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How to change a bulb in the rpm cluster?


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Typical, my engine management light no longer works. How difficult is it to replace the bulb?

Did it ever work? Like did you ever see it light up?

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Did it ever work? Like did you ever see it light up?

Yeah, it was working at least 2 months ago. Never noticed it go out. Went to trade it in for an integra type R yesterday and the salesman spotted it! Iv'e hooked it up to vagcom and no errors reported so luckily nothing major is happening without me knowing!

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The guy at the Seat garage I use says they are all little LEDs on a mother board, seat can scan the clocks but new clocks are upwards of 6/700 pounds apparently, he also said there are some companies dotted around that repair them but he didn't say names or cost.

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it isn't a difficult job to take the clocks out, but you can't change the bulb once you get them out. the clock units are sealed and if I remember correctly, the only bulbs that exist are the illumination ones, the others being leds which are smd devices. surface mount devices require special equipment to work on them, hence it's not a diy job. are you convinced it's not the wiring, which is more likely? geoff

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you could always pick up another set of clocks, but remember that you will need to recode them using vagcom. nothing in life is simple! geoff

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you could always pick up another set of clocks, but remember that you will need to recode them using vagcom. nothing in life is simple! geoff

What does the recoding require? I thought it was just a case of plugin, but the mileage would be wrong?

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don't know exactly skezza. but when I've done engine swaps in the past to avoid complications the original clocks were required. if you're using vag com a lot you may be able to tell me exactly what is required. geoff

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nice thread that one, but what he fails to spend much time talking about is what tw^ts smd devices are to work with. in my previous life as an electronic engineer i worked with smd's and had all the correct gear to fit them. yes, sometimes you can get away with using an ordinary soldering iron, but you do run the risk of frying your led's (sounds nasty, doesn't it?) I would be tempted to drill the board(not something you can do with your black and decker) and use standard led's. if anybody wants to send me a set of dead clocks I'd be prepared to try. geoff

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Oh crud. Might just leave it, then. Any idea where to start when checking for the wiring? Is there also maybe a fuse I coulb be checking or would a fuse be for the entire cluster? thus ruling it out.

it isn't a difficult job to take the clocks out, but you can't change the bulb once you get them out. the clock units are sealed and if I remember correctly, the only bulbs that exist are the illumination ones, the others being leds which are smd devices. surface mount devices require special equipment to work on them, hence it's not a diy job. are you convinced it's not the wiring, which is more likely? geoff

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You could always do some trickery.

Get a friend to go up to the sales guy, talk him into a test drive on a car. Sales man is now out of office, you go in and trade in your lupo with hopefully a sales person who doesn't notice the bulb out :)

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