AU Cluster Gone Mad! Need Urgent help PLEASE!!

[Swordsman88]

Hey guys and gals in AU land.

Sorry to intrude as a non AU owner but I post on behalf of my dad who owns an AU2 SR and is truly at wits end RE a cluster/guage issue. Background is simple enough, over the last few years at very intermittant times the car has had starting issues where it will not crank at all...just a click (not battery etc.).

Then 4 months ago the cluster (all the guages or some of them..primarily speedo/rpm) would fail when engaging cruise control. Then after restarting all was good. Then failures of cluster became more frequent, just when driving along. Eventually the LCD screen went screwy (jumbled figures etc.). When it failed a buzzing sound (reasonably loud) was reported from the dash area and it continues as long as power is left connected even after you shut the car down.

We had the car tested by auto electrition in terms of alternator, battery and earthing etc. He said all good, battery a tad low so put in a new one. Then we took the car to Ford dealer (was still going mad....probably getting more frequent) and they said they found a 'miss' under acceleration that may be throwing the dash out (??) and recomended new cluster and new spark plugs and leads. Problem was the leads and plugs were changed only 6 months before by our own mechanic.

We put in a second hand police cluster (worked fine) and all was good but then it failed again today with the speedo not working. Then after disconection of the battery (which sometimes fixes it) the buzzing sound returned and the LCD screen has gone screwy like the last cluster.

Anyone on here know WTF is going on? If the car was with me i could take a look at a few things gut its 1500kms away and i don't have access to it. Its causing alot of issues because although the car runs fine throughout this process its very hard (and illegal) to drive it (esp highway work) with no speedo and my mum needs it for work. Any help much much appreciated. I suspect BEM (due to earlier starting issues) or maybe ECU (not sure on the latter) but am at a loss at this point. Electrics is not my strong suit but i thought the BEM was responsible for all the info going to the cluster and if its not cluster related (happened to two different units) than it seems like the culprit.

EDIT: Further info. We tried to transfer the chip with the kms from the old original cluster to the new one but when the 'intrument technicion' dude fired it up on his rig he said the ldc readout was still buggered and he didn't know if the chip would hold the kms properly and still work?? Maybe something is eating these clusters alive...