Great write up ! , what was your screen doing wrong ?
mine works some times when the car is warmed up ,but never works when its cold
thanks
mine works some times when the car is warmed up ,but never works when its cold
thanks
LCD's on dash corrupt, the fix thread with images
Ok after having a problem with my mileage display I dismantled the dash while keeping it plugged in and realised it was due to the LCD making a poor electrical contact. this is the fix I came up with.
Drop steering wheel using height adjustment under the wheel Remove the lower instrument cluster guard with cloth bit, just pulls off Undo the two screws securing the cluster to dash Pull the clocks forward and to the left and release the green plastic wiring clip by pulling upwards. Do the same for the right hand side. Clocks will now come out With the clocks facing down on a bench remove the four hex screws from the rear of the cluster, the back will now come away as will the front. Remove the needles by pulling straight up, try not to apply any sideways movement as you will bend the stems they are on The printed face can now be removed Looking at the lcd's you will see there is a silver cage around them, if you flip the cluster over you will see four clips for each cage (highlighted in red) pop them off one at a time and push them through the holes keeping the face of the clocks pointing down (I recommend you have a cloth under them ready to catch the glass LCD's just in case) 
now flip the clocks back face up and if the lcd is still in place lift it off You will see that there are one or two pieces of conductive rubber (highlighted in red) either on the LCD (depending on which display you are working on) or stuck in the cluster. Don't worry if they have separated from the LCD its fine as we would be separating them anyway 
If you lift the rubber out you will see the PCB underneath With a cotton bud and alcohol or similar wipe the PCB contacts, do the same for both sides of each of the conductive rubber strips. Put the strips back into the slots. Now wipe the edges of the LCD gently with a barely damp (with alcohol) cotton bud. Place the LCD back on top of the conductive rubber pads. Now is the part that made the difference for me, the cage was not applying enough pressure to the lcd for it to make a firm contact with the rubber pads what you need to do is apply very thin strips of tape to the back of the metal cage where it contacts the LCD screen. I used parcel tape but i imagine insulating tape would be a better option. I used 3 layers stuck one on top of the other and cut into strips with a scalpel. You are aiming to make the cage press more firmly on the glass part. 
Once you have applied the tape then bend the legs of the cage in slightly to make sure it tightly grips the cluster tabs. Push the cage almost all the way but before snapping into place make sure the LCD is still straight on the pads, if not adjust it now py pushing it with a thin screwdriver. I used these tabs shown below to make sure it was reasonably straight 
Once your sure its reasonably straight snap the clips into place. Reasemble Cluster When you come to your needles the best way to make sure they are straight is very lightly press them on then turn to the direction of 0 They will stop when the reach the parked positions and you can then twist off while pulling up in the direction of the 0 position and then press them back on firmly. Put the screws back in and your done. If it goes wrong please don't blame me [:O] |
4
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Thought I would keep this updated. I have neither the kind of cluster the OP has or the one with ribbon cable holding the LCD screens in place. Mines was an LCD screen with a long rubber strip. I'd just like to say thanks to the OP for this guide as it basically inspired me to have a go at doing mines and it was a suprisingly quick process, It took me about 25 mins in all to strip the cluster out, take it inside... dissassemble everything and then I just used lens cleaning wipes on the rubber part, LCD screen and metal holder, when I refitted it I made sure to bend the metal prongs so it held the LCD down and went to refit back into the car. The longest part of the process I think was trying to refit the green connector plug ! I wasn't really hoping for much, but it worked.... I now have a working clock again [
]
I also had time to readjust my dials as the speedo needle was sitting about 7mph and the rev was slightly out. Really chuffed with the results. Wish I took some photos of what I did so other posters with the same problem can see.
Before:
![]()
![]()
Now:
![]()
I also found this video really useful if anyone else is attempting to disassemble the cluster, I didn't even have to take the other needles off. I only had to remove the rev counter for this 10 minute job.
Thanks again []
]I also had time to readjust my dials as the speedo needle was sitting about 7mph and the rev was slightly out. Really chuffed with the results. Wish I took some photos of what I did so other posters with the same problem can see.
Before:
Now:
I also found this video really useful if anyone else is attempting to disassemble the cluster, I didn't even have to take the other needles off. I only had to remove the rev counter for this 10 minute job.
Thanks again [
]
3
wow thankyou so much for this i did exactly as described after been told by vw mechanics and have a go mates ,and it works spot on .no need for expensive fixes new clocks etc ect ,over the moon palOk after having a problem with my mileage display I dismantled the dash while keeping it plugged in and realised it was due to the LCD making a poor electrical contact. this is the fix I came up with.
Drop steering wheel using height adjustment under the wheel
Remove the lower instrument cluster guard with cloth bit, just pulls off
Undo the two screws securing the cluster to dash
Pull the clocks forward and to the left and release the green plastic wiring clip by pulling upwards.
Do the same for the right hand side.
Clocks will now come out
With the clocks facing down on a bench remove the four hex screws from the rear of the cluster, the back will now come away as will the front.
Remove the needles by pulling straight up, try not to apply any sideways movement as you will bend the stems they are on
The printed face can now be removed
Looking at the lcd's you will see there is a silver cage around them, if you flip the cluster over you will see four clips for each cage (highlighted in red) pop them off one at a time and push them through the holes keeping the face of the clocks pointing down (I recommend you have a cloth under them ready to catch the glass LCD's just in case)
![]()
now flip the clocks back face up and if the lcd is still in place lift it off
You will see that there are one or two pieces of conductive rubber (highlighted in red) either on the LCD (depending on which display you are working on) or stuck in the cluster. Don't worry if they have separated from the LCD its fine as we would be separating them anyway
![]()
If you lift the rubber out you will see the PCB underneath
With a cotton bud and alcohol or similar wipe the PCB contacts, do the same for both sides of each of the conductive rubber strips. Put the strips back into the slots.
Now wipe the edges of the LCD gently with a barely damp (with alcohol) cotton bud.
Place the LCD back on top of the conductive rubber pads.
Now is the part that made the difference for me, the cage was not applying enough pressure to the lcd for it to make a firm contact with the rubber pads what you need to do is apply very thin strips of tape to the back of the metal cage where it contacts the LCD screen. I used parcel tape but i imagine insulating tape would be a better option. I used 3 layers stuck one on top of the other and cut into strips with a scalpel. You are aiming to make the cage press more firmly on the glass part.
![]()
Once you have applied the tape then bend the legs of the cage in slightly to make sure it tightly grips the cluster tabs. Push the cage almost all the way but before snapping into place make sure the LCD is still straight on the pads, if not adjust it now py pushing it with a thin screwdriver.
I used these tabs shown below to make sure it was reasonably straight
![]()
Once your sure its reasonably straight snap the clips into place.
Reasemble Cluster
When you come to your needles the best way to make sure they are straight is very lightly press them on then turn to the direction of 0
They will stop when the reach the parked positions and you can then twist off while pulling up in the direction of the 0 position and then press them back on firmly.
Put the screws back in and your done.
If it goes wrong please don't blame me [:O]
1 - 15 of 15 Posts
