on my 1990 mk2 16v Gti, the LCD has bleed and half the screen is black. What are my options in fixing this? Just seen a 2nd hand clsuter on Facebook for £50 and looks the same, could I use that as an donor and swap the LCD?
Check out member NateS2 - he's the man when it comes to these sort of repairs - he has a link on his bio that gives the full rundown on what he does in terms of instrument cluster repair.
Thanks for the recommendation @costel1969! Basically yeah you can swap the LCD's like you say, as long as the donor has MFA they're all the same. The only issue you might have is the Zebra strips might not make very connection so it might need some fettling, and obviously with used screens there is always the chance they'll leak too. There is a guy on eBay who sells new replacements, £30, really helpful guy and really good screens. When I replace them for people I use his and just charge cost + whatever other work I'm doing. My thread
I would just remove the cluster and send it to Nate along with the LCD screen and let him overhaul it and while he's in there get him to change the voltage regulator, bulbs/LED's etc. and that's it then you're done and should never have to go next or near the thing again. If you want to go at it yourself, I think there's a thread somewhere about about dismantling it.
Thanks again If it’s VDO you’ll probably be alright! If MotorMeter and CE2 it will most likely break in the future. The design is flawed in a couple of ways and it makes them fail. When I refurbish them I swap some transistors for updated components, replace diodes, re-do some joins and fit new caps + regulator when I refurbished them. So basically all the parts that are common failures/susceptible to heat. Can also just repair it for a lower cost if you’re not fussed about removing it again They’re easy enough to get out of the car, just awkward. Fitting the screens is really easy, just be gentle with the blue foil when you unclip it. I think you should get instructions?
just brought the car yesterday and this is the first thing I noticed. I have a engine smoke problem which I need to get sorted but the other issue is that even though the rad fan kicks in, I still get the temp warning light on the dash flashing, the gauge goes up to say 70%. My mate who's a tech is going to give the car a once over tomorrow but this is common issue with cluster and temp light?
Could be the temperature sender is wrong or broken? If its 8v Digifant you should have 2. The blue one breaks all the time and connected to the ECU, and the black one is for the gauge. @rubjonny will know more than me
I also have the problem with the flashing temperature light and gauge reading higher than half way. I've changed the black sender a few times with no improvement. The fan kicks in and the car never runs hot. Is this likely to be the voltage regulator at fault? Everything else with the my cluster works fine.
If you can, just send your unit to NateS2. I sent him my cluster, amazing job and full Photographic report sent back with fixed cluster.
with the 16v the temp sensor is one of the 3 on the side of the head with yellow/red wire, can swap the 3 sensor wires around and see how that affects temp. if one is way off that sensor is probably bad, is the light on constantly check level sensor in tank and wiring to it. short the 2 pins and that should disable level warning entirely
