Category: Articles & Commentaries

Discussions on topics of interest to drivers concerning things they may not understand about their vehicles as well as articles on the future of the auto industry.

Once again, a Ford manual fail

Ford logoFord manual fail

Unfortunately we found another Ford manual fail, also in the 2024 Escape manual. In this case, a driver might be able to follow a path that will lead to a missing symbol.

In the main list of symbols beginning on page 111, there are a set of EV indicators. When looking at EV Now and EV Later indicators, used to depict Hybrid Drive Modes, the reader is directed to page 274 and 275. Once there however, and brand new icon is seen — EV Auto!

Auto EV indicatorEV later indicatorEV now indicatorIf EV Auto, with the letter A inside, was the first one noted by the driver, he or she would remain in the dark, unless the he or she thought to examine the similar looking EV Now, check mark, and EV Later, clock, versions.

This is simply careless on the part of Ford, and suggests that even they and other manufacturers, are overwhelmed by the absurd number of indicators being developed alongside new systems.

Worse in this case, is that Ford uses very similar looking indicators for charge status as well.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Ford‘s symbols page is here, the charge status page is here and the hybrid drive mode page is here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/once-again-a-ford-manual-fail/

We’ve got another owners manual fail, this one from Ford

Ford logoOwners manual fail

Another owners manual fail. has cropped up during our Ford symbols update. We’ve seen similar oversights in Mazda, Kia and Lincoln manuals as we get through our updates. In essence, we’re finding symbols deep inside the documents that are not shown in the original list of symbols assembled near the beginning of the manual.

This one is a little different as there is one symbol shown early on page 112 to represent a High Voltage Fault, which is not seen again, but is rather replaced deeper in the doc on page 180 by another that is given the same description. The indicators belong to the high voltage battery system associated with the Escape Hybrid.

We’re repeating ourselves here, but this trend needs to end!

The shared description is “It illuminates if your vehicle has an electrical component fault or failure that causes your vehicle to shutdown or enter a limited operating mode. A message may appear in the instrument cluster display.”

Master warning 3EV system failure indicatorThe first one shown is a version of the Master Warning Light, which is a red triangle with an exclamation point inside. The second has become the more traditional EV system failure indicator, which has too many variations, but is essentially a vehicle with an exclamation point inside it.

This is not as large a mistake as other manufacturer’s have made, but it is effectively impossible to know which indicator with appear if a problem occurs. We’ve included both in our list and the EV Warning Page here.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our page covering Ford indicators, currently under update, can be seen here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/weve-got-another-owners-manual-fail-this-one-from-ford/

Fisker dashboard symbols page re-arranged by color

Fisker dashboard symbols

Our Fisker dashboard symbols page has now been re-ordered into the new color alignment. This makes 29 pages transformed to reflect the new color ordering, including our primary pictographic symbols page. We are now well passed the half way mark to re-ordering all our manufacturer symbols pages. There are 49 on the site.

A good 10 years ago, we put up a dead key fob page for Fisker Karma buyers. The Karma not so famously featured a key hole on the passenger door!

The car and the company went nowhere, so we took the page down a few years later.

The company resurrected itself and released the Ocean, a full electric SUV. Problems with the car and problems with sales led to a shocking sell-off of the cars at bargain basement prices, which continues, and a company close to dissolution. From here it sure looks like its customers are soon to be abandoned, if they haven’t already been.

Well, we decided to give them at least a little help, returning the dead fob page while adding the back up process to the Ocean, and a symbols page.

It also creates a symbols page that is as updated as it can be.

And now the page is ordered first by red symbols, then to yellow/orange/amber (depending on how you interpret the color!), on to green and blue and finally to black and white or gray scale symbols.

Ordering the page by color provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information on a new symbol.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our page covering Fisker indicators, with over 60 entries, can be seen here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/fisker-dashboard-symbols-page-re-arranged-by-color/

Another Acronym page update

ESP BAS symbolAcronym Page Update

We added a new set of indicators for a new system called G.O.A.T. or Goes Over Any-type of Terrain. This resulted in a new entry to our acronym page as well.

The system itself resulted in no less than 14 new indicators!!

None of those indicators feature the acronym itself, rather 14 “nearly” distinct images for 16 possible modes. We show a few of them here.

We say “nearly” because there are similarities in other images already in use. And Ford, which is responsible for the G.O.A.T. system uses elements in other images in related systems.

Baja exhaust modeOff road steering modeGOAT Baja modeFor instance, G.O.A.T. peripherally offers exhaust, steering and suspension settings within G.O.A.T. So left to right are a G.O.A.T., Steering and Exhaust Off-road options. Each includes the cactus and flag images alongside an exhaust pipe, a steering wheel and sloping ground.

For the record, we’re sure that Ford is looking for mileage from the use of GOAT, generally reserved for Greatest of All Time. They may even be looking to get a Tom Brady endorsement! But until that comes about, G.O.A.T. will remain just another automotive acronym.

So when we set up DashboardSymbols.com, one of the very first things we did was add a page of acronyms and the translations as a useful resource for drivers. Further, if the acronym is hosted as a separate entry, we provide a link to it.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators — some featuring only an acronym — that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The acronym page currently hosts over 230 automotive acronyms, including G.O.A.T. The page is here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the  use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/another-acronym-page-update/

Our Fiat dashboard symbols page has now been re-arranged by color

Fiat logoFiat dashboard symbols

Our Fiat dashboard symbols page has now been re-ordered into the new color alignment. This makes 28 pages transformed to reflect the new color ordering, including our primary pictographic symbols page. We have now passed the half way mark to re-ordering all our manufacturer symbols pages. There are 49 on the site.

We have yet to update the page for 2024. We’ll be stuck on Ford for a good while yet. We anticipate a number of unsurprising updates. Although we have certainly been surprised in the past.

The Fiat symbols page is now ordered first by red symbols, then to red with yellow/amber/orange option indicators, through to yellow/orange/amber (depending on how you interpret the color!), then to green and blue and finally to black and white or gray scale symbols.

Ordering the page by color provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information on a new symbol.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our page covering Fiat indicators, with nearly 60 entries, can be seen here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/our-fiat-dashboard-symbols-page-has-now-been-re-arranged-by-color/

A single model increases the Ford symbols page count by how much??

Ford logoFord symbols page

We have finally finished the first of 13 models, and the single model has increased the Ford symbols page count by 43! Forty three! and a full 37 of them are brand new to our lists. When we started, there were roughly 90 symbols on the page…

It is clearly pointless to show them all here, but we can list them and highlight a couple of standouts. New symbols include four exhaust modes, four steering modes, 14 — yes 14 — G.O.A.T. modes (that’s Goes Over Any-type of Terrain), four trail turn assist symbols, to name a few.

Off road steering modeBaja exhaust modeGenerally, we find ourselves simply adding new symbols to existing pages, but the Bronco required the addition of five new pages for new systems. Exhaust and steering modes for example.We’re showing only one of each.

Trail one pedal drive indicatorThere is even a one-pedal drive page now, as the Bronco is not an EV, where one pedal driving is generally found.

The majority of the new symbols will be found in the information screen and most in black and white. It indicates a shift to added systems that don’t necessarily have a failure or fault symbol in red or yellow/amber/orange.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our page covering Ford indicators, with over 125, can be seen here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/a-single-model-increases-the-ford-symbols-page-count-by-how-much/

The Cadillac dashboard symbols page is now color aligned

Cadillac LogoCadillac dashboard symbols

Our Cadillac dashboard symbols page has now been re-ordered into the new color alignment. This makes 27 pages transformed to reflect the new color ordering, including our primary pictographic symbols page. We have now well passed the half way mark to re-ordering all our manufacturer symbols pages. There are 49 on the site.

We updated the page in May, and added nearly a dozen new symbols and indicators. As has been the case of late, the majority of of additions were drive modes.

Dry mode indicatorWet modeRain snow modeThree of these alone relate to weather. Cadillac is the only manufacturer to to even bother with this. They are left to right: Rain and Snow Mode, Wet Mode and Dry Mode.

Other than Dry Mode, the modes help to keep the wheels from spinning in slippery conditions, so maybe there’s some merit to their use.

The symbols page is now ordered first by red symbols, then to yellow/orange/amber (depending on how you interpret the color!), then to green and blue and finally to black and white or gray scale symbols.

Ordering the page by color provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information on a new symbol.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our page covering Cadillac indicators, with over 50, can be seen here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing could be more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/12/the-cadillac-dashboard-symbols-page-is-now-color-aligned/