Instrument cluster (rev counter)

[Craig85]

Ok, I don't know what's happened here as never had something like this happen before.

Hoping its nothing too serious and will be a simple fix if someone an point me in the right direction.

This morning set about trying to fit a Christmas pressie my mrs bought me (didn't fit as brackets in wrong place/ made wrongly) another story on that one anyway.

So had the car stripped and battery all out and everything came out an went back in fine. Widows lost their one touch on front but after holding the buttons that is now working again but the very strange bit was when I started the car it was very lumpy and shaking and wasn't happy at all. Turned it back of, checked everything over and started again and ran fine this time but what it's now doing is even when the engine and ignition are completely off and car locked, the rev gauge is holding up around the 1k rpm. The needle just won't drop back down at all.

With the engine on, the needle revs up and down as usual but when you switch off it just sits just under the 1k rpm rather than dropping back to 0.

Since I've had the car sometimes its delayed moving when starting the car but now it won't actually go back to the off position??

Have a ballsed something up somewhere without intentionally doing so?

No wires were caught, fuses look all intact and no shorts happened whilst thins were in and out?

Anyone help as I hate it when these thins go wrong, brings my little OCD demons out :(

[Craig85]

Just been back out there and it's not just the rev counter, both the temp and petrol gauge are staying at last reading and it seems the whole cluster is staying on with a feed?

Has anyone got any ideas as to what this could be or if its something I can rectify easily?

On another note, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and there aren't too many suffering today

Any suggestions on this one would be most gratefully recieved.

[Gsaiev1]

It could be a disconnected earth or a bad one? I had this problem, also check the speed sensor on top of the gearbox, this causes this problem too

[Craig85]

It could be a disconnected earth or a bad one? I had this problem, also check the speed sensor on top of the gearbox, this causes this problem too

I suppose it could be a bad earth, true. I may have to take the battery and tray back out to check everything thoroughly again as it was perfectly gone before doing this today so it must be something in there.

Only other thing was the 2 wires that connect to a bolt near the wing which is near that section of loom that's in the plastic shield (I know this wont make much sense) but that looked a bit twisted, not sure if normal.

The dash is functioning as normal it just isn't zeroing when its turned off. Temp stays on 90, fuel on wherever it is and rev counter holds on tickover and it all just stays still. Very frustrating as its these little issues that really wind me up and do my head in completely.

When I get home I will take it all back out and see if anything obvious

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Craig85]

Nothing I could see that was out of place. Everything all connected up as it should be and cleaned the earths up and still the same.

Scratching head now as rather frustrated. :( :(

[Gsaiev1]

Hmmm.. That's a weird one...

Check you fuses for the instruments?

[Craig85]

Where is the fuse box located on the car? I've never had to look at it or even for it before and as this is my first one I'm still learning on a daily basis..

Not sure I'd know which fuses are for it but I'm willing to try anything as I need to sort it out asap.

[Gsaiev1]

Fuses are drivers side, open door and there under a panel on side of the dash

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Arrgghh, annoying electrical gremlins! I feel your pain...

 

 

It would help greatly to diagnose the problem, if you'd actually post up exactly what you did to your car, from start to finish?

[Craig85]

Fuses are drivers side, open door and there under a panel on side of the dash

Thanks for that

[mannyo]

Could be a number of things, try removing the cluster and disconnecting and reconnecting the connectors. They can be quiet difficult to reconnect, they may look fine but could be slightly out of place. Been there and done that on MK1 Octavia and it would not start at all until I redid all the connections.

 

Also, does the whole cluster go off when you remove the key, ie. the mileage and trip display and clock. This is symptomatic of a failed fuse, although its number in the fusebox escapes me right now.

[devonutopia]

Wonder if you could have bent a pin over whilst reconnecting?

[Craig85]

Arrgghh, annoying electrical gremlins! I feel your pain...

It would help greatly to diagnose the problem, if you'd actually post up exactly what you did to your car, from start to finish?

Yeah I hate them with a passion.

Well it was pretty much as I said in the first post, I was taking the battery out so that I could fit the cai my mrs bought me for Xmas however the brackets were welded on in the wrong place so couldn't actually fit as no way were they matching upto where they needed to fasten.

So battery was out, tray was out and that little multi plug connector on the n/s inner wing was removed from its retaining bracket to give a bit more space.

After all the faffing around, it was all put back in to the exact position it all came from with no changes made to wires or routes of cables and then today had another look at it and just made sure I hadn't misunderstood any fittings but I hadn't so put it all back together again and then it ran really very roughly to start with. I turned it off and then on again and that's when I noticed that when switched off and key removed, the rev counter stayed on tickover level (about 900rpm) the temp gauge still read on the 50 deg area and the fuel gauge permanently shows the amount of fuel in there. The dials stay as if they're powered up or a charge is somehow in the system.?

I'm rubbish when it comes to electrical faults, I don't have confidence to do major bits but if its something that could be an easy to fix problem I will give it a try as these things bug me beyond belief.

[Craig85]

Could be a number of things, try removing the cluster and disconnecting and reconnecting the connectors. They can be quiet difficult to reconnect, they may look fine but could be slightly out of place. Been there and done that on MK1 Octavia and it would not start at all until I redid all the connections.

Also, does the whole cluster go off when you remove the key, ie. the mileage and trip display and clock. This is symptomatic of a failed fuse, although its number in the fusebox escapes me right now.

No the cluster stays live, mileage, distance and clock all stay showing. The other bits just don't zero down either.

Only thing I removed was the battery so am a little baffled as why its happened.

They all function as they should when the cars running but they jus dont zero themselves or switch off fully now.

Clocks out, is that an easy thing on one of these?

[Craig85]

Wonder if you could have bent a pin over whilst reconnecting?

Don't think so as the only thing I dissconnected was the battery. Everything else was still attatched and that's why I'm totally confused by it.

[Craig85]

If any use for suggestions this pic shows the only other bits that were moved (not dissconnected though) when I removed the battery.

One is the black connector block with the plug top and bottom which was removed from the bracket so it gave more room and the other was the 2 wires going to the bolt directly next to it.

Block on very upper right of pic and the bolt with 2 wires just lower left of the block.

If any help I don't know.

Edited 26 December, 2013 by Craig85

[Craig85]

Well again after being plugged into vagcom it has shown a few faults on the car.

1 being an earthing issue so the dials and flickering lights its now got seem to be to a bad earth. Hunt begins.

Also D.V is buggered as low boost pressure and its over fuelling and running rich so needs replacing.

Front temp sensor inconsistent earthing error but kit connected to dash issues.

Battery leads have been cleaned up however tha main dash fault continues, any pointers as to which earths to really concentrate on cleaning first to narrow down my options?

Which are most common on the octy's for failing?