I have a mk2 facelift Octavia vRS and the speedo needle hasn’t worked since I picked up the car the garage I took it to has told me that it needs to be taken to main dealer to be programmed back in after they replace the led, but I have seen lots of people put different coloured leds in the cluster and not need the reprogramming. Just wondering how easy it is to do or would it be easier to just claim on warranty for a new dash from main dealer

If your warranty covers it then use it else it's a straight forward job for a competent individual, plenty of examples on the tube.

I would return the car to the garage as not fit for purpose and either get them to fix it, whilst suppling a courtesy car, or get your money back. it is a legal requirement that every car has a functioning method of indicating the speed and I would have thought that selling one without a functioning speedometer was illegal. As far as I know, like you, canging the leds would not stop the speedometer working. In your photo the speedometer needle does not even apear to be lit. When was it last MOT'd?

No recoding needed if you're only swapping/fixing the led lighting 🙂

1 hour ago, Liger1956 said:

I would return the car to the garage as not fit for purpose and either get them to fix it, whilst suppling a courtesy car, or get your money back. it is a legal requirement that every car has a functioning method of indicating the speed and I would have thought that selling one without a functioning speedometer was illegal. As far as I know, like you, canging the leds would not stop the speedometer working. In your photo the speedometer needle does not even apear to be lit. When was it last MOT'd?

The speedo works it’s just at night I can’t see the needle properly as not illuminating. Mot was in feb before I picked up the car

When I bought my car, it has this issue. At first I thought about doing something but after some while I got used to it.

If you are lazy then you might like this method - it's cheap and easy

@Jevpls

 

If Latvia had as many speed cameras as the UK you'd get it fixed!

1 hour ago, TheKernowLad said:

The speedo works it’s just at night I can’t see the needle properly as not illuminating. Mot was in feb before I picked up the car

So the garage either hasn't replaced the led properly and reassembled the cluster correctly or they may have mislead or misinformed you regarding the fault.

16 hours ago, MicMac said:

@Jevpls

 

If Latvia had as many speed cameras as the UK you'd get it fixed!

 

No, I'm able to see the needle - so I'm able to maintain the speed as well.

It's harder to see it but it's not impossible.

On 27/08/2020 at 11:35, Liger1956 said:

I would return the car to the garage as not fit for purpose and either get them to fix it, whilst suppling a courtesy car, or get your money back.

 

I have a feeling that should you ever move to Latvia you would find it hard to adapt.

 

I wouldn't even fancy your chances with that approach in Stockport with a 9 year old vehicle.

 

Edited 28 August, 20205 yr by J.R.

I don't know what Latvia has to do with anything as the OP lives in Cornwall!

 

I wrote that post before the OP clarified that the speedometer did in fact work but that it was the illumination of the needle that did not. However I still stand by my premise that if a dealer supplies a vehicle that is not fit for purpose e.g. the speedometer does not work then in law you have the right to get the dealer to rectify the problem at their expense or refund your money. You should not be out of pocket for no fault of your own. I would however have expected such a problem to be picked up on a test drive and the car only being purchased subject to the fault having been rectified. If the speedometer was working when the car was collected then I agree that faults that developed later would not necessarily be covered in law.

My bad,  I had gone back to the first post to see the OP's location but must have instead seen the first one from Jev. - I realise now I had gone back to see the age of the vehicle and assumed that the OP was the one last commenting.

 

People dont usually do test drives at night, even with the lights on you would not be able to discern the speedo needle illumination in daylight.

 

I can see now that the OP did indeed say that the needle did not work and the photo showed it in the rest position.

 

Fit for purpose in the case of a vehicle means one that will fulfill its function of transporting people, were you to buy a new speedometer with said fault there would be an argument that it was not fit for purpose but a weak one, much easier to contest whether it is of merchantable quality or as described.

 

Its a 9 year old second hand vehicle, the speedo is illuminated as required, the illumination of instrument needles is a relatively recent thing.

Edited 28 August, 20205 yr by J.R.

This is how it looks during the day, as you can see it looks to be In working order, so when I looked at the car on the forcourt of the garage I could not tell that the illumination of the speedo needle was not working. I did take it up with the garage when I noticed it wasn’t working, due to COVID it has been a long process, and the garage has since messed me around so I was just asking if was easy enough to attempt the repair myself 

There is a guide in this thread: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/425611-instrument-cluster-led-replacment/

 

 

If you're not comfortable soldering small SMD components, you might find a local electronics repair shop is a better plan