drove the car to work this morning started first time no issues at all, but at lunchtime i had to pop out so started the car, no issue, drove away looked at the dash to see that the dials all said nothing, no revs, no speed, no fuel. I didn't look at the two digital displays so can't remember if they were blank.

Drove a few hundred metres and everything came on ok.

Drove home tonight and all fine again.

The car is just shy of 170k miles and almost 11 years old, so i guess it is due to have something happen, as so far nothing has!

Is there anything simple to look at? it is due a routine service in a few weeks so anything to mention then?

drove the car to work this morning started first time no issues at all, but at lunchtime i had to pop out so started the car, no issue, drove away looked at the dash to see that the dials all said nothing, no revs, no speed, no fuel. I didn't look at the two digital displays so can't remember if they were blank.

Drove a few hundred metres and everything came on ok.

Drove home tonight and all fine again.

The car is just shy of 170k miles and almost 11 years old, so i guess it is due to have something happen, as so far nothing has!

Is there anything simple to look at? it is due a routine service in a few weeks so anything to mention then?

Unfortunately it seems you've succumbed to the imfamous dead dials, the same happened to mine a couple of months ago, initially the dials go off and come back on and then after a time they stop working all together, when this happens, there are a few of options, one is to remove fuse no. 15 from the fuse box on the end of the dash board, this somehow allows the dials to work but removes the permanent power supply to the gauges hence your clock, trip computer etc zeros everytime you turn the ignition off and whats worse, stops the 'lights on' warning buzzer from working which caused me a completely flat battery on two occasions.

The second option is to remove the gauges, strip them down and test/replace a number of capacitors and re-solder a voltage regulator to get the gauges to work again. I tried this, by resoldering the voltage regulator and testing the capacitors, it worked for about two weeks then packed up again, so unless you know what you are doing with electronics, I wouldnt bother, there is however a 'how-to' guide on here under the Octavia Technical Guides which you can look through if you fancy the challenge.

The third option is to get a good second hand set of dials, which is what I ended up doing, if you've got a diesel car you should have plenty of choice from scrap yards or even offf ebay, you will need to re program the keys to the new dash and re-do the mileage, but this is easily enough done with VagTacho, if you go down this route, just put a posting on here to find out where someone close to you has the software and can pop round to re-program the dash for you. I have VagTacho and am based in the midlands if thats any help.

Good luck!

Thanks for the comments, having seen the part i need on ebay for £40 i have some idea of cost. not 100% of which version and whether the model/year matters much.

My only real concern is if the gauges fail does the low fuel warning fail? i don't care about the speed as i can bodge it with a gps for a few days, but no fuel gauge could be a problem!

just a thought, is there anything that stops you just changing the clock unit, is it programmed to match the car in some way? I am not interested in defrauding anyone, but if i change the clocks will the car drive and work and it is simply the odometer reading that is wrong? I don't see me selling this car for anything other than scrap eventually.

In a word, yes. It contains the immobiliser, so you'll need the log in codes for both dash panels and access to the diagnostic equipment and procedure to effect the change.

In a word, yes. It contains the immobiliser, so you'll need the log in codes for both dash panels and access to the diagnostic equipment and procedure to effect the change.

if i buy a second hand one could someone come and program it for me im in northampton and wot codes do you need if its the key tab you get with it i dont have it