VW Polo 97 mystery

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Tue 11 Oct 2005 23:01
VW Polo 97 mystery - hasbean
I have a VW Polo 1.0L which has a problem which appears to be a leak but does anyone have any idea where I should start looking?
The problem is that the instruments all stop functioning - speedo, petrol guage, clock the lot but come back to life again when it is hot which makes me suspect that it is a water related problem. I can't go on like this but my local garage want to simply replace the instrument unit itself at a cost of £250 + vat and given that it does work - albeit in clement weather conditions only - I am loathe to proceed down this road as I am guessing that this will not be the solution. Does anyone have any experience of a similar problem or have a suggestion for how to try and track down what is causing this problem?
Cheers.
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Fri 14 Oct 2005 15:19
VW Polo 97 mystery - horatio
When what gets hot?

The weather? or the engine?

I can't think of a solution but if it were me I would remove the instrument panel and have a look. Then I would get a used one from a scrappy to see if it fixes the prob.
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Fri 14 Oct 2005 15:48
VW Polo 97 mystery - Peter D
There is a single connector at the rear of the cluster which carries all the signals and power. I suspect the connector in not seated properly and the power feed is dissappearing, a bit of expansion and up she comes again. You need to get to the connector and reseat it. I also think the instrument panel is on a seperate fuse so check that out. Forget the water idea. Regards Peter
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Sat 15 Oct 2005 07:17
VW Polo 97 mystery - HarlequinVW
What Peter D said sounds very logical and a good starting point, it could also be a dry solder joint on the dashboard, mostly they get replaced rather than repaired though.
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