Questions and Answers

VW Golf Instrument Cluster Q. Hello! I hope you can help me with this problem. The speedometer on my 1995 Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet turns on and off sporadically and recently it has just stayed off for good. The temperature and the gasoline gauge work fine but the speedometer and the tachometer jitter right above 0. I used to be able to turn off the engine and start the car again and get a normal reading on both.

Sometimes I had to do this a couple of times until the meters would work. However since recently not even turning the car on and off works anymore. The indicators just jitters around and above 0. Also the integrated digital watch integrated on the speedometer display switches back to 12:00 and starts counting from then on until the car is turned of at which point it resets to 12:00 and restarts at the start.

Is this some kind of loose cable or reset switch or fuse that can be easily replace or does this indicate something more elaborate?Can I take of the dash board components and repair this myself without causing damage, eg airbags, steering components an so forth? Can the dash board be taken of without touching the airbag components? I appreciate your help on this greatly!

Thank You,
Nima

A. About all you can do is check the fuses in the fuse box. From the symptoms you describe I suspect the instrument cluster might be bad. The clock resetting to 12:00 tells me that it is losing power when you turn the key off. That's why you need to check the fuses.

It could be a loose connector so if you are up to it, you can remove the instrument cluster and check all the connections yourself. If they seem good and tight, then I would have the Volkswagen Dealer look at it and confirm the bad instrument cluster.