When driving at night with my headlights on of course, my cluster is dark with the exception of the red dial needles and the LCD display.
Anyone have this happen?
I'm hoping this will be cured by a scheduled free fix for a known issue where my display says to Start Engine while driving.
There's a part on back order... I'm guessing a new cluster? Not sure.

 

I never did get my cluster replaced on account of the dealer says the part is still on back order.
Has anyone ever come across this problem?

 

Mine has started to flicker sometimes when its real cold. I remember seeing a post on the FB group a long time ago where the guy replaced something in the backlighting. I think it is a ccfl tube.

 

Looks like you are in a similar boat as me. The Color LCD screen on mine went black. It sounds like there are two transformers that control the lighting on the gauges. When I take mine apart I would check to see if the second one does the needles and backlighting or just the backlighting. The other powers the screen backlighting which is what I need. I am going to do both while I am in there. I did see others on the net in various places posting about various other components on the board that can fail and are also easily replaceable.

Regardless, it doesn't look too bad to disassemble and troubleshoot the gauge cluster board. I will find out for myself soon enough.

 

 

Relentless maintenance comes with all this engineering and complexity and AGE. Makes me appreciate how reliable my 40+ year old classic cars are! LOL They start every time and very little goes wrong.

 

 

I just lived with the above problem all this time.
The other day though, the whole color LCD (2003 turbo) went black.
It came back a couple of times briefly but is now out for good.
I have the two transformers, but there are 3 distinct problems possible (I have 2 of the 3). I know this from the following:

I bought two clusters on eBay for cheap.
One just needs a speaker and is an "RB4" like mine so this is great news. Its milage is also only around 1k miles lower than mine.
The other is an RB8 and has has a good LCD but has no red needles AND no backlight.

From this guys post https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ss-repair.html
the transformers take care of the red needles and the LCD. So what fixes the background illumination issue?
I saw one other guy with this issue and nobody ever replied.

I'm close to getting this but am hoping someone can fill in the gaps.

If I can't fix my cluster, do I have a decent shot at the good RB4 just working completely?
I understand there is some coding of options but my options are pretty common.
I also have VCDS working but that's a whole nother can of worms. Or is it? I'll see what I can see with the VCDS but don't want to screw something up.
I'm willing to get the proper programmer if recommended (PIWIS I guess).

 

I recently had the same issue: Sources for a 2004 Turbo Instrument Cluster? - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

There are 2 transformers. One of them controls the backlighting. Your 6speedonline post shows it here. Its the one on the top but he's saying that controls the LCD. I don't think that's right. Its definitely for the backlighting.


I replaced it and restored the backlighting for a while, then it went dark again. I sent it to odo-pro.com and they replaced both transformers and a bunch of other maintenance. They discovered that the board was damaged. I found a replacement on eBay and sent it to them (took a couple tries to actually find a cluster on eBay that wasn't also trash). They coded the new cluster with my information and its been working perfectly ever since. Total cost for their work was ~$180. Interestingly, the cluster they ended up using was an RB0. I have a turbo so I needed an RB4. I just couldn't find one. The RB0 worked fine.

I found this video to be very helpful:

 

Thanks, that's good to know.
I remember your post, that's when I mentioned the clusters I got for $40.

Looking at that video (Touareg guy) I think he replaced the lower x-former for the night-time gauge illumination.
Oh well, I'll figure it out and post my findings.

 

ACK, sorry, you are correct. Its the bottom one that I replaced. Replacing it fixed the backlighting. My needles never stopped being illuminated.

Sorry about the confusion. Its been a while since I did this.

 

An RB4 cluster will be plug and play in terms of working, but unless the donor car had exactly the same options as yours, you will need to do a "handover" in order to have the cluster recognize all of the options in your car and configure itself accordingly. Otherwise you'll get errors on the display.

An RB8 cluster will not work in your car since it doesn't have the CAN gateway built into it like the RB4 does. You may be able to scavenge parts from it, but you cannot swap it in as a whole replacement.

Edit: I believe you need to write your VIN to the new cluster as well. I know PIWIS can do this and a handover, not sure about VCDS. Jeff Spahn has a mileage tool that he lends out so you can set the mileage on the new cluster correctly.

 

Thanks. I went out today and refamiliarized myself with VCDS. (Kind of a learning curve every time for me.)
I'm pretty confident I can record all of the codes and adaptations from my original and then transfer them to the good one from eBay.
Then I'll take my time trying to repair my original and the other bad eBay one. I need a couple more transformers at least.
And a new speaker. I'm going to repurpose a driver from an old pair of headphones to fix mine. I don't mind if it doesn't snap perfectly in place but I might sell the other two.

It's funny, I didn't see the VIN anywhere in the cluster. Maybe it's not stored there... not sure.
I did see on Ross tech where the CAN bus codes are if I have to mess with them.

Oh yeah, Ross-Tech (talking about a different vehicle though) says to first change the system to km, change the value in km, and then change the system back to U.S. miles.
They also say you can only change it once. I'm gonna try just changing it and see if it takes. Worst case I borrow or buy the tool Jeff has.

 

New cluster worked fine as is / was. I changed the software coding and adaptation values to match my old one. Still worked.
Couldn't tell any difference.

Wouldn't let me change the mileage.

Question:
Are there implications of driving with a mismatched cluster? Can I just change the mileage later?
On my old BMWs there was a maximum mileage you could drive before getting a "tamper dot."
I know we don't have this, but is there an invisible one (flag)?

Edit: Never mind.
I see a bunch of knowledgeable people have recommended doing math with the DME hours to approximate the milage.
I think I'm good.

 

Forgot what it was like to see my gauges!
Also not used to hearing sounds.
My old cluster speaker died years ago. Will take some getting used to.
Not a bad repair for $40.



Repurposed an old headphone driver.
If you want to shop around the size should be 34mm and it's 32 ohm with .3W (.5W max) power rating.
I think this is the spec:



I removed some of the plastic and installed it backwards to fit.



I notice the bass of the blinker sound is a bit punchier now. jk.
But I actually forgot that there was supposed to be a blinker sound. Kept leaving my signal on all the time like a senior citizen.
This one shouldn't burn out so quickly like the original ones do.