Octavia 90 TDI Intermittent Instrument panel

[Felicia racer]

RIGHT THERE IS A POLL IN THE OCTAVIA SECTION. ON THE POST LABLED.

"poll for instrument pannel fault"

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/poll-instrument-pannel-fault/142769/

ok this is what im GOING to send to BBC's watchdog.

But im going to get to another skoda dealer first, one I am freindly with.

THIS IS FOR THE FORM ON BBC's WEBSITE.

Basically In the Skoda octavia, some particular models have a fault with the gauges like the; speedo, revv counter, fuel gauge, and temp gauge.

After emailing skoda directly, I have been told that the fault should be dealt with by my local dealer. Where I've had no such luck. However this is a widespread problem and many owners will testify on how dangerous this is (turning off whilst driving). The gauges should last the life of the car, not a few years.

------------------

Could someone put fuse 15 back in and get someone to record the gauges turning off.

AS EVIDENCE TO SHOW THE BBC.

Edited 5 April, 2009 by Felicia racer

[soviet]

Soviet - is this problem only on the 1.6 and 2 litre petrols and 90 and 110 TDI's? I haven't seen any posts from anyone with the 1.8T or vRS models with this problem, so I guess it must be those other models. Would be interesting to know if it affects the SDIs too as there are 1000s of taxi drivers in the UK who have done hundreds of thousands of miles in their Mk1s and would have noticed the problem.

Watchdog is a good idea, it sounds like Skoda UK are just fobbing people off onto the local dealers but maybe if they hear that Watchdog might do a program about faults on a modern Skoda (which nowadays they market as being so much more reliable than they were in the 70's/80's), they might get their a**es in gear and do a recall of those dash units.

Hi chicken_eyebrow,

I have also not seen posts here for 1.8t or VRS, and maybe dash pod is different layout of type, and I am not sure as what SDIs are having also, as I have not been familiar with models as these.. Many taxi drivers are not using Briskoda forum and so would would not know so much about this I think, but it would be good for taxi drivers to ask around for information, for help I think.

Thank you for your thinking here, as it is good for you to look at a problem from the different angle, but we are needing some way to get data collection for different models, and problems with instrument/dash-pod panels.

I have made the discovery here, that for MK1 fault, the needles are not failing to do the registering but are going in to reverse, back past end stops, and so I would say that we are needing firstly to know that this is the same for all cases, and also not to forget my discovery of removal of FUSE 15 which may narrow searching for the fault. This is then pointing to component fault, possibly electrolytic capacitor shorting to ground, and sometimes curing themselves when fault is going. This is a hypothetical and is not proven.

Then we need information here, for other models, that are having similar dash pod fitted. Then we need much evidence of the case for watchdog TV. Skoda are giving us fob off, and so we need to get much information for our case.

Can anyone find the simple method to do this, and contact all that have had dash pod fault?

Thank you, for the good ideas.

Soviet

Edited 5 April, 2009 by soviet
sp

[soviet]

RIGHT THERE IS A POLL IN THE OCTAVIA SECTION. ON THE POST LABLED.

"poll for instrument pannel fault"

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/poll-instrument-pannel-fault/142769/

ok this is what im GOING to send to BBC's watchdog.

But im going to get to another skoda dealer first, one I am freindly with.

THIS IS FOR THE FORM ON BBC's WEBSITE.

Basically In the Skoda octavia, some particular models have a fault with the gauges like the; speedo, revv counter, fuel gauge, and temp gauge.

After emailing skoda directly, I have been told that the fault should be dealt with by my local dealer. Where I've had no such luck. However this is a widespread problem and many owners will testify on how dangerous this is (turning off whilst driving). The gauges should last the life of the car, not a few years.

------------------

Could someone put fuse 15 back in and get someone to record the gauges turning off.

AS EVIDENCE TO SHOW THE BBC.

Hi Felicia racer,

I have said that I will be helping you here as much as I can try, as I want to get the problem to the English TV watchdog program, and so I have looked at history of faults on this forum, and these people have had problems before, and you may ask if they will be help for us, with 'personal message copy in to receipiant :-

Bizarroal

Rachris

Ginger payne

GSM1954

Jvaleiron

Aviv

Skud 1

Graham Poloskie

Sixtdi130

Rob dob

Myoctavia

Godwin.cachia

Dox

d.etwell

drax

colin42

ptate

sidm

phil.s

csblaszo

sam21

tonyt

martin evans

octaviaowner

daverapid

doml

copycat999

loskie

ryan pat

deeferduck

scm5arg

tonyt

smudge

del80y

mowerman

lytham2

naleca

skud 1

johanez3

jarnek

There may be others here that I have now missed that we must find and ask if they are helping us.

Regards for you

Soviet:)

Edited 10 April, 2009 by soviet
sp

[Felicia racer]

im sending this message to all forum members mentioned, so they can participate.

thanks soviet.

message.

hiya,

As we now have a major update for the fault on the octavia instrument pannel.

It will be put into a petition to repair the fault free of charge, and send to skoda, if we get no luck from skoda, then BBC's watchdog TV program will be notified.

What we need you to do is vote YES on the poll (because you have had a problem with the gauges). Then post information on what trim level your car is, and the engine capacity.

The poll and thread is here.

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/poll-i...-fault/142769/

thanks felicia racer.

[soviet]

im sending this message to all forum members mentioned, so they can participate.

thanks soviet.

message.

hiya,

As we now have a major update for the fault on the octavia instrument pannel.

It will be put into a petition to repair the fault free of charge, and send to skoda, if we get no luck from skoda, then BBC's watchdog TV program will be notified.

What we need you to do is vote YES on the poll (because you have had a problem with the gauges). Then post information on what trim level your car is, and the engine capacity.

The poll and thread is here.

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/poll-i...-fault/142769/

thanks felicia racer.

Hi Felicia racer,

I am adding more names for you here: -

galway11

SKYoda

amh

Scm5arg

andy sutton

James_101

Pauljobr

2012

Alfred1

ajtremlett

Wex70

Vdubgirl

Pennypincher

IC3CUB35

aires.miguel

Maybe you will send message for this one.

Soviet:thumbup:

[aurelrica]

hi to all i'm RIKY from Italy, today i had the same problem and doo the trickwith the fuse 15. i will take out the dash in the next days if sommewone has the whiring diagram please post it. by the way i found a site Volkswagen Technical Site who has alot of wv stuff trics and official documentation the problem i only speak english and alot of things are in german or russian language (there is alot of stuff in english to).

In my electronical (amateur constructions of annythig electronic from 0) the problem could be a capacitor but at first sight culd bee a resistor too because (generaly before an voltage regulator as the one you said it could be the problem) the heat generated from working undo the contact in the resistor if annyone could take a fast peek and see if it is a resistor connected to the v. regullator pls

[ScodaOfFinland]

Hi. My Octavia (2002) has the same problem with instrument panel. It started about one year ago. First it worked just fine most of the time:). Sometimes the indicators suddenly dropped down:confused:. Now the indicators sometimes start to work for a short while and the is't quiet for a long time.

To fix this I have soldered regulator TLE4279g for about 4 times. It helps but just for couple of weeks. Instrument panel works without any problem about 1-2 weeks and the it fails again. I removed fuse 15. It helped about 2 days.

Does anyone know if the regulator could be bad (broken)? Would it be worth to try changing it? If yes, does anyone know, where can I buy it?

Thanks

[Sm1thson]

, does anyone know, where can I buy it?

ask the manufacturers for a sample http://www.infineon.com (make sure you request the right package (the amount of legs on it) there are 2 shown on the datasheet)

[TerryO]

I bought Octavia SLX 1800 estate with the intermittent instrument fault on it. Removed F15 as suggested and got speedo, revs, and fuel back but no temp gauge. Still three out four aint bad.

THANKS for info and help.

TerryO.

[waynes_world]

Edited 20 October, 2009 by waynes_world
Added bit about the speedo going backwards

[IC3CUB3S]

If your fault is like the one for my car here, then if you look very closely you will find that needles for the reading are being forced against end stops, and are trying to read in opposite direction, and are not doing the cutting out as you say. These gauges are using the stepper motors for making the drive, and I suspect breaking down of intermittant electrolytic capacitors here, and making the short circuit to earth, of 5 volt from regulator ICs.

Electrolytic capacitors as you may know here, can cure themselves sometimes, and so we can have intermitant fault.

Soviet

I have the same problem for a few years now.

After reading your posts, it seems logical that the needles are forced down. If they were just cutting out, they would stay in their last position, as they do when you turn off the ignition (with fuse 15 removed).

So yes, the needles are forced down in my case too.

* I've resoldered the voltage regulator -> no change.

* I removed fuse 15 but... most of the time, the needles are down. (I got the impression that the dash is cutting out less in the summer)

* With fuse 15 plugged in, the needles are always down.

Just replaced the alternator this week, needles haven't been up since... maybe because of the bad (cold) weather...

I still hope to find a cure overhere (before the car is worn out :rotz: ). I refuse to buy a new dash:mad:.

Anyone replaced the capacitors with success?

I wonder what those guys from BBA-reman (Skoda Octavia Instrument Failure) do to solve the problem.

Some guy on ebay sells "Repair Manual - Instrument Cluster Skoda Octavia"

"within 2 hours, your Instrument Clusters is working again!

The Manual has stood the test outstandingly and the malfunction has been repaired in every single case! " So they say.... I think he's a fraud.

If not and anyone bought the manual let us know so we can enjoy driving our Octavia again.

Greetingzz,

IC3

[guzzigeezer]

Electrolytic capacitors do have a limited lifespan. Especially if cheap quality. Mitsubishi had problems with the ECU on older 3000GT/GTO models and that was a £55000 car. I will be taking my console out soon (fuse 15 mod working ok) and replace the caps and reflow the soldered joints. I shall keep u posted. I'll try and document all stages and do a write up.

By the way people getting confused between fuse 7 and 15. The manual and handbook has fuse layout for LHD car it's a mirror image for RHD.

I have just repaired my instruments full pictures with description is here titled Instrument Cluster Repair http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/152468-instrument-cluster-repair/page__p__1895286__hl__Instrument%20Cluster%20Repair%20__fromsearch__1entry1895286

Edited 14 February, 2010 by guzzigeezer

[guzzigeezer]

Also need to check the part number of the cluster. Somewhere else on here I've seen that having the wrong one fitted causes the speedo to register 10mph more than you're doing. Interestingly - ours came from a Skoda dealer, and the owner before us was Skoda themselves (one of their reps or something we're told). It's always registered the wrong speed (more than 10mph once you get to 60-70mph the speedo registers 85-90mph). Could it possibly be that this problem's been on this car before and the wrong

cluster put in to resolve it?

Are you sure clocks aren't set to kilometers rather than miles?

Edited 14 February, 2010 by guzzigeezer

[smileonimpact]

firstly I hope you get skoda to do the fix for free, failing that i stumbled across this company maybe worth a call if you don't fancy the repair yourself. I don't know if the company are any good or not but fixes from £40 with 12-36 month warranty.

good luck!

[gazsi]

Just to improve (?) the statistics: 1999 Octavia LX, yesterday I had the same problem. Fuse 15 removal solves it, with the usual side-effects.

For a year or so I had another problem, which might be related.

After disconnecting battery, the odometer (not the trip one, but the one that measures lifetime mileage) resetted to zero. I thought up to now, that the failure of some small button-battery,

like the one on computer motherboards, caused this. Since then, any time I disconnect the battery I get a 0 km car.

Now I found that removal of the fuse (probably fuse 15, but I have also removed some others like 11 and 7 to check if they are faulty)

beyond the clock and trip meter, zeroes the mileage odometer, too.

Thanx everybody on the list for sharing thoughts and suggestions.

[dubhe]

Hello all, I joined this forum a few weeks ago as been having the same problem on a '99 TDI which I just bought. Fuse 15 worked, but was so impressed by the reports of the reflowing the solder on the circuit board, I bought a soldering iron and thought I'd give it a go!

I have no professional electrical experience, but have been tinkering, reasonably successfully, with cars and motorbikes since I was a lad. For anyone that is thinking of doing this fix, the clocks unit comes out as a whole relatively easily, so you can do the job in the comfort f your kitchen table. The scariest bit is definitely removing the needles, and the rest of the clock assembly as a whole. But, follow the guidance above and it does all come apart, and go back together again

An hour later, I had reflowed all joints on the two 5v regulators, using a friend to push the legs down with a thin screwdriver as I went did each one, just to be sure. All plugged in I have working needles, with fuse 15 in place So far so good! I'll report back if I have any problems, but otherwise, thank you very much Briskoda.net community!

[pwiles1968]

Put me down for the issue also, 99 Octavia 110TDI, wife phoned yesturday and told me she had an issue with the car, not tried any sort of fix yet, here is hoping I can do something myself.

[megamagnum]

Hello

What is exact component type if i try to get sample from infeneon ? Is this correct one TLE 4276 GV, Q67006-A9272, P-TO220-5-122

[roger2611]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum having just purchased a 2000 W Octavia SLX diesel, the car was suffering from instrument cluster failure, with the dials working very rarely, I tried the fuse 15 fix as described in this thread but had no luck with it, the dials died again after 20 minutes.

With the advice of this thread a friend and I decided to strip the cluster and attempt the resolder of the regulator 4276G, following the full strip down description we got the pod stripped down to the bare PCB in less than 30 minutes, we tested continuity of the 5 pins but could find no fault, we attempted to resolder the legs and re-assembled the unit....it worked for 20 minutes and then died again!!! anyway Saturday morning we stripped it back down and took the PCB to a friend / electronics genius who ran a few tests told us our soldering attempt was pants and in 5 minutes did the job properly, 20 minutes later the unit was re-assembled and back in the car fully functioning, my friend could find no fault with the regulator but said the joints were dry, he reflowed the solder to all 5 legs and to the back of the regulator. So ok it's only Monday but the dials are up and working 100% of the time so far.

I just wanted to say a big thanks to all who took the time to describe the fault, the strip down, the location of the faulty regulator and how to fix it, without your help I and many other users faced massive bills to fix the problem, and to those who are looking at this tread for a first time....all the information you need to fix the problem is described in detail in this thread, the information is correct and the repair is manageable by a competent mechanic, I would advise you take the PCB to an experienced electrician who is confident with a soldering iron (I was surprised how much heat my friend put into the PCB to flow the solder properly but I guess thats why he is an electronics whizz and I'm not!)

Good luck

[2SkodaFamily]

Nice response. It's good to see a "thanks" response when a lot of effort has been collectively put in. Let's hope it carries on working for you!

[roger2611]

Just a quick update on my previous post, unfortunately the dials failed again today, once the car got really warm inside the display started acting up, once I turned the heating down the dials behaved normally, so it looks like the regulator is getting too hot and failing...sadly it looks like another strip down and this time a replacement regulator.....The main problem I am can see at the moment is getting hold of the regulator, the only place I have managed to locate the correct one is via Digi-Key in the states at £2.13 for the part and £12 shipping!!! the only other option would be to send the cluster away to one of the many companies online who offer the repair...ok so now I have a question, has anyone used one of these companies and would be prepared to recommend one, I read earlier in this thread to avoid BBA so can anyone recommend either Cartronix or Cluster repairs?

Edited 21 November, 2011 by roger2611

[clauh2004]

It works!!I solderd tle4276 on the wide end, and now everything is normal. Thanks