mk3 Gremlins...

[brutus]

Hi,

I'm new to the site, but I already need some advice. I have a 95 2.0 GL, which I have owned for about 18 months, but only got back into a month ago due to an extended holiday.

In the past two weeks both the instrument cluster and the passnger side front window have developed some, shall we say, small problems....

The front passenger window seems to have developed a regulator problem (which i have already encountered with the rear drivers side window - a month after buying the car), but this is different to the last one. My friend dropped the window and about a third of the way down there was a crunching noise. I stopped it and, fortunately, it raised back up. Inevitably, another friend (who i forgot to inform that the window was broken) dropped it again. Same crunch, and harder to raise this time. The motor seems fine, but I dont want to test it...

A few days ago the speedo and tacho fell to zero whilst the car was in motion. I stopped for fuel, thinking it would correct itself upon restart. No love... The rest of the instrument cluster seems to function properly (although the fuel gauge seems to have become highly inaccurate, it still moves - odometer and temp. gauge working fine). Having read a few threads on the topic, i decided to have a crack at pulling the cluster out and looking for dry joints myself. I got all the trim pieces off and rolled the pod forward, only to find that there is about half an inch of slack in the wiring, and i cant get to the multi point connector to free the cursed thing...

If anyone has experience in cost-effectively fixing these problems, advice would be greatly appreciated...

Cheers

[peedman]

Hmm there should be plenty of slack in the wiring to unplug it. Have u tried just disconnecting the battery, bridging the + and -ve wires together for 10secs or so (not the battery) and then putting the battery back on.

And yeh regulator problems is wat i suspect, easy to fix once u know how to do it.

[brutus]

Hi Peedman,

Thanks for the swift reply.

The wire situation is weird... When i was removing and replacing the trim around the instruments, the light control switch and the airbag warning light were extremely arkward to deal with as they had almost no slack either... I was fairly gentle, as I didn't want to break the wires, but I was also trying to get the damn thing out, so I gave it a reasonable amount of pressure.

When you say the + and -ve wires together for 10secs or so (not the battery), which wires do you mean?

Thanks again!

[peedman]

The battery terminals, i mean. Its supposed to discharge a capacitor or something i dunno but after swapping gauge clusters my fuel gauge was off. I did that and it reset it, might as well give it a try.

[Golf Loon]

The instruments sounds like the dance of death.

Common Problem

I have taken a few sets of clocks apart and resoldered everything to try and fix the problem, to no avail.

If you change the clocks, it will solve the problem.

[cOS]

yeah my cluster was the same when I first pulled it out. there were basically no slack what so ever. I could barely fit my hands over the top and to the back. I didn't want to yank on the cable ither. so you are not the only one. i also hear some people call it the wiggle of death too. I get that some times, but for me, if I leave the car in neutral when I turn it off, I do not get it. odd isn't it? only discovered it recently. before that, it would happen intermittenly here and there.

did you happen to fill up your car whilst its on? I read somewhere inaccuracies are caused by that and it fixes itself after time.

the grinding sound definitely sound like the regulator. the sound usually come from all those plastic bits falling to pieces

[brutus]

Thanks to all for replies... Well i guess my next question is can anyone reccomend somewhere to get a used gauge cluster? Also, will the odometer read the previous vehicles mileage if i get a used one?