Hi,

 

I've inhertied a Roomster 1.2 TSI, 2012 it's done about 25k miles.

 

LCD in the cluster is blank, I've a new cluster and that appears to be working fine but of course I need it coding to the vehcicle.

 

Is there anyone near Banbury/Oxford that can help or can someone point me in the right direction - I have access to the necessary software but limited knowledge on what to do.

 

Thanks,

 

J

@Doowle

 

I am not certain what cluster you have. By LCD do you mean the maxidot?

 

I had to have my cluster replaced on my MKII Octavia so the only advice I can provide is in relation to that. If your setup is different then it may not be relevant.

 

The only person I could find who could replace the cluster is a member of this forum @Eddie-NL.  I'm in Leeds and he is in Norwich so a 400 mile round trip.

 

The problem I had was the immobiliser key is stored in the cluster. This needs to read from the old cluster then coded into the new cluster. VCDS cannot do this. I don't know what @Eddie-NL used but he striped the new cluster down to the circuit board, removed the maxidot and then put a clip directly onto the microchip with a cable attached so each leg of the microchip had a wire attached to it. This cable then connected to a black box which in turn connected to his laptop. At this point I realised what he was doing was way beyond what normal people are capable of doing and left him to it.

 

Before contacting Eddie I phoned around VAG group specialist's and auto electricians through out West Yorkshire. Unless you have a brand new cluster in a "virgin" state that is an identical part number then no garage was willing to do it which from your comment "appears to be working", I doubt you do have. As far as I am concerned it's @Eddie-NL or nothing.

 

As for Eddie, I could not recommend him enough. Not only did he setup up the replacement cluster to work, he calibrated the needles as well. And as a finishing touch he enabled "needle sweep" - it looks cool now when I start the car. I gave him a large tip I was so impressed.

 

Hopefully, @Eddie-NL will log in soon and see he has been mentioned and reply.

 

Best of luck.

 

Kev.

Hey,

 

The part of mine that doesn't work is the bit marked in this picture, as you've said my research also tells me the cluster affects the immobiliser.

 

That's amazing information thank you so much!

 

It's a 200mile round trip for me but I may just have to take that approach.

 

As you say, hopefully he'll log in soon

 

J

I've sent a message to Eddie regarding an upgrade to a Maxidot on October 17, 2023 and he has not read it yet...that brings it to almost a year not loging in so far as I'm concerned.

TBH mine is sorted now, I found that there are two manufactures of these clusters - VDO and Johnson Controls.

 

The JC ones have LCD's connected by a connector, the VDO ones are soldered to the board in a way that would make them very difficult to remove.

 

Mine was JC, so found another one with the exact same part number and swapped the LCD.

 

What I did discover is that when connecting the incxorrectly coded LCD the car, for reasons best known to Skoda, removes the long code for the ABS computer.  Which needs a computer, not VAGCOM, to recode it.

 

But I have a working car, cost me about £500 so far.