My daughter says the clock in her 2001 mercury cougar no longer works unless the car ignition is turned on. She also says that the gauges started to "peg" to the right upon starting the car before returning to their natural state. Both of these occurred at the same time and were synchronized with a failed attempt to repair the sunroof. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

shorts or open grounds. the clock is probably a disconnected battery line (there are usually 3 wires going to the clocks - batt, acc, ground). The pegging gauges may be any number of things. Loose harnesses, open grounds, corroded connectors, etc. Basically you'll have to just check all the electrical from the fuses to the ground bolts (where the ground wires bolt down to the car), to the connectors that are plugged into the various parts. This will require taking the dash apart to get to most of these things too. definitely start with the small stuff (fuses and wires you can see/get to by removing the knee panels under the dash). If you still can't sort it out, you may have to take the cluster out.

all that said, it could also be a bad voltage regulator/battery. Have you noticed the lights pulsing at night? you may need to have the battery/alternator tested. autozone and walmart tire lube express both test these things for free (at least around here).

There may also be other issues I haven't thought of.