GolfGTIforum.co.uk
General => The garage => Topic started by: andydavey on 28 March 2007, 00:45
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Just got hold of a 1990 Mk2 8v GTi and am having some issues with the rev counter. It's an intermittent fault, but more often than not the rev counter doesn't work (just sits there on 0 and does nothing). Seems to do it completely at random, having nothing to do with how I drive it. Is this a common problem? Any ideas on how to fix it? Cheers!
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Hi, I had this on my old GTI. Mine fixed itself when I disconnected the battery to install an amp. Coincidence? maybe, but my rev counter hadnt worked for over 6months before I had the battery unplugged. Might be worth a try.
S
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yeah pull the dash fuse for 30 seconds, this usually fixes it. If not check the braided eartth cable from the rocker cover to the coil bracket, and check all the wires to the coil!
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Worst case is that the cable is beginning to fray, and will eventually snap. It's not a major hassle, but just takes a bit of patience to replace it, as you need to thread the new one through the bulkhead and re-attatch it to the clocks.
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Cheers guys. Just read the "Common Problems" sticky and that says I might need to replace the dizzy? Or is that not relevant?
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a faulty hall sender in the dizzy can affect the rev counter, but it would also make your car run badly!
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Its not a Royal Blue metallic Golf bought from Whitby that was on ebay is it?......(I bid for it too!)
Best thing to do is (as said) pull the MFA fuse for a bit and see if it works.
Other ideas.. I once upset the rev counter when my coolant boiled over whilst trying to shift an air lock with the cap off. Anyway the coolant upset the sensor on the top of the gearbox where the rpm signal is picked up. I found giving the connection a good clean up with WD-40 and pulling the fuse for a while sorted it. if not do a trace on this wire and look for bad contacts.
If other suggestions from other members do not solve it. I think you should try some second hand clocks from ebay. Rubjonny has an excellent guide somewhere that tells you how to remove the clocks (for bulb replacement I think). If it comes to this you will see how fragile the circuitry at the back of the clocks is. You may be able to swap the cellophane printed sheet at the back of the clocks but I am unsure about this.
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Which fuse do I need to pull? I looked in the FAQ and there seem to be loads of different ones for the dash, but the above replies make it sound like there should only be one?
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depends if you have a pre or post 90, you know its the right one when the MFA goes blank ;)
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Rubjonny has an excellent guide somewhere that tells you how to remove the clocks (for bulb replacement I think).
can you point me in the direction of this, my speedo bulb is out :sad:
Sorry for hijacking thread
Ta,
S
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its in the maintenance + info section, in the MK2 child forum :)
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Tried disconnecting the battery for 30 secs and also cleaning the contacts on the sensor on the gearbox but to no avail. Having a few weird problems with the dash in addition to this, wondered if anyone could shed some light on them.
- Water level warning light keeps flashing, appears to be in some kind of sequence. Is this a fault code or something?
- MFA doesn't really do anything - I keep pressing the button for it, and sometimes it'll very briefly flicker onto something other than the clock, but thats it.
Have taken a video on my phone (excuse the crap quality) to explain what I mean. Also shows what the rev counter is doing.
http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/~ad/temp/dash.3gp
Any help much appreciated!
Andy
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If you have not already checked it I would look at the earthing as Rubjonny said. The coil to valve cover earth strap has a habit of going missing / breaking. Generally a good cleaning of all earth straps on the car is good preventative maintainance.
I wonder if anyone has removed the clocks in the past and not got it back right. Might be worth checking the multi connector at the back of the clocks. I am fairly sure its a connection issue somewhere.....
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OK, will check that out. I can't remember seeing one, AFAIK the coil just has two wires coming off it that don't seem to go anywhere near the valve cover, does anyone have any pictures of what I should be looking for? Also, I know I said I cleaned out the contacts for the sensor on the gearbox, but I think that was actually the reverse light switch. Where exactly is the sensor?
It also seems to get a lot better when the engine is warmer if that gives any clues?
Also, any ideas on the blinking coolant low light? Seems too repetitive to be just a loose connection.
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the one you're looking for is a shunky braidsed earth cable it runs from a bracket bolted to one of the rocker cover studs, to one of the coil bracket bolts i.e. not the coil itself but the bracket that mounts it to the bulkhead :)
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Sorry mate got mixed up in my first reply :laugh: It is a while since I upset things with my MFA. I meant connections on the coil not gearbox (which you rightly point out is the reversing light switch). I meant for you to clean the connections from the coil with WD40.
As compensation I will take you a pic of the earth cable tonight.
Is there any sign of a water leak from the expansion tank or from the heater hoses towards the coil?
I think your flashing light will disappear when you sort either the earthing or power / connections to the clocks. Failing this its second hand clocks time.
Dont forget to power cycle (remove dash/mfa fuse for 30secs) every time you have reconnected / cleaned something to do with the Rev counter / mfa.
Right here is the pic.
(http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u242/SGB67/ValveCoverEarth.jpg)
Good Luck!
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Cheers for the pic mate! Unfortunately (fortunately?) it's present and making good contact so that's not the problem. I'm starting to think it's just a loose connection behind the instrument cluster now, so now I've tried all the easy things it's coming out tomorrow to give all the contacts a good clean. Lost all dash illumination on the way home tonight but it then came back when I gave the top a good hard whack, so if nothing else I'll have it off to fix that...
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Tried disconnecting the battery for 30 secs and also cleaning the contacts on the sensor on the gearbox but to no avail. Having a few weird problems with the dash in addition to this, wondered if anyone could shed some light on them.
- Water level warning light keeps flashing, appears to be in some kind of sequence. Is this a fault code or something?
- MFA doesn't really do anything - I keep pressing the button for it, and sometimes it'll very briefly flicker onto something other than the clock, but thats it.
Have taken a video on my phone (excuse the crap quality) to explain what I mean. Also shows what the rev counter is doing.
http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/~ad/temp/dash.3gp
Any help much appreciated!
Andy
Mate, your clocks are beggared, mine had these symptoms exactly, even with the mfa briefly flickering to something when button pressed, i bought a new set of clocks from the usual outlet (ebay) and it all works perfectly now, apart from my car having an extra 40k on the clocks, but i will swap in my original sppedo to sort this. By the way, if you do get a new set, try and get hold of VDO clocks instead of your (motometer, probably) clocks.
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Had the dash out and it does indeed look like it's new clock time, they're doing some seriously weird things now...
Would this fit ok (my speedo only goes up to 140, but I'd be swapping that bit over anyway to keep the mileage)? Most of the ones I can see on eBay are double connector ones, mine's only a single so I assume any one with a single connector will fit ok?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180101935848&rd=1&rd=1
Anywhere else to get them apart from eBay? Would like them quite soon as I'm running out of holiday time to do things like pull my dash apart!
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they'll fit & work fine as long as you have a single plug in your GTI, but since they're 16v clocks the rev counter redline is in the wrong place although the rev counter will still read correctly. Also since you have a 140mph speedo the 160mph one will not read right, but all you have to do is swap your speedo into the replacment clocks :)
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I know this thread is ancient but I was rummaging through my NOS parts today looking for some Jetta 2 door B pillar tapes (found them :smiley: ) and I came across a brand new in its box 1990>1992 Mk2 GTI 8v rev counter MFA unit for Motometer panels, VW part number 193 919 044 G. This is the one that is a pain for going wrong. From Heritage these are £424. The last price from VW UK before going obsolete in March 2006 was £641.08. I also have two of the PCB foils as well for some unknown reason!
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/Crasher1964/193919044Grevcounter_zpsebe53589.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/Crasher1964/media/193919044Grevcounter_zpsebe53589.jpg.html)
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That's very nice for you. Are you perhaps looking for the Classifieds section?
Bit further down ˅˅˅