problem - now resolved having used the car? Or just the nature of these intermittent types of problems? Any thoughts much appreciated!

[Dogwatch]

Perhaps it was damp which evaporated with use? At least it wasn't French electrics where different parts of the dash panel work on each trip so you never knew from day to day which instrument(s)/illumination would function.

[Matthen]

Sounds similar to what my car does. The more you use it, the happier it will be. It most likely is the solder behind the instrument cluster.

[jcelee]

Thanks guys, having used the car again today its been fine.
Unfortunately for the car I'll be back on the motorbike next week (due to lack of parking) so its likely to suffer again...