Mark 2 LCD display

[cracked_lcd]

I have a right hand drive 1989 mark 2 Gti that was originally swiss. It has an LCD type instrument panel which is broken and I've been told that the panel was only supplied on German and Swiss Gti's.

The new part is around 1000 quid here in Denmark which I can't really afford. I need to have a working instrument panel to get the car through its MOT next week and  have tried to track down the part (191919052A) second hand but haven't located one yet.

Does anyone know if I can use instead the standard analog type instruments which are cheap and plentiful on ebay as a drop in replacement or where I might get my hands on a second hand lcd instrument panel?

any leads greatly appreciated..

cheers

[rubjonny]

I'm afraid not as the plugs are different, as are the mounting brackets!? Plus the speedo is digital so you'll need a speedo cable from a 'normal' MK2 to get the speedo going.

Take the 'digifitz' as its called out and have a good long hard look at it, check for dry joints, broken traces on the PCB etc.? There might be a voltage regulator on the back, if so test it like so:

Voltage stabiliser
To test the voltage stabiliser, connect a voltmeter between the terminals shown (see illustration) with a 12 volt supply to the remaining terminal. A constant voltage of 10 volts must be registered. If the voltage is above 10.5 volts or below 9.5 volts renew the
voltage stabiliser.

[cracked_lcd]

Thanks alot for the info and the voltage stabiliser tip.

Unfortunatley it is the whole of the LCD itself that is cracked so I guess I'm looking for a new unity. It looks like someone has pushed it hard in the middle. It comes on intermittently and lights up with an interesting red and green crazy paving look - very mad max but not much good for telling you how fast you are going!

[tobz.]

Unfortunately the digifiz dash is very rare, quite sought after and therefore usually very expensive.
The easiest place to look for is probably ebay as they do come up on there quite often, they certainly sell for less than ?1000 on there but usually do fetch a few hundred.
The thing you have in your favour is that you only require the display itself, to most people who want to convert from analogue to digifiz they require all the wiring and sensors etc. If you can find a panel on its own I would imagine you could get it for a lot less.

Here's one in the uk, currently ?70!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=9895&item=7961470600&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Or one in germany with all the wiring:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=53931&item=7962175501&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Hope this helps
Tobz

[rubjonny]

Ah that would be difficult to fix with a soldering iron

What is the minimum you need to pass the MOT, can you get away with just the speedo? ?If so you could bodge a set of clocks in and fit a normal cable speedo cable to get you through.