I disassembled the instrument cluster because I wanted to fix the odometer. In the process I noticed these nasty damages: http://imgur.com/a/usCz9 http://imgur.com/a/ei5V4 http://imgur.com/a/alz5l Despite these problems it works (at least it looks like) flawlessly but it still bothers me. What could cause that burning? Why is that pin bent? Other problem is that MFA display got a nice big black spot. A friend of mine promised me to give two non-GTI instrument clusters .Is it possible to change the MFA and the PCB foil from them?
Any chance you can let us know the pin numbers? or at least take a more zoomed out pic which shows the pin numbers in each corner of the plug on the PCB? But the burnt trace is probably the earth to the head via G1/5. its quite common to see this trace burnt out, it happens when the gearbox earth is bad the starter motor tries to earth itself through the dash clocks. non-GTI clocks use a different PCB foil, you need GTI or 16v clocks for that. The MFA screen I think could be the same, just a case of if the non-MFA type still has all the display elements for the extra MFA bits (arrows and such)
Hi, johnny, Re. the lcd display - I've tried swapping the display panels between two (admittedly mk. 3) instrument clusters without success. Even though the display I put in was working in its previous unit, it didn't work in the affected cluster. My two circuit boards each have a 'blob' of black material which I take it contain the display controller chips; if the mk. 2 is similar you may have the same problem.
Hello, thanks for the hint. I hope I can build a fully working cluster from them somehow - if not then it will stay as is now ...
the bent pin is 26? if so this one is unused, so that'll be why it doesn't affect anything probably just got bent out of alignment slightly at some point then next time plug inserted pin squashed over fully. pin 5 is the dash earth via g1/5, squinting I'm pretty sure thats where the melty trace goes to
Thanks for the super fast reply! You're right, I checked with DMM, it's pin 5 Should I try to fix the foil or better leave unchanged?
they are super fiddly to repair, but if it works fine as is I wouldn't worry about it. but feel free to try! Mine was burnt out for a couple years without me even realising but yeah if you keep em peeled for cheap gti clocks for spares you can nick the foil off one they're all the same. they dont even have to be the same make, on the 90spec clocks vdo and motormeter made clock parts are all the same. you often see vdo parts on the motormeter clocks even
