99 Taurus SE, the radio & HVAC panel lighting does not illuminate for 2-4 minutes after start-up, the hvac works as does the radio however, it is all in the dark for several minutes. The car has the headlight delay option and with the headlights on, the aforementioned panels illuminate as they should. Any ideas ????? If it is in the hl swx, is it cheap & easy ???

Thanx & Happy Motoring ..... curly

:grinyes: :smokin:

Do you always have a delay in illumination, or is it semi-random? I had a similar issue in my 1998 Taurus SHO. On my car, I pulled the radio controls out of the dash, opened it up, and found a few questionable solder joints. I reflowed the solder on several questionable joints and the illumination has been 100% reliable for the past year and a half. On mine, only the button backlighting didn't work, and it only didn't work most of the time. Some times it worked fine. The vacuum fluorescent displays worked all the time (Automatic climate control display and radio display).

-Rod

always a delay; tell me more about
"The vacuum fluorescent displays worked all the time (Automatic climate control display and radio display).
....."
(Automatic climate control display and radio display).

This is what is not working for several minutes on start-up

So the button backlighting works, but the numerical displays do not? That would be opposite of what I experienced, and mine did not always have a delay, just usually. However, the cause of your issue could still be related to bad solder joints, but it could be something else as well.

Because I enjoy soldering, I'd start with tearing the unit apart and inspecting all solder joints under magnification. To the naked eye, the cracks in the solder joints may not be visible without magnification. Then, I'd reflow any that even appeared questionable.

If you are not confident in your soldering ability though, you may not want to start here. You may be better off backprobing the illumination wire and switched ignition wire to the dash unit to see if something correlates to to the display not working.

-Rod

Problem solved !!!!!!! Thanx for the info & most importantly the mental stimuli; or maybe it was the complete FEAR of resoldering (I can't even imagine reflowing:banghead: ). The negative battery cable terminal end needed a thorough cleaning:icon16: . Once that was accomplished ...... problem vanished. Kinda' similar to the digital dashes in the early 80's GM eldo/toro.

:grinno: :smokin:

Interesting.....

I don't quite understand how a dirty ground would cause the issues you experienced but still allow the car to start, etc. Another tip to add to the mental database I guess.

Thank you for the follow-up!

-Rod