I am not sure what to do with this problem. It surfaced last year as soon as it started to get cold here in Michigan. On a cold start-up my gas gauge says it is empty and my water temp gauge says it is "beyond hot"(for a lack of better words it is past the 'H' on the gauge). Also this has happened off and on the past 2 years, my e-brake light will stay on even though the e-brake is not engaged. I need advice on what the problem is and possibly where I can go to fix it.

 

"electrical problem"

sorry man, i dont think anyone on here could even attempt to take a crack at it beyond "electrical problem"

uhh. so, 2 of the gauges are intermittantly screwing up.... and the e brake intermittantly screws up.

the sensors on those are all over, the heat sensor is in the engine, the gas sensor is in the tank, and the ebrake sensor is in the braking system...

i could take a jump and say a possible bad cluster gauge, but those sensors all might come together somewhere else as well.

you could always go to a junkyard and pick up a gauge cluster and see if that fixes the issue... beyond that, you would just have to take it to an electrical shop...

i doubt the problem is with the sensors through, they are spread over the car, there is a sommon point, possibly with a bad connection.

 

i was considering getting a new cluster because a buddy of mine suggested the same thing, and you are right it is not the sensor for sure in the gas tank, i had that checked and replaced at the same time.

 

Are those the only 2 that are screwed up or does the Oil pressure and Voltage gauge get jacked too? I would check out all the fusible links under the hood on the drivers side, including where the battery cable connects to the distribution block (under the black cover right by the fusible links). The nut holding the battery cable to the distribution block has been known to vibrate loose and cause odd electrical things to happen, that could vary with temperature. Really, the true way to figure it out is to isolate the return wire from the sensors and measure the voltage and compare what you're getting to the range it is supposed to be. If your gas tank sender is hypothetically getting 12V right at the sending unit and the range is 4-10V, then you know you have a sender issue. If the voltage reading is within range, then take another measurement of that same wire right at the gauge. If the voltage is the same at the gauge as it is at the sender, then you have a gauge issue. If the reading is different between the sender and the gauge, then you have an issue somewhere between the gauge and the sender (worn or melted wire making contact with something it shouldn't). Any aftermarket electronics installed like alarm or big radio or......neons?

Those would be the first place I would look.

I have a gauge cluster that I pulled out of my '95. It has the white BBK faces on it but the proir owner did a crappy job of reinstalling the needles so the gauges are not 100% accurate. I'll sell it to you cheap ($20) plus a couple bucks shipping to MI. I ended up buying a stock replacement for mine just to get the black gauges back (it's an all black car so I really liked it better with black gauges) Ford can recalibrate gauge clusters for a small fee if you didn't want to try it yourself.

 

i might have to take that offer on the cluster. ya the oil and volt gauge are perfect. i somewhat wanted whiteface gauges because now that i have the chrome headlights and i want to put some chrome 18 bullitt reps on there but is the glow of the gauges green or blue? because i dont want blue to be picky...my car is green and has green neon on the inside so it would look somewhat funky

 

I will have to double check but I think they were green?

 

I checked last night, these particular gauge faces are maybe "reverse glow" I think it's called?

They are white in the day and when you turn on the lights, they are black but the numbers and hash marks light up an aqua color and the RPM redline is in fact red from that RPM up 5.5K and up or so.

I can shoot some pics if you think you might be interested. It has the odometer from the cluster I picked up used in it. I think it was like 130K miles but it was easy to swap over your existing one to the newer cluster.

 

the brake light being on also means that ur brake fluid is low so i would check that first, second when was the last time you changed your coolant sensor?? thats like $15 at discount auto, and the gas gauge well your kinda screwed there. i hope this helps

 

Well to do a quick check and see if its a faulty gauge cluster get a ford scanner and start the car up and look through the pids and see what the scanner is picking up for the readings of those gauges. It will tell you what the computer is reading not what the gauges say.