On a more positive note, I've managed to get hold of another cluster at a very reasonable price.
I've plugged it into the car and the displays all look good. Only a short test in coolish weather it's true, but they are waaay better than mine.
Obviously the immobiliser light came on so I didn't bother trying to start it. It does still run with the original put back though.
The new one is from a 3.7 and has P/No.4D0 919 035AQ. The original is the same apart from AA suffix.
I suppose the two options are:
1. to get the new one programmed to work with my car. I'm not sure whether the V8 origins pose a problem for tacho calibration and I'm not sure whether the mileage can be altered to match mine. The latter is not a show stopped as there's only about 5k difference and I can live with that.
I did contact one of the local specialists, but he didn't appear to have done one before (and I don't want to be the one who pays for his learning) and was mostly bothered whether I could prove (to his unspecified satisfaction) that both my car and the donor were not stolen as apparently he has to go onto the VAG system to do this and if either were flagged stolen he'd get banned. I've abandoned that idea. I sort of understood form another post on here that if I can get the cluster pin numbers (using Super Vag?) then I could potentially do the job myself if I had access to the full VCDS?
2. Break out the soldering iron and swap the displays...... fiddly and not risk free but perhaps simpler? Some pics below.
Any thoughts?
Nick
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