Liloff
Member
...had some free time over the weekend!
As you probably know, most of the W208 CLKs and the W210 models experience issues with the temp. and clock displays. I believe other models have the same problem. There is a simple reason for this. VDO are jerks and used cheap solution for the transfer cable. As a result, the years and the vibrations tend to break the cable connections. Neither of my displays actually worked. When I bought the car, I could see only a couple of lines on the displays.
A friend of mine: Vasko aka (HIFI) convinced me to try to fix it one more time (actually he fixed the whole thing this time
). At first, we tried all the "known" methods that circulate over the internet. Most of them are quite useless. Bottomline is that the cables are actually cracked after 10 years. You cannot solder them since they tend to melt. The best idea is to change all the wires one by one. We also took the advantage of an ingenious idea coming from the USA, and used small flathead screws to attach the motherboard to the plastic body.
This DIY is difficult to execute. You need good tools and great attention to detail, please bear it in mind. If you do it this way, it can last forever.
OK, now time to shed some light over the details:
1. You need to take the dash out. I personally do it in a very simple way. First unscrew the cover above the pedals and then push outwards from the inside of the dash. You can use also the factory hooks, however they can scratch your dash. You won't like scratches there.
2. You need to dismantle the cluster unit. I don't have detailed instructions for this. There are simple rules to follow. Be careful and touch gently. No brutal force works here. Just be careful, it's easy!
3. Take the arrow indicators out. You need to twist against the end of the motor rotation and pull up at the same time. Again, no brutal force. Be careful, if you pull too hard, you can bend the motor rod. You don't want this to happen... seriosly. During this effort, the black hats of the arrows might fall off. Don't worry, use some glue afterwards to put them in place back again: i.e. Moment by Henkel.
4. I introduce you....: The notorious problematic cables:
5. Disconnect the cables from the board. Just pull them away. You need to clean the area nicely in order to be able to solder afterwards.
6. OK, now with the ingenious idea to screw the board to the dials under-frame. Drill carefully and don't apply too much pressure when tightening the screws. This might break the plastic underneath.
7. Here is our brilliant contribution. You need to sacrifice some old display. There is a conducting silicone strip you can use. It transmits current only vertically and is only used for displays. The rubber conductor will be used in the place of the pinky thingy that VDO (those fu***) used. You can see the cheap crappy quality genuine cable.
8. Here comes the difficult part. You need to drill carefully small holes in the plastic and push the new wires through with their ends clean. The temp display is easy, the other one though has a bunch of cables that you need to solder. You then need to melt the plastic slightly, in order to stick them in place. The clean cables' ends will have to be situated properly under the conducting rubber strip I've shown above.
9. Quick check now...
Yessss! This is the first time I see those displays working in my car 
10. Time to assemble everything (reverse of disassemble). I had some plastic stuff broken underneath the dials. Use hot silicon glue. It doesnt have to be rock solid, just flexible flexible.
- Again, there is a catch when you put the arrows back on. Normally you'd think that you wanna adjust them to their idle state. However they tend to spring 1-2mm clockwise from the real end point of the motor. So don't use the idle point as a guide. This will cause your dials to be slightly under the 0 positions. Hopefully it sounds a bit unclear now, but if you start following this DIY, you'll immediately understand what I mean.
- Clean all dust, fingerprints, hair or any other debris. They are extremely visible, especially under direct sunlight.
- Since the dash is already down, use a multimeter to check the resistance of all bulbs. You don't wanna take it out one more time.
- There are 2 transparent plastic covers on both sides of the dash. They need to fit in place on the pins that keep them in place. Pay some attention to them, their bottom parts need to be absolutely parralel to the body of the cluster. Again, when you see it, you will understand. Just pay attention to them.
Well, that's it! Congratulations
The original post resides here:Link to the DIY on the Bulgarian MB Forum / mbclub.bg. There is also a .pdf uploaded with all the material (in Bulgarian), you can still print it out for reference.
Please respect our efforts and the time spent to describe the whole DIY. Should you use the images and the know-how in different forums, please link it to the location of the original post in the Bulgarian MB forum. Cheers!
As you probably know, most of the W208 CLKs and the W210 models experience issues with the temp. and clock displays. I believe other models have the same problem. There is a simple reason for this. VDO are jerks and used cheap solution for the transfer cable. As a result, the years and the vibrations tend to break the cable connections. Neither of my displays actually worked. When I bought the car, I could see only a couple of lines on the displays.
A friend of mine: Vasko aka (HIFI) convinced me to try to fix it one more time (actually he fixed the whole thing this time
). At first, we tried all the "known" methods that circulate over the internet. Most of them are quite useless. Bottomline is that the cables are actually cracked after 10 years. You cannot solder them since they tend to melt. The best idea is to change all the wires one by one. We also took the advantage of an ingenious idea coming from the USA, and used small flathead screws to attach the motherboard to the plastic body.This DIY is difficult to execute. You need good tools and great attention to detail, please bear it in mind. If you do it this way, it can last forever.
OK, now time to shed some light over the details:
1. You need to take the dash out. I personally do it in a very simple way. First unscrew the cover above the pedals and then push outwards from the inside of the dash. You can use also the factory hooks, however they can scratch your dash. You won't like scratches there.
2. You need to dismantle the cluster unit. I don't have detailed instructions for this. There are simple rules to follow. Be careful and touch gently. No brutal force works here. Just be careful, it's easy!
3. Take the arrow indicators out. You need to twist against the end of the motor rotation and pull up at the same time. Again, no brutal force. Be careful, if you pull too hard, you can bend the motor rod. You don't want this to happen... seriosly. During this effort, the black hats of the arrows might fall off. Don't worry, use some glue afterwards to put them in place back again: i.e. Moment by Henkel.
4. I introduce you....: The notorious problematic cables:
5. Disconnect the cables from the board. Just pull them away. You need to clean the area nicely in order to be able to solder afterwards.
6. OK, now with the ingenious idea to screw the board to the dials under-frame. Drill carefully and don't apply too much pressure when tightening the screws. This might break the plastic underneath.
7. Here is our brilliant contribution. You need to sacrifice some old display. There is a conducting silicone strip you can use. It transmits current only vertically and is only used for displays. The rubber conductor will be used in the place of the pinky thingy that VDO (those fu***) used. You can see the cheap crappy quality genuine cable.
8. Here comes the difficult part. You need to drill carefully small holes in the plastic and push the new wires through with their ends clean. The temp display is easy, the other one though has a bunch of cables that you need to solder. You then need to melt the plastic slightly, in order to stick them in place. The clean cables' ends will have to be situated properly under the conducting rubber strip I've shown above.
9. Quick check now...
Yessss! This is the first time I see those displays working in my car
10. Time to assemble everything (reverse of disassemble). I had some plastic stuff broken underneath the dials. Use hot silicon glue. It doesnt have to be rock solid, just flexible flexible.
- Again, there is a catch when you put the arrows back on. Normally you'd think that you wanna adjust them to their idle state. However they tend to spring 1-2mm clockwise from the real end point of the motor. So don't use the idle point as a guide. This will cause your dials to be slightly under the 0 positions. Hopefully it sounds a bit unclear now, but if you start following this DIY, you'll immediately understand what I mean.
- Clean all dust, fingerprints, hair or any other debris. They are extremely visible, especially under direct sunlight.
- Since the dash is already down, use a multimeter to check the resistance of all bulbs. You don't wanna take it out one more time.
- There are 2 transparent plastic covers on both sides of the dash. They need to fit in place on the pins that keep them in place. Pay some attention to them, their bottom parts need to be absolutely parralel to the body of the cluster. Again, when you see it, you will understand. Just pay attention to them.
Well, that's it! Congratulations
The original post resides here:Link to the DIY on the Bulgarian MB Forum / mbclub.bg. There is also a .pdf uploaded with all the material (in Bulgarian), you can still print it out for reference.
Please respect our efforts and the time spent to describe the whole DIY. Should you use the images and the know-how in different forums, please link it to the location of the original post in the Bulgarian MB forum. Cheers!
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