2003 Jetta Wagen just passed a million KM... now what?

ymz

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 12, 2003
Location
Between Toronto & Montreal
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon
Of course, the odometer went to all dashes... (perhaps that's why it's called a dashboard...)

Is there a not-terribly-expensive way to get something working in there? I know there used to be someone in the U.S. that could reset the clusters, but... we're in Canada, and with the border closed, it's not that easy to send things like this - even if I could locate the fellow (I heard he stopped doing this kind of work)...

What have others done?

Y.
 
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csstevej

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Location
north nj
TDI
2001 golf tdi 4 door auto now a manual, mine, 2000 golf 2 door M/T son's,daughters 98 NB non-TDI 2.0, 2003 TDI NB for next daughter, head repaired and on road,gluten for punishment got another tdi 2001NB,another yellow tdi NB
Wasnt that Jetta 97 that did cluster work?
 

STDOUBT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Location
Portland, effing Oregon
TDI
dos jettas
Isn't there a way to switch the display to "miles"?
That would at least give you something to look at.
Congratulations, BTW! That's very very cool.
 

scooperhsd

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Location
Kansas City KS
TDI
NB, 2000, RED(5 Speed conversion) 2015 Golf SE

ymz

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 12, 2003
Location
Between Toronto & Montreal
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon
No... I have VCDS and can read the ECU from time to time... I'd love to get something that will resemble a functioning odometer / cluster... I know that just getting a junkyard cluster won't work due to the immobilizer issue... (I'm sure my friendly local VW dealer would be glad to assist, but... the car's not worth the money that would cost...)
 
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scooperhsd

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Location
Kansas City KS
TDI
NB, 2000, RED(5 Speed conversion) 2015 Golf SE
Some of the links on that had products that connected to the OBDII connector that might make it easier ....
 

scooperhsd

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Location
Kansas City KS
TDI
NB, 2000, RED(5 Speed conversion) 2015 Golf SE
I'd have to check my ScanGuage II to see if it can display total miles from the ECU, I know it can display speed.
 

Johhny04

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Location
Markham, Ontario
TDI
2003 Jetta TDi
Of course, the odometer went to all dashes... (perhaps that's why it's called a dashboard...)

Is there a not-terribly-expensive way to get something working in there? I know there used to be someone in the U.S. that could reset the clusters, but... we're in Canada, and with the border closed, it's not that easy to send things like this - even if I could locate the fellow (I heard he stopped doing this kind of work)...

What have others done?

Y.
Congrats on hitting over 1 million.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
There was a thread here a while back where someone was looking into a way to add non-volatile memory to the cluster, so it could add another digit in or something. But it may have just been applicable to cars with miles displayed, as ours stop at ~621k or so (whatever a million KM converts to). The cluster (and the whole car) "thinks" in Metric of course, but at the last second they have to convert it to miles for us knuckle-draggers here. The cluster itself I think may still continue to count, just like the ECU does, it just can no longer display it.

I believe the VAG-TACHO Chinese deal can rewrite the memory and put it back to zero, so you can at least start counting up again, since there is nothing "wrong" with your cluster.

Congrats on the milestone. I am not far behind with one of mine, I'm at 580k miles (about 934k KM).
 

ymz

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 12, 2003
Location
Between Toronto & Montreal
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon
Wow... you've done a ton of work... I got a headache reading your linked thread, but will return to it soon... I have a Hex-USB+CAN cable, and somewhere in the world I have an old serial clone cable (probably packed away with a laptop that hasn't worked in years...) I also have some other (major) maintenance items to do on the car first, but I'll keep this in mind! BTW: would the (VDO??) clusters in the German-produced cars (Wagons) behave in the same manner?
 

gmenounos

Vendor
Joined
Jun 26, 2003
Location
Watertown, MA, USA
TDI
'99.5 Golf GLS, '01 Jetta GLX Wagon (TDI conversion)
I have a Hex-USB+CAN cable
Hex-USB+CAN cable should work but you'll need to configure it as a Virtual COM Port: https://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/usb/virtual-com-port.php

BTW: would the (VDO??) clusters in the German-produced cars (Wagons) behave in the same manner?
All of the Immo3 VDO clusters I've played around with store the mileage the same way and so can only count up to 1,048,575 km (65536 x 8 x 2- 1). I never knew what happens when you get to the point of "rolling it over" but I guess we now know.
 
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CStone

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Location
East TN
TDI
2003 Jetta ALH 5sp.
I hit this milestone on my Jetta - didn't realize the odometer wasn't ticking over for several weeks. LOL. It would be nice to be able to track miles as this car is still my daily driver.
 

marcomurabia

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2022
Location
MADRID
TDI
Mk7
Of course, the odometer went to all dashes... (perhaps that's why it's called a dashboard...)

Is there a not-terribly-expensive way to get something working in there? I know there used to be someone in the U.S. that could reset the clusters, but... we're in Canada, and with the border closed, it's not that easy to send things like this - even if I could locate the fellow (I heard he stopped doing this kind of work)...
What have others done?

Y.
if it can display total miles from the ECU, I know it can display speed.
 
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