First, my battery was drained in the cold weather and I needed a boost to get her going.

When I tried to turn her over the dash needles moved a bit, and the rmp needle went up to above the 8000 rpm and stopped there (the engine never turned over so no revolutions even happened). I boosted the car and it started fine and idled like it does, but the needle stayed up above the 8000 rpm.

So, is there a way for me to reset the needle to get it back to zero?



Second, the weather has been so so cold (-26 with a windchill of -38) and my passenger rear door will not engage with the body to close. I assume that the grease in the door has solidified and has stopped the mechanism from engaging. I am wondering if there is a way for me to loosen that up safely or a way for me to re-engage the latch so it will work?

thanks a lot everyone,

I appreciate the help

Philip

 

No idea about the tachometer, but the door is just plain frozen. Try a hair drier on the mechanism.

BTW- you know that a windchill factor is not relevant to inanimate objects, right?

 

Thaw it out in a garage

 

Tacho maybe just needs to get good and warm.

On the later cars there's a reset for the gauges but doesn't work the same on the 1999-2002 cars. (I suspect there IS one, we just don't know it I think. The "trick" is to get it into diagnostic (ETM) - google for Ford HEC and Ford cluster test mode and the like if you fancy a go.)

 

How old is your battery, if it's 3-4 years old, it may need replacing. Sounds as though it's on it's way out..

 

+1 on battery