Ford Five Hundred dash display oddity

[FordP3]

This is the 2005-2007 model year of the Ford Five Hundred but it shares many things in common with the Ford Freestyle, Mercury Montego, and
the 2008 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable as well.

In the gauge cluster of these cars if you have a higher trim line, it contains a little digital dot matrix display that Ford called a Message Center at the time... This shows things like a system check (eg door ajar) and also MPG and odometer display as well with I believe is a vacuum display..

There is also one large what appears to be alpha-numeric digit included at the right of dot matrix display. This has NEVER worked in my car, and after watching numerous videos of that gauge cluster I have never seen it active on any of them either. My guess is this was to display the automatic transmission gear selection position.... as interestingly it does not appear that any model from these years have it anywhere in the gauge cluster or a mechanical needle like display that many American cars have always used over the years with column shift. Of course this car has a floor mounter shift selector.. I believe this was supposed to display the "P" "R" "N" "D" "2" "1" position of the gear lever but for some odd reason Ford never activated this feature...

If anyone can solve the puzzle I'd be grateful . I bet that a tool like Forscan could activate this feature but not sure...

 

[fantastic]

Since Ford took a lot of the P2 platform from Volvo on that I'd say you could be right. On my My Volvo XC90 it does indeed show the PRND21 etc in the dash display.

 

[fantastic]

This is a pic I found online to give an example.

 

[earlyre]

This is the Dash of my '09 Sable... Mom has an '09 Taurus ( VERY similar) and Dad used to have an '05 Freestyle ( wagon version of the Five Hundred)
all basically the same Gauge pod with different Fascia... NOTHING like the Volvo pictured.

back when i was on a Dedicated Taurus Forum (https://www.taurusclub.com/) I remember seeing pics of one member who had his showing the gear it was in - like 1,2,3,4,5,6 - but never found any instructions on how he had done it... ( this is a Foggy memory, of a site i haven't been on since I traded the Sable in back in... March of '19 )

 

[FordP3]

That 09 Sable display is probably the same module, expect Ford created a larger blacked out bezel to HIDE that extra
single large alpha numeric digit hiding to the right...

It's so strange that they went to the trouble to do that with the refreshed P3 ("new" Taurus and Sable)

 

[earlyre]

That 09 Sable display is probably the same module, expect Ford created a larger blacked out bezel to HIDE that extra
single large alpha numeric digit hiding to the right...

It's so strange that they went to the trouble to do that with the refreshed P3 ("new" Taurus and Sable)

'08/'09 is the same body as your Fivehundred.. the big change was in '10, and they dropped the Mercury line, replaced the Sable with the Lincoln MKS

 

[FordP3]

 

[FordP3]

View attachment 290240

View attachment 290240

As you can see this is the specific digit on the message display I am talking about. This is from a the owners manual of the car in question. Interestingly they show the digit on the right here (big one) as just a numerical format, but in my car this is actually an alpha numeric display digit with extra LED segments to show letters as well as the numbers.

 

[D60]

Sounds like Ford. The '08 SuperDuty had a selection for TBC output in the dot matrix display but Ford never got around actually implementing.

I think it worked in '09 and '10.

No one cares anymore because EVERY engine offered '08-10 was garbage and very few are left on the road.

 

[dogememe]

You know, it always annoyed me that my 08 and 10 Escapes didn’t have a gear indicator in the gauge cluster!

 

[FordP3]

You know, it always annoyed me that my 08 and 10 Escapes didn’t have a gear indicator in the gauge cluster!

Wonder if forscan can activate the ability of that display to do so? I hope someone shows up that knows about the dedicated software for that, and or might be someone from Ford that worked on the design of the electrics for our models.

 

[FordP3]

This is the Dash of my '09 Sable... Mom has an '09 Taurus ( VERY similar) and Dad used to have an '05 Freestyle ( wagon version of the Five Hundred)
all basically the same Gauge pod with different Fascia... NOTHING like the Volvo pictured.

back when i was on a Dedicated Taurus Forum (https://www.taurusclub.com/) I remember seeing pics of one member who had his showing the gear it was in - like 1,2,3,4,5,6 - but never found any instructions on how he had done it... ( this is a Foggy memory, of a site i haven't been on since I traded the Sable in back in... March of '19 )View attachment 290212

 

[FordP3]

This is the Dash of my '09 Sable... Mom has an '09 Taurus ( VERY similar) and Dad used to have an '05 Freestyle ( wagon version of the Five Hundred)
all basically the same Gauge pod with different Fascia... NOTHING like the Volvo pictured.

back when i was on a Dedicated Taurus Forum (https://www.taurusclub.com/) I remember seeing pics of one member who had his showing the gear it was in - like 1,2,3,4,5,6 - but never found any instructions on how he had done it... ( this is a Foggy memory, of a site i haven't been on since I traded the Sable in back in... March of '19 )

While the design of the gauges look very different these Fords likely use the exact same electronics and software to manage the systems in the cars including the parent car....MKI Volvo s80 model. Even some of the consumer programming for lighting is done the exact same way.

I also remember vaguely about that ability to show the actual gears the aisin six speed was in. Even though our Fords do not have paddle shifters, the Volvo s80 did on some models, which makes sense that it would be able to show that mode.

 

[KCJeep]

I always thought the 500 was a good looking car. Friends had a wagon version for years but it was stolen from the driveway when she left the keys in it.

 

[FordP3]

I always thought the 500 was a good looking car. Friends had a wagon version for years but it was stolen from the driveway when she left the keys in it.

The Five Hundred didn't come in a wagon version, but I think your referring to the Freestyle ?

 

[KCJeep]

The Five Hundred didn't come in a wagon version, but I think your referring to the Freestyle ?

Yes that’s it