I have an '05 mustang that has a screwed up speedometer and fuel gauge due to a defect that is common in most mustangs made that year. I did some research about it and found that ford dealerships will only replace the whole cluster ($600-$800) instead of actually fixing it. The fix for it appears to be replacing the stepper motors that are in the cluster which involves some soldering...just wondering if anyone knew of a repair shops around the Raleigh area that has experience doing something like this. I googled to see if I could find a place in Raleigh that specialized in speedometers but couldn't find anything. Here is a link below to show what needs to be done.



http://www.fordmuscleforums.com/mustang-pages-2005-2009/493643-stepper-motor-replacement.html

1/14/2011 8:13:06 PM

will the dealer not fix it for free?

1/14/2011 8:36:35 PM

on a 6-year old car?

1/14/2011 8:41:06 PM

^^ that is the first thing I am going to try but I doubt I will have luck with that though I think they should since it is a well known defect which there should have been a recall for. What really blows is the fact that this car has only around 45,000 miles.

another option I found is taking it out and overnighting the whole cluster to some dude in Missouri who will fix it and overnight it back for $247 which includes shipping. From different message boards I have been reading this guy has a pretty good reputation.

http://drspeedometer.com/

1/14/2011 8:58:51 PM

"well known defect" probably isn't gonna cut it. There are a million "well known defects" out there...Evo clutches*, BMW subframes, 996-911 engines, 4cyl Wrangler transmissions*, Corvette seat tracks*, Corvette climate control displays*, Subaru 2nd gear, Yamaha motorcycle 2nd gear*, Honda motorcycle rectifiers, BMW airhead transmissions* as well as poor valve metallurgy, variety of issues with Mazda rotaries, air-cooled VW fuel lines slipping off and burning the car up...you name it. Almost all cars have a weak link. Some of them are downright common, major failures.

*=I've personally fallen victim to it

Unless it's a safety concern, manufacturers usually are slow to address it, if at all. They often just flat out deny that there's a problem, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. At best, they sometimes will address it with updates to newer models, but I wouldn't hold my breath about them fixing an older one on their dime if it's out of warranty and it's not a safety issue.

Shitloads of BMW subframes failed, and after about 10 years of uproar, owners finally got BMW to fix the failures for free, but even then it took YEARS of a lot of people involved with a class-action lawsuit.

1/14/2011 9:29:51 PM

i've heard good things about these guys when dealing with the display on audi instrument clusters (very common problem)

http://www.modulemaster.com/en/services/index.php

1/15/2011 10:45:08 AM

^ It looks like they will do it $100 cheaper than that other website I found....but then again they might not include shipping in the total cost

1/15/2011 11:53:22 AM

yeah, i thought required safety equipment (speedo, seatbelt, airbag, etc) was required to have a lifetime warranty by the federal gov't

1/15/2011 12:01:04 PM

Speedo and gauges aren't required safety equipment. I think you can legally drive a vehicle on the road with no speedometer.

1/15/2011 1:45:46 PM

then how come you can get charged with "improper equipment"? wouldn't "lack of equipment" fall under that?

1/15/2011 5:06:55 PM

werepairclusters@gmail.com from what I hear they do it fairly cheaply (price wise)



[Edited on January 15, 2011 at 5:46 PM. Reason : ...]

1/15/2011 5:44:55 PM