Recently, my wifes’ '99 Expedition has been “over-extending” all the guage cluster needles, hitting the pegs on other end of the guage and coming right back. This only happens for a second and only at first start up. I haven’t noticed it after the truck’s warmed up. It’s freaking her out, but I told her that when I’ve worked on a car that I had to disconnect battery, the first moment I turn the key, the guages “recalibrate”. That’s not the case here, I haven’t done anything. I will say that the weather has turned bitterly cold and the truck seems a little sluggish at start up. My '96 Taurus has a brand new battery and it was a little sluggish, not too bad. I’m thinking of replacing her battery anyway so her and the kids aren’t stranded somewhere, but can anyone tell me why it’s doing this? We’ve had it for 3 years now and I don’t recall it doing it last winter.
Thanks
JP#3
Some (all?) cars have a voltage regulator for the gauges. Maybe it went south.
Is this truck new to her? Have you been the one driving it for the last three years and just never noticed it doing this?
The reason I ask is that many of the gages today are designed to do that. Mine do. For my vehicle I even found instructions on the internet (on a vehicle-specific forum) to reprogram the control module to stop this action.
I don’t know why they design them this way. Perhaps it’s to make the driver fell like the car has come alive.