Can anyone help, I've got 3 instrument clusters and these are the issues I'm having. It's a 1983 mk1 golf gti. I have 2 mfa clusters (one vdo and one motometer). When either of these are connected everything seems to work, tho I don't have the oil led illuminating on ignition on, and the lcd screens work on both of these. Also to note, the led for oil light has been tested on both mfa clusters and they are ok. Now I also have the non mfa cluster from what I believe may be from a later cabriolet, with this one plugged in I get the oil led come on with ignition on and then turns off as expected on engine startup, however on this cluster the lcd screen goes blank as soon as ignition is switched on and also off while engine running, (I've also tried an identical set of this type of cluster and same thing) Earths have been checked and are good. Would anyone know if there is something that I may have to do to the 14 pin connector I.e swap any wires around to solve the issues on either the mfa or non mfa clusters?
the pinout for all of those is the same, my first thought would be the earth to the side of the head for the cluster is bad. its a brown/white wire, and it runs to a female spade near the fusebox. from there is a male spade in dash loom with a brown and brown/white wire in it. to rule this out poke an earthed wire direct into the back of the cluster brown wire pin while you're there check all the pins in cluster plug are straight, clean and not too squished. you can open the flap on the back of the plug to get your pins out for some tweaking, just watch out for the red wire as its permanent live
Hi RJ, I can confirm that the earth has been renewed and is al good. The pins in the 14 pin connector have been checked and are also ok. The thing I can’t seem to understand is as to why the non mfa clusters oil led comes on but the 2 mfa clusters don’t? Again I can confirm that the mfa cluster led’s have been checked and are ok.
it still seems like an earth issue to me, its very odd. what happens if you disconnect both oil switches? look at the main earths to the fusebox area next. you should have a chunky brown in with headlight loom ending at a 4 way white spade block. in this block you should have an earth from dash harness, one from the white fusebox 'D' plug and another from the rear loom. out the back of this block is another thick brown which should go to the spade block above the fusebox
Checked the above and all as should be. I still can’t get my head as to why the non mfa cluster oil led’s come on and on the mfa ones, they don’t. Think I’m gonna them all in another car and see what happens.
Interesting!! I’m having a bit of an odd situation as well. I’m installing MFA into my mk1 caddy diesel. I’m having the same issue but I believe it’s due to not having the yellow low oil pressure wire on the cluster plug. My MFA screen doesn’t even illuminate but everything seems to work apart from the lcd screen and the oil light (which should turn off after start up) mine turns off before I even start the car.
possibly the oil control boards are faulty on the gti clusters, chances are the non-gti cluster board is the same so should swap. worth having them apart to check for any damage on the blue foils and/or damaged pads where the cluster pins contact
I ended up stripping the clocks and checking everything, all components are fine, but pin 30 wasn’t receiving live 12V. I ended up soldering a wire to it and attaching it to live. Works great!! Shame I used a mk3 ambient air temp sender. I didn’t realise they were different values. So I guess my MFA isn’t registering the sensor as it doesn’t even show a value it just goes passed air temp reading on the clock.
so were you getting power on the red perm live wire to the cluster, but a break in the blue foil stopping it getting to cluster? or if the red wire is dead its common with the interior light fuse so if that works you have a break in dash harness somewhere mk3 ambient temp sensor should still give you a reading on dash, its different resistance but close enough to be picked up at least so sounds like another wire fault you can use a mk2 g60 or early corrado/passat sensor part number 357919379 and it'll plug into the mk3 sensor connector if you wanted to keep that. otherwise mk1/2 sensor is 171919379A
