Hello All,

I appear to having the dreaded instrument cluster failure on my dash. I had it last year but I took the dash out, resoldered some joints on the board and it worked for 9 months! Now its is failing again and I'm getting pretty ****ed off with it. I am reluctant to resolder again as it was a bit hit and miss the last time!

I am thinking of going to a local scrapyard and seeing if I can just get a new cluster but is it possible to swap one out... or is it in some way tied to the key or a code in the ECU?

Also, is the mileage displayed going to be different or is this stored somewhere else too?

Many thanks!

You can't just swap it unfortunately. You'll need a special cable and software to reset the mileage and get the SKC code and then use vagcom to sync the clocks with the ECU and the clocks with the keys.

Cheers Eddy. But if I bought a second hand one, do you reckon I could take it to a Skoda garage and have them do it for me?

If you fix yours the mileage stays correct, whereas they can not adjust a second hand one.

Out of interest which solder joints had gone, have you taken it out to see if it is the same ones that have gone? You might find it cheaper to pay a techie a few bob to resolder the lot under a scope.

Cheers Eddy. But if I bought a second hand one, do you reckon I could take it to a Skoda garage and have them do it for me?

I doubt Skoda will fit a used one.

If you fix yours the mileage stays correct, whereas they can not adjust a second hand one.

Out of interest which solder joints had gone, have you taken it out to see if it is the same ones that have gone? You might find it cheaper to pay a techie a few bob to resolder the lot under a scope.

I don't think Skoda can adjust the mileage on a second hand cluster but it can be done.

I have my suspicions about a 3 pronged black box on the right side of the unit. Dont have a pic sorry! To be honest I couldnt 'see' anything wrong with it. I spoke with a techie guy I know and he told about something called a 'dry joint' where I tiny gap may appear in the solder. Sometimes heat caused it to expand etc - causing the intermittent connection. With mine, the alarm that signals that the lights are on when a door is opened also fails to go off when the needles fail so it maybe something to do with the initial power supply to the unit. ? All hearsay and speculation of course. And bloody annoying!

Yes that is right, you can see the holes under a microscope. You would either clean up and re-solder the joins or re-flow them and add a small quantity of new solder. If you do this again make sure you use leaded solder as IMHO the lead free stuff is a bit brittle and since the connectors will not have been designed to be lead free they won't have the extra support required.

Have you tried looking at other things such as the relay that controls power to the circuit as maybe this is misbehaving and will be a lot cheaper than a dash pod.

Can't say i know which one it is off the top of my head but i know relay 109 had problems, so no reason why others can't.

If you move to a new cluster it will need coding as already stated.

The instructions for that are here -

Ross-Tech: VAG-COM: Immobilizer 3 Instrument Cluster Swapping

A VAG TACHO cable and software should allow you to find the SKC/PIN and change mileage on a VDO dash.

Try eBay, VAG TACHO cables can be picked up for around