This is the BEST THING I'VE BEEN AWAITING FOR MONTHS! I have had this issue with my 2012 VW Passat SE 2.5L (Located in the United States). I didn't know it was an issue until a few weeks after purchasing the car "as-is"
So the things that have been described above such as
- Speedometer, and Tachometer stops functioning
-Mileage does not increase
- Gas (petrol) gauge bounces back and forth
- Buttons on the wheel do not work with corresponding actions
- When starting the car the car WILL start BUT die in like a second or two.
- A/C compressor unit will stop working and just blower is functioning.
- The Turn indicators on the instrument cluster don't work (can't hear them either), but the indicators still work you just have to step outside of the car to see them working.
- This doesn't happen often times but while driving it will flash a red oil sign on the cluster and state to TURN OFF ENGINE, (I've learned to just keep driving, knowing that I've checked oil levels already).
-I learned not to turn my car of unless I'm in a safe location, don't do it in traffic as there is a possibility that the car will remain stuck there until it wants to start or until you disconnect the battery 40 billion times before starts up again.
- I used to think it had to do with the weather as when it was cold the car would not start, but that was not the case.
-The only way that I would get the car to start (eventually) was to disconnect the battery, turn on the hazards (emergency lights) and every time I would connect the terminal with the battery I would check dash to see if the hazards indicators were appearing on cluster (good indication that I could start the car).
I have a question though, I do not know how to access the CAN-gateway (not sure what it is or what it looks like). I would like to know if you can help me remedy this problem as I have just paid $750 to get this fixed and it was the instrument cluster that was changed (mechanic thought it was an immobilizer issue), but that did not fix the issue, and I don't have a functioning radio now since I will need to pay $150 to get the code to my radio.