Technical Procedure

1992-1994 Eurovan Instrument Cluster Intermittent Water Temperature and Fuel gauge problem.

Author: Roger G. Moore

Date written: Aug 2000, updated Dec 2002 with www.vwupdate.com new tech article

Problem: The 1992/ 1993/ 1994 Eurovan Transporters had a defect in the Instrument Cluster that cause the Fuel and Water Temperature gauge to work intermittently or to not work properly. This Procedure will remedy this defect and return the Cluster to normal.

Remedy: The Instrument Cluster is a circuit board that has IC chips and integrated circuits throughout that card. On the Voltage regulator there are 3 cold soldier joints. They must be heated up and soldier added to these 3 connections. They are under the tachometer and at the 2 o’clock position. Once this is done the cluster will operate normally. These joints can be checked by heating them up, and seeing if the soldier disappears (melts and flows to the other side of the card). On mine once I heated up the 3 connections I saw the soldier flow away which left only the pin in the hole, so I added more soldier to each pin and checked the other connections around this area. All the other connection did not do this, they heated up and soldier just bubbled up and I removed the Iron. I hope you find this to be very through.

Tools needed:

1. ˝" Metric socket set with breaker bar that has a 24mm socket

2. Phillips #2 screwdriver

3. Small Flat Tip screwdriver

4. Soldiering Iron

5. Flux and soldier

Let take the Instrument Cluster out (Removal).

(click on the images to enlarge)

1. Steering Wheel Removal – Remove horn button and wire, use 24mm socket to remove steering wheel nut.

Instr_18.jpg (25850 bytes)    Instr_17.jpg (25550 bytes)    Instr_16.jpg (26022 bytes)

Instr7.jpg (72925 bytes)    Instr6.jpg (53153 bytes)    

Cluster is out, Now it time for bench work

1. Remove the two small Philips screws on either side of the Pod (see left picture), they hold the clear plastic face on, pry up the three tabs on the bottom edge of Pod (right picture) and remove the cover.

Instr5.jpg (70399 bytes)    Instr4.jpg (57710 bytes)    

2. Remove the Tachometer that is the right gauge; you do this by gently lifting up and wiggling it off the main circuit card.

Instr3.jpg (75687 bytes)

3. Once the Tachometer is out of the way you must locate some connection at the 2 o’clock position from the center of where the Tachometer was, find a small IC chip, this is a Voltage regulator, and then right above this is a series of two rows with three pins each. These are the ones you will be soldiering. The bottom row is the problem (but in some cases the problem is in all 6 of these pins), apply some Flux and heat these up, watch them dry, they require more soldier. I also checked around the entire Circuit Card doing this same thing, apply the Flux and use your iron the heat and see if any other joints have a problem (dries up).  I personally could only find these three. See picture below for location.  See the new technical write up by VWupdate.com, CLICK HERE!

Instr2.jpg (87280 bytes)    wpe7.jpg (62641 bytes)

4. Now you need to put it all back together and follow this in reverse order. Once you go back to the T4 you should see something like this.

Instr1.jpg (96845 bytes)

5. Your gauges should work once again, after you complete the installation.  After you complete this repair, please go here to fill out:

VW Update's Repair History Questionnare CLICK HERE!

 

A special thanks goes out to Miguel Indurain for the Instructions, VW Vortex, VW Update and EuroVan Update.

Regards,

Roger Moore   (email: Roger Moore)