analog clock issue

Skimax

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Location
White mts, NH
TDI
97 B4 variant(retired at 330K), 2000 B5 1.8T passat retired, 2013 SE (buyback5/17) 2015 SEL, 2015 E-Golf SEL sold March 2019, 2018 Volt LT and a 2007 PRHT MX5 for fun
the analog clock in our 15 SEL doesn't always show the correct time. It can be off by up to 20 behind the digital clock on the MDF, then suddenly it will read correctly for a while before trailing again. Anyone else have this issue? Not a big deal just wondering.
 

sortlane1

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2018
Location
Michigan
TDI
15 Passat SEL
Yes I have exactly the same issue. Just picked up a CPO 2015 Passat and noticed this on the first drive home. Sat overnight and it was accurate again with the MFD. It was off again the next day with the same correction at night. Last couple of days it has not been off. I have searched and not found any explanation yet. If anyone can provide insight that would be much appreciated!


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JohnTso

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Location
Wisconsin
TDI
2003 Desert Jetta & 2015 Passat SEL
Yes I have exactly the same issue. Just picked up a CPO 2015 Passat and noticed this on the first drive home. Sat overnight and it was accurate again with the MFD. It was off again the next day with the same correction at night. Last couple of days it has not been off. I have searched and not found any explanation yet. If anyone can provide insight that would be much appreciated!


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Check battery voltage and condition. These cars start acting up when voltage drops below 12 volts.
 

Skimax

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Location
White mts, NH
TDI
97 B4 variant(retired at 330K), 2000 B5 1.8T passat retired, 2013 SE (buyback5/17) 2015 SEL, 2015 E-Golf SEL sold March 2019, 2018 Volt LT and a 2007 PRHT MX5 for fun
Check battery voltage and condition. These cars start acting up when voltage drops below 12 volts.



Our battery is fine. It has been doing this since the car was new. They replaced the battery as the car sat on the lot for a while before we purchased as NOS May 2017. Everything else works perfectly and has for 30K miles.
 

jhuber

Active member
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Location
Arlington, TX
TDI
2016 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat SEL, 2015 Audi Q7
Same problem here with my 2015 TDI SEL. I have replaced the original clock and the new clock does the same thing. Typically, mine is behind by 5-10 minutes.

I guess it is a retro clock...a shout-out back the days of the 1960's and 1970's where the analog car clocks often didn't work at all, or couldn't keep proper time...
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
Staff member
Joined
Sep 25, 1997
Location
Illinois
TDI
2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
My 2014 never did this. My 2015 clock hasn't acted up yet. After several months the clock would drift off a minute or two but that's about it. The analog clock is suppose to be synchronized to the MFA. Any time drift would be from three areas:

1. mechanical drag from the internal gears and/or stepper motor by lack of lubrication or gear wear. This would be a gradual time drift and repeatable. All mechanical and analog quartz clocks do this.

2. poor electrical connection somewhere between the analog clock and the MFA. This seems more plausible as the clock randomly stops and then resets itself. I'll preform a simple experiment. I'll play with the clock reset buttons and throw the clock off. I'll leave it like this for a few days. As far as I know, the clock will not reset itself. I will have to reset it.

3. Intermittent low battery or some kind of power disruption. When the battery is low or disconnected only two items are affected, analog clock will reset to a default time (12pm?) and trip odometer will reset to zero.

Analog clocks look nice but they are a PITA. The mechanical parts will wear out and eventually VW will quit stocking replacements. I had a nice 1978 Volvo 260 GLE with an analog clock. It ran well for 6 to 7 years then died. By that time the clock wasn't worth the money, time, and effort to take the dash apart and replace it.

:unsure:
 

VernK

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Location
Kelowna
TDI
2012 Passat 2.5L Gas
Well, I wouldn't be so quick to discount the mechanical clock. My vintage car hobby is Rover P6s, their clocks are very reliable mechanically. A properly designed mechanical clock mechanism is unlikely to wear out — most often they don't run because either they need lubrication or they have gotten wet & corroded. Back to the P6 clocks, as I said I've never seen one that didn't run mechanically. What does give trouble is they have an unusual power scheme — the clock itself is spring driven, but the spring only holds a few minutes of power and there is a solenoid type device that rewinds the spring when it runs down. The electrical contact for that gets a bit burnt, resistance goes up and the spring stops getting fully wound and the clock starts to lose time. And eventually, a little fuseable link fails and the clock stops.

On the other hand, it's true nobody really expects the clock to work in most 50/60/70s cars so I guess for the subset of car clocks (P6 aside) they didn't hire good watchmakers.

Yours
Vern
 

pedroYUL

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2011
Location
MI, USA
TDI
2015 Passat CVCA; 2015 GSW CRUA; 2012 wagon CJAA; 2004 wagon BEW
Hate this clock. If mine starts acting up, I'll look into retrofitting the newer section which has a "Passat" sign, also not ideal but better. Heck I could just tape over it and be done with that eye sore.

I don't know the consumer segmentation VW recruited for this focus group, but I wasn't represented.
 

jhuber

Active member
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Location
Arlington, TX
TDI
2016 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat SEL, 2015 Audi Q7
So, it's been about nine months since I posted above. The clock had continued to constantly be anywhere from 10-60 minutes slow. Then, one day about three weeks ago, I got in the Passat, and the time was correct. And it has been correct every time I've gotten in the car ever since. I didn't do anything to clock, and I have no idea why it would have suddenly started keeping correct time. Crazy...
 

Skimax

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Location
White mts, NH
TDI
97 B4 variant(retired at 330K), 2000 B5 1.8T passat retired, 2013 SE (buyback5/17) 2015 SEL, 2015 E-Golf SEL sold March 2019, 2018 Volt LT and a 2007 PRHT MX5 for fun
yes ours is still doing it too, yesterday it was behind by about 10 minutes.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Seeing it communicates with CANBus, you should be able to fiddle with it via VCDS to trouble shoot it. Most likely its the clock module or maybe the gears are starting to strip.
 

Skimax

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Location
White mts, NH
TDI
97 B4 variant(retired at 330K), 2000 B5 1.8T passat retired, 2013 SE (buyback5/17) 2015 SEL, 2015 E-Golf SEL sold March 2019, 2018 Volt LT and a 2007 PRHT MX5 for fun
maybe, but it's been doing it since new so I have some doubt its a gear issue. No matter, it isn't worth my time troubleshooting with my VCDS unless I'm there for another reason.
 

jjblbi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Location
lbi, nj
TDI
2014 Passat SEL TDI
Sorry for your troubles. Perhaps resetting the time backward and forward via MFD by 6-8 hours a few times may exercise any "stuck" internals??

Good luck, John
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
I've noticed that when setting the clocks back for DST, the clock will try and go forward for a bit but soon as it knows it's faster to go backwards it'll reverse. So yeah cycle the time quire a bit and fingers crossed.
 
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