Insturment panel guages not working, battery being drained.

Asked by scrapsinabag Mar 14, 2016 at 12:37 PM about the 1998 Ford F-150 STD LB

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

The instrument panel gauges are not working and now when we turn off the engine, there is a spitting noise to the right of the steering wheel. The battery is brand new but is being drained continuously. What is to the right of the steering wheel that might be causing the issue?

1 Answer

73,450

Not quite sure what a spitting noise is, but obviously your problem is electrical in nature. Try to isolate the part causing the problem. Use your owner's manual to identify the individual fuses controlling the systems located within the dash. Using an ohm meter check for a parasitic draw with the key off. Use the negative side of the battery to do this. If there is a parasitic draw you will read a substantial voltage with the key off. Pull the fuses one at a time and see if the voltage drops to less than a volt. When it does drop, you've identified the circuit. Now you can look at the systems within that circuit for the problem. Check YouTube, they probably have a video on how to locate the draw. One video is worth a million words.

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