Any ideas?

Hopefully isn't going to get worse. I'd hate to have to get dash taken out to see what's going on :-(

Failed / failing LED behind the cluster.

 

There was another similar thread on here recently. The dealer sent the cluster away to a specialist to be repaired, took a few days.

Found it...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/342833-speedo-only-half-lit/

Great :-(. Car is out of warranty.

I have the same thing except with the illumination at the top of the speedometer - the used car warranty I had didn't cover it so I'm on my own. I can't find decent instructions on how to take the cluster out though. There are bolt holes on the bottom right and left corners based on ebay pictures of the removed cluster, so hopefully it's just a matter of popping the panels off at these points, undoing the bolts below and pulling it out, but I'd like to hear from someone who's done it before applying the brute force and limited knowledge method.

 

I was quoted €300 by a specialist near Dublin to do this, but since the repair involves resoldering one bad solder joint on the board, that's more than a bit excessive. More so given there are full clusters for sale second hand for less than this...

 

There's a long weekend coming up for St. Patricks day, so I should have a chance to do this very soon... 

Please keep me up to date, thanks.

Great :-(. Car is out of warranty.

What's the age? Go after goodwill; unlike incandescent bulbs, these units are supposed to last beyond the life of the car, as they are on permanently, which can only be achieved with LEDs..

2010 FL. I'm the second owner.

Weird that it flickers just at start up.

Anyways I won't be shy in asking Skoda for a dig out.

I had a go at getting to the LEDs yesterday. Getting the instrument panel out is pretty easy, just pop off exactly the panels I guessed I'd need to remove to uncover the T20 bolts. Move the steering wheel down and forward as far as it'll go and wiggle the panel out of the dashboard into the space you've made. Getting into the panel is pretty easy too, 4 T15 bolts and a few easily accessed clips on the outside to separate the two halves. The next layer with the plastic windows covering the speedometer and tachometer comes off by sliding a screwdriver down the rectangular hole in the edge of the pins that clip it in place to release the clips at the bottom, which gets you to the point where you have the needles, the dial background and a plastic spacer between you and the board.

 

At this point I was unable to get the needles off the speedometer to any further. I even tried pliers (With insulation tape around the tips to avoid scratching anything) to pull the needles off their spindles and failed at any force I was willing to apply to a £1000 assembly in a car I needed to drive that afternoon and evening. So to summarise I had to call it quits within view of the LED's I needed to resolder as I was unable to get further in the disassembly process.

 

The good news is that if anyone has a trick for getting the needles off their spindles, the whole instrument panel can be removed from the car and dismantled to that point in probably less than 30 minutes with the help of a couple of plastic bicycle tyre levers (I sharpened the edge of one on a sander to get into narrower gaps), T20 and T15 Torx drivers and a narrow flathead screwdriver now that I know what I'm doing. I'll have a chance to stick pictures up this evening hopefully. The darker patch on the speedometer is taunting me now :(... 

 

For anyone else doing this, try to only handle the PCB at the edges rather than anywhere there are tracks or components on it. Be careful not to poke at the flex connecting the maxidot display to the PCB or the board surface with anything metal. Also if you try to pull the needles off with your fingers be warned that your nails will leave marks on the background of the gauge (I spotted this before any serious marks were left, so just avoid trying this altogether). I left the battery connected while the cluster was removed and the central locking still worked without errors after the cluster was removed. The trip data and clock time are lost when you unplug the cluster, but the odometer is unaffected.

2010 FL. I'm the second owner.

Weird that it flickers just at start up.

Anyways I won't be shy in asking Skoda for a dig out.

Good, do it mate; you've nothing to loose..