The car will illuminate the wrench, traction control, and check engine lights. The display will show the text, check engine, check transmission, transmission data error, or transmission communication error. The car will not accelerate properly and any combination of the above may occur.

After the first occurrence I had the cluster replaced, that new part carries a Ford part warranty of 12mo/12,000 mi. Within that warranty the new dash started the same thing, exact same symptoms and light combination. I took it back to the dealership and during the trip the lights went out. The tech pulled the same codes that prompted the the first cluster to be replaced. I was then told by the service manager that since the warning lights were not currently illuminated they would not replace the dash under the warranty at that time. I was told to continue driving the vehicle and if they lit to bring it back. This was with less than 200 mi left on the part warranty. I specifically asked if this would be covered if it was indeed the cluster and was given a line of BS and no real answer. I then suggested to him I felt this was being done just to avoid Ford having to cover the part under warranty, and of course, he promised me that wasn't the case. At that point I left to avoid going to jail as I was becoming rather pissed off.

Now, a month later and well out of the mileage warranty, guess what, I took the car back with the exact symptoms and now they want to replace the cluster immediately.

This is a known problem with this vehicle and since Ford has already dropped the line, they seem to have no desire to put any effort into correcting the pathetic quality in the clusters of this line. This issue is present in all versions of the Five Hundred, Montego, and other Mercury/Lincoln lines that mirror the Five Hundred.