Thanks again Kamold for your wealth of knowledge and quick response! Little bit of a field report from my side:

Spent an hour in the car with vcds and aside from updating the boot screen to show ‘R’ I had no joy sorting out the dimming issue

If a new cluster will solve this and transmit the time then I’m keen to source one. Qtn is what unit would I need and does this lead to needing other parts replaced too? I’m not bothered about 3D/colour etc as my headunit doesn’t have Nav

Thanks again! As a side note also built my dynaudio amp harness this weekend and can’t wait to make progress there