My brother in law has recently been having problems with his 1999 V Reg 1.3 Toyotta Corolla in the sense that the speedo will sometimes not work and by tapping on the glass it will start to work again, He wants to know if its likley to be a big expensive repair or if anyone on here has come across this fault themselves.

It mainly does it when setting off from stand still its a bit like the needle is stuck on the zero mark then one or 2 knocks and it starts to work again.

Any pointers on this would be apriciated, Thanks.

Needle bearings will be worn causing the needle to stick. Tiny dry bearings as found in old mechanical watches. The other possibility is dry joints were the speedo is connected to the instrument panel. IIRC it's a bitch to get the instrument cluster out of that car. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a dash out job.