HEUREKA! I fixed my instrument cluster!

[NielsGalan]

Since I bought my 524TD a little over a year ago, the Inspection lights, the litres/km and the RPM gauge have been, well, working at random. When I first test drove the car, it worked. When I test drove the 2nd time it didn't, and when I bought the car it worked.

Then it worked on and off, mostly off. The last 8-10 months it hasn't worked. I have read this forum up and down, Bruno's page etc. and all suggest I change the capacitors. Well, I had a look inside, and learned that the inside of my instrument cluster looks nothing like any photo on either website.

I changed the sensor in the engine for the rpm - no change. I checked the wiring - no nothing.

Not until by brother and I with the car on and the instrument cluster out he started poking and stroking, wiggling and waggling, and we found:

THE CODING PLUG WAS LOOSE! A bad connection that we fixed by jamming a couple of toothpicks in between the housing and the coding plug. I have been so f***ing frustated with that for so many months, and all it takes is a couple of toothpicks to fix it.

[bahnstormer]

yay!

[skr]

did it allso fix the liter/km guage? i had some problems with my dash, changed capacitors, fixed some loose contacts, work fine now but l/km still not working. when i start engine it goes to max and goes down only when rpm goes down fast. when i accelerate again it goes back to max and stays there
whould apreciate any ideeas...

[NielsGalan]

Hello again.

Now, I'm no expert, but this is what I have learned: The km/l and Inspection thingy are connected. I just found out that my toothpick solution was a bit unstable. I found that there is no bad connection between the coding plug itself and the plug in the dash, but more likely a bad joint between the plug in the dash and the circuit board. So I'll have to open her up again. Sigh.

OK: Wiggling and moving the coding plug will wake either the rpm alone OR the rpm, km/l AND Inspection. Sometimes only the rpm works, but the km/l also goes all the way up and down as you describe. When i move the plug and the Inspection light comes on - the km/l also works.

So there is definetly a loose connecion somewhere and now I found it!