Went to go out today and discovered that my dash doesnt work.

The car starts and runs ok, but there is no sign of life from the dash. the milage shows up but nothing else, no spedo,revs,fuel,temp etc etc..

Ive checked the fuses and all i could find were ok.

Now the confession.

I took the battery earth lead off yesterday to change some of the wiring to the sat nav (moving aux input in the quadlock plug).

I took the sat nav out again today to make sure that i hadnt knocked any wiring, but there isnt any behind there that goes to the clocks. Any ideas what might have happened or is it just a coincidence that its died.

Im hoping theres a hidden fuse somewhere that will sort out the problem.

Dont know much about vehicle electronics TBH, apart from check fuses, especially the main ones.

However i think its illegal to drive a car with a speedometer that isnt reading. plug a satnav in, then your back will be covered

Sy

Just a guess, but was there only one negative cable to the battery e.g. have you missed putting a lead back on. On my previous cars some have had more than one.

However i think its illegal to drive a car with a speedometer that isnt reading. plug a satnav in, then your back will be covered

You're OK without a speedo

You're OK without a speedo

got that from watch dog. a load of renaults had issues with their electronic dash going on, and were trying to get out of replacing free of charge, when discussing it they had a copper there who said it was against the law to drive without a speedo.

any idea how to take the clocks out?

I had dead dash few weeks ago had wipers, horn, indicators, but no dash lights car started but cut out again after a few seconds, while waiting for the AA to arrive I was talking to a mechanic friend he told me to hit the dash a few hard slaps and presto on came the lights and it started all the light stayed on but it drove onto the back of the AA wagon ok.

Skoda garage could not find anything, loose connection somewhere they said (they had no idea)screwed out the clocks pushed on all the plugs back of the dash reset the lights in the dash and away I went every one scratching their heads none the wiser.

Just been out and removes the fuse (no 16 5A) under the bonnet turned the key and the dash lit up momentarily before going out again. Put the fuse back in an nothing, nada, zilch, sweet fa.

Looking on the net last night this seemed to be a common occurence on the early octavias - has it carried on on the mkII ?

any idea how to take the clocks out?

Pull of the black trim off above the steering wheel and undo the screws, then you need to release two plastic clips at the top - best way is two slide in a couple of steel rulers - sounds complex but is very easy.

For pics and a better description see - http://www.octavia-vrs.com/technical/bluetooth.html (towards the bottom of the page)

Called out Skoda assistance (RAC) today. They had a quick look to see what the problem was. He changed a couple of fuses (ones I'd already done) and achieved nothing. He suggested that I take it to Skoda on Monday. :no: :(

What amazed me about the visit today was that the RAC, acting as Skoda assistance, dont have the facilities to check for fault codes.

Problem cured itself overnight

Skoda dont know what caused it