I have a 2001 Taurus with a vulcan engine and 45k miles. Last night I started it up, turned on my lights and my instrument cluster was dark. The radio and other lights were ok. After sitting there a minute staring at the dark instrument panel, I did what any red blooded male would do. I took my open hand and gave a little wack to the top of the dash board. Instantly the instrument panel lit up. Must be some sort of a bad/intermittant condition. First ond only time in 5 years it's done this. Is this a known issue, a one time event, etc. For the time being I'll just watch and see if it does it again. I was just curious if anyone else had experienced this before. Thanks.

I have seen a lot of connectors on the back of the dash not seated properly and can cause your problem. Time consuming and slow repair.

You slide the dimmer knob back and forth a couple times?

Yes, the first thing I did was slide dimmer up and down (off/on).
I also turned the headlight switch on/off a couple times. Nothing worked until I banged on dash once and then it immediately lit up. You have to love it when that repair technique works. The car is under an extended warranty for I think a year and a half. Very strange that it happened after 5 years. It's been my experience that these things rarely happen only once, but anything is possible. I don't think there's anything I can do but watch it now that it works again. It's been a great car. I expect to be driving it another 5 years or so. Thanks for the comments.

Hitting the dash was a great diagnostic technique. It definitely pointed to a loose connection.