ttreat

The LCD below the tach on my '01 C2 has some crazing that I would like to have repaired. I have seen other posts with the similar issues but no information on fixes other than suggestions to replace the instrument cluster. Does anyone have a recommended shop that can do this?

logray

Try these guys. They can repair Porsche A/C clusters, perhaps they can fix your instrument cluster.

http://modulemaster.com

ttreat

I gave them a call and they don't repair them however they gave me the best hope yet. They said that this is a replaceable panel that is not part of the the critical cluster system but nobody makes the replacement panels. Apparently I can replace the panel if I can find another good panel.

So here is goes... Does anybody have a bad instrument cluster laying around that has a good Tach LCD panel? I know there posts that I have seen where people have fried the internals of the instrument panels or their speedo or tach stopped working so they replaced the cluster. This would be an ideal donor for this experiment.

ttreat

Does anybody know if the tach LCD panel is the same in the 996 and 986?

ttreat

I got a donor instrument cluster and disassembled it. Someone at Modulemaster told me that it was a pin connector not a solder connection for the LCD screen. As you can see from the pictures, it is a solder connection.

It seemed that a few repair shops said they were not repairable because you cannot buy replacement LCD screens. Does anybody know of a repair shop that would replace mine since I have a replacement screen. It seems like any instrument repair shop that is skilled in circuit repair should be able to perform this replacement. Any thoughts?

logray

If someone is skilled with soldering ribbon cable (FFC) to PCB, that is the person you want. It can be done.

I've tried this on a few computers myself and can tell you it is VERY difficult. It's easy to damage the ribbon, and is work best suited for a machine!

A thread on how to solder FFC:

http://forum.bongofish.co.uk/index.php?topic=122.0

tarzancoe

Yes they can repair/replace LCD's. I had mine done. One of the following shops if not both:
http://www.nhspeedometer.com/
http://www.paspeedo.com/

ttreat

I finally got my LCD repaired and it works great thanks to Andy at VDOrepair.

Here are some tips and lessons. I bought a bad instrument cluster with a good tach LCD screen from a dismantler thinking I could switch it myself if it were a pin connection. I took apart the bad cluster and saw that there was a ribbon connecting the LCD to the circuit board directly. I pulled on it gently and it came off easily. BIG MISTAKE! I later found that these are thermally bonded and if they are not pulled off with heat applied, there will be damage to the contacts on the ribbon. For anybody thinking of doing this, I was told that it just takes a heat gun or hair dryer and it will come off easily with no damage. Once I had the LCD panel off I shipped it off with my car's cluster. They were able to replace the old ribbon with a new one and it works great so far with no crazing. This was much less expensive than replacing the cluster with another used one and I was able to keep the original cluster in the car.

John Varsamis

OK guys, I made a video how I changed by myself the VDO display. It took less than 10 min and it was very easy

dporto

I thought the days of silent movies were long gone...

wyovino

The effort is appreciated but without a narration, it's pretty much useless. Can't see exactly what you're doing in a many of the shots. Adding narration will go a long way to helping others who need to do this.

sacer

Just check out more information about INSTRUMENT CLUSTER lcd