New Owner Australia Cluster mystery
Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 3:38 pm
Hello everyone before I start, I promise I have searched to all ends on google and YouTube to no avail regarding this and I thought I would write a thread incase anyone recognises this problem or knows a fix or diagnosis.
I have owned an all original R for 2 months and love the car. I did not realise on test drive as it was daytime, but the needles on the instrument cluster only work when the weather is cold. On a cold start out of my garage in the morning or when the weather is cold and dark/overcast, the blue lights on the needles are fine. If I leave the car in sunlight even for an hour, they slowly die usually in pairs or randomly all over the place. The dial backlights, lcd, everything is functioning perfectly with no problems. It is just the lights on the needle leds. It has something to do with heat definitely. That much is for sure. I have rung many places here in Australia and they say either wiring or led's need replacing on the main cluster board.
Taking it to VW I'm not sure if they have spare parts and what the cost would be, a repair on led's is much cheaper but there is only one guy here that does it. its hard to find VW friendly electricians here so I do not know what to do. It is over $1000 USD for a new cluster plus cloning here and I would have to send it to another state to repair so if anyone has had this issue or knows what it most likely is, that would be great as it is not so safe driving at night without lights on the needle. Can't believe the safety inspector didn't even notice and gave the safety certificate.
Thanking you
I have owned an all original R for 2 months and love the car. I did not realise on test drive as it was daytime, but the needles on the instrument cluster only work when the weather is cold. On a cold start out of my garage in the morning or when the weather is cold and dark/overcast, the blue lights on the needles are fine. If I leave the car in sunlight even for an hour, they slowly die usually in pairs or randomly all over the place. The dial backlights, lcd, everything is functioning perfectly with no problems. It is just the lights on the needle leds. It has something to do with heat definitely. That much is for sure. I have rung many places here in Australia and they say either wiring or led's need replacing on the main cluster board.
Taking it to VW I'm not sure if they have spare parts and what the cost would be, a repair on led's is much cheaper but there is only one guy here that does it. its hard to find VW friendly electricians here so I do not know what to do. It is over $1000 USD for a new cluster plus cloning here and I would have to send it to another state to repair so if anyone has had this issue or knows what it most likely is, that would be great as it is not so safe driving at night without lights on the needle. Can't believe the safety inspector didn't even notice and gave the safety certificate.
Thanking you