mferris

Looking for help in diagnosing what I’ve done wrong:

I had a broken odometer, working speedo and tach and apparently made things worse in my fix for the odometer and/or change to LED cluster lights. I followed the instructions on post here for the 968 odometer gears (not the 944 instructions).

Result:
The odometer is still broken
When moving, the speedometer and tach pulse and there is a pulsing in the high beam indicator.
If I hold the high-beam light (while moving, don’t know about stationary) both the speedo and tach drop to 0 and do not read speed or rpm
When stationary the tach reads fine with engine revs and there is no pushing of it or the high-beam indicator.

See video of symptoms, moving at approx 35mph speed:

I took 2 days to:

1) replace the broken Odometer gears (from odometergears.com) - the gear was definitely missing teeth and I was careful to get all pieces and reassemble.
2) repaint the instrument surround (that came out pretty good for me)
3) recover the light tunnels (also worked really well)
4) replace the lights with LED (just picked up some 12V led bulbs locally that fit and work fine after I oriented them +/- in the holders)

I’ll take it apart again but worried about breaking something more at this point.

Any advice welcome.

Zirconocene

It sounds a bit like a ground problem to me. When you had everything disassembled, was there a ground point behind the cluster that came apart for the removal?

The other thing that sounds familiar to me is from the non-digital dash 928s, where the connector on the flexible PCB can end up a little tweaked, or not connected completely. I haven't been this deep into my car, so I don't know how similar this is to the 928s, but that gauge cluster looks awfully familiar...

Good luck

mferris

Ok - it's fixed. After 5 hours of frustrated sleep - the cluster out by 7am.

- Took the odometer gears out again - didn't see anything
- replaced the LED lights with original (burned out) bulbs
AND IT WORKED! (speedo/tach were stable and the odometer was turning again)
- took it out again and replaced the burnt bulbs with the LEDs again
- AND IT WORKED!

Why - who knows - loose connector? gears not exactly right? I have no idea.

I stopped myself from disassembling the entire dash so I could repaint it with SEM Vinyl Paint - that needs to be a project for another day.

Before and after console - amazingly better - but I still have an airbag warning light that I have yet to diagnose (I have a durametric and the codes - but it won't reset)

Thanks again.

jeff968

One thing is finding the bad part. When you did the odo fix did you find the bad gear?

Kevin Z

How did you paint the inside of the console? Do you have a link to the exact paint you used? It looks great!

mferris

Pictures attached.

To the question of the broken odometer gear - it was obviously missing teeth (which I found in the odometer casing) - so that was an obvious fix.

To the question of the paint and how I did it - quite tedious and there is another post on this forum with details - but once the cluster is out and the electronics are removed - I spent about an hour trying to remove the clear plastic from the case as well as the light tunnels. The clear part cracked off quite a bit but none of that is visible once reinstalled (using a hot glue gun). Once apart, I sanded the black frame with 400 pape, cleaned with a plastic cleaner and prepped it with SEM plastic adhesion promoter then painted with SEM Color Coat Satin Black (15243).

I also sanded clear prisms of the light tunnels with 400 and 1500 sandpaper and to get then plastic clear again I found that metal polish I had lying around worked. I then recovered the light tunnels (all 4 sides) with some shiny metal duct tape I happened to have lying around - that and the LED light upgrade worked wonders for night visibility.

Ufnavy06

Glad you got it fixed. I just did an odometer fix myself... took a few tries to get the right sized gear. But it's working perfectly as indicated by GPS mileage.

I do have a question about your steering wheel though. Even though I marked center on the rack, when I tightened the steering wheel down, making sure I held it stationary, it still is off about 5 degrees. Did you have that issue? I've tried readjusting it several times and can never get it where it needs to be.

mferris

When I got the car, the suspension was shot (original) and the steering was off by 5% or more. I had Koni's put on and an alignment done by a local Porsche specialist and the steering was much more centered. Although I thought it was still centered to one side just a nudge, he also told me to bring it back after a few months once the suspension has settled.

When working on the cluster, it took me 2-3 tries to get the wheel back to the post-alignment position (my marks were not good enough) so I would literally leave the airbag out, drive around the block, stop, remove the nut and shift the wheel to the next spot and retighten (my airbag light is triggered for some other reason so I'm not worried about driving it without the airbag on - plus I have a Durametric to reset the light from running the car with the bag out - if I can ever find the problem with the circuit).

I'm highly sensitive to steering wheel center - I have a 992 which hit a pothole in the first 2 months of ownership so I am constantly thinking that the steering is pulling to one side (even after 2 alignments by 2 different places and reassurances that it is perfect). I'm convincing myself there is some tram-lining on the Carrera and the 968 since these are my first sports cars/Porsches since there are times when both appear to pull both to the left and to the right depending on the road - this is no Ford F-150 steering feel.

Yogii

Could it be the pitch of the road?

-Yogii
AKA 968 Novice

mferris

That’s my primary guess. The lower profile tires and 20/21in wheels on the new car likely exaggerate the feeling of pull since on my 968 with 16in wheels the feeling is still there but merely as noticeable. Just part of the game I guess

Dave O

I'm getting ready to replace my odometer gears. I've come across conflicting info though. One very good tutorial thread here says to use a Torx T6 to remove the screws on the airbag. The maintenance manual says they are Torx T30.
Could someone let me know which Torx bit to use. I approach this with some trepidation.

xhifer

T30.

The project is quite easy. Just have to take out screws, take out the broken gear and then replace haha.

Dave O

Got it done yesterday. A T30 was used. Hardest part was jockeying the instrument panel out & back in. I can't even explain what I did. It just all of a sudden came out and then went back, I don't know what maneuvers worked. It certainly is not my idea of a good design. Replacing the gears was simple, I'm used to tinkering with small stuff. I wet sanded the light tunnels & covered them with HVAC aluminum tape, which made a big improvement in illuminating the panel.
Everything is working and there were no left over parts!!
All all not a hard project. I do not want to do it again soon though.
Dave