I replaced my instrument panel as my mileometer was not always adding on the miles travelled. Found that the replacement dash panel acts quite differently to the old one in a number of ways.

The petrol gauge does not shake up and down everywhere when going round corners, braking etc. I assume either something was faulty in my old panel or electronics were added in a later revision to stabilise the level shown.

Rev counter reads consistently higher than old one throughout the rev range, I assume the replacement panel is closer to correct and the old one under-read. Not that it's really important.

Most importantly the coolant temp gauge. A while ago I was uncertain about the temperature shown and believed it was running cooler than I thought it should. At the time I replaced the thermostat, flushed the coolant system and filled with G12+ coolant and deionised water - nothing seemed to change so I gave up on it. With the new panel the temperature displayed is higher and seems much more reasonable - quite scary to think what temperature would have got the old gauge to go into the red zone!

Not sure if the gauge was faulty or progressively reading lower and lower or not, but the important thing is if your temp gauge seems to read lower than it should, or perhaps has in the past, in addition to the usual thermostat etc, do not discount the actual temp gauge itself - or you may end up in the red zone sooner than you think without knowing it!

The instrument panel that was in probably had an earth fault, that would cause the faults you describe

Guess this is my opportunity to pull an instrument panel to pieces then

The regulator used in most instruments panels in cars like the Favorit is pretty approximate (I'm on my second Fav but I've not examined the regulator off either so far!). That might explain instruments reading low, but the petrol gauge must be a different meter on the new panel - Skoda gauges on Estelles and Favorits do tend to read very quickly in response to variations in the float level as one corners, brakes etc.

Pulled the panel to pieces. There's a potentiometer at the back of the rev counter and petrol gauge. I assume these are factory set as there are no access holes in the PCB.

Speedo/mileometer is purely mechanical (looking at the internals there's no obvious reason why it should be leaving miles off, e.g. chipped cogs).

The coolant temp gauge is just a coiled copper set up with no electronics.

The PCB just has either a diode or resistor (not an electrician so no clue). Guess it's possible a solder on a PCB has gone a bit iffy - think it's called a "dry joint"?

I might try modify components from a dash panel. Flourescent orange, red, green or maybe blue for the needles. Maybe a nice deep blue matt colour for the plastic insert. I wonder if it's possible to get custom plastic screens professionally printed for the gauges for a reasonable price, I'd have hours of fun in photoshop with various fonts etc if it was

I'm guessing a bit because there are different sorts of diodes and resistors but normally:-

Diode - clear glassy material with a red dot at one end.

Resistor - brown plasticcy material with 4 coloured hoops round it.

Ref the mileometer not reading (presuming the speedo is), the external drive goes to the least significant digit; the others are driven by step-down gears inside the display. Well at least that was the case with the one I stripped.

:)The gear that slips causing the miles not to go round isn't immediately obvious. You can buy the kit to repair it from Jorrily.

It's basically the same set up as the rear engined cars speedos and I've successfully got several of those working.

:)The gear that slips causing the miles not to go round isn't immediately obvious. You can buy the kit to repair it from Jorrily.

It's basically the same set up as the rear engined cars speedos and I've successfully got several of those working.

much of a job is it? and much is this magical kit gonna sting? the mk1 is stuck on 117945, for about 4 months now lol

:)Last Estelle ones I bought were £5 each.