Hi all,

I am a complete newbie to the world of Skoda but I’ve fulfilled a childhood dream and bought a very well maintained Mk1 VRS for the grand total of £1800.

It might have been mentioned in other topics but I just can’t find a definitive answer. My instrument cluster has no EML light when ignition is on. I suspected someone had possibly blanked it out in a previous life and upon removing the cluster today, someone has indeed siliconed the EML LED hole. (No codes from the OBD, don’t worry I have checked).

My questions:

• How do you remove the Speedo needles on the Mk1, is it a spoon under the needle and pull job or is it a twist anti clockwise?

• If I were to replace with a new cluster from another Mk1 VRS, can this be recoded to work with my car using Vagcom or another such software? I’ve seen some people say yes and others say no.

Cheers!

On my MK2 I used a spoon to prise them off but not sure re MK1. If you replace the cluster with an other one it will need to be recoded. also if I remember I read on rostech forum it has to be from the same car ie if yours is petrol vrs then must come from a petrol vrs and vice versa re diesel. Something about different imobilizers. It might be worth getting your cluster repaired or at least a quote first.

Alasdair

It's not as simple to just swap them, it'll need to be read using a eeprom program to get the code and reflash it on a new cluster. It's possible that the ECU has been modified and had the eml coded out.

Thank you both for your replies! Apologies for the delay in responding.

I took the cluster out in full and removed the Speedo film. You were right @Alasdair1 in that the needles came off with some gentle prying. I dug out all of the ‘white tack’ that had been stuffed down the EML light port, inspired by the thoughts of having to spend significant time and money re-coding a new cluster if I didn’t make the effort.

EML light now works, comes on and goes off with ignition. I suspect someone has done this previously to get through a cheeky sale or MOT.

Easy enough to remove the cluster though!

Glad its sorted and they just blanked off the LED. Years ago I did a similar thing on an old volvo re airbags, I bypassed the led and connected it to the oil light so it came on with ignition and went off when engine running.

Alasdair