Another B4 Speedometer Issue Thread - RESOLVED

jhax

Veteran Member
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Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Greetings All,

I recently purchased another b4v and I am trying to work out a speedo issue.

Symptoms:
Initially a 0mph reading
Speedo does oscillate, jump slightly while driving but doesn't jump around drastically.
As driving continues speedo increases slowly to 80mph and has since remained there.
Old battery lost charge and the car was jumped a few times prior to being replaced. Now it starts perfectly.
Odometer counts up and functions normally.

Diagnosing steps taken:
Swapped black 109 for gray
Cleaned all engine bay grounds (car was stored for a long time all grounds and wires look immaculate)
Unplug battery while changing headlights, enough time for a reset.
No coolant in electrical connector at the coolant reservoir.

Currently speedo remains at 80mph even with battery unplugged.

I'm thinking it's the vss at this point or the cluster is on its way out. Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Justin

RESOLVED: So the capacitors did work. It turns out that I had pressed my gauge needles in too far to the point where they were not catching on the stepper motor shafts, or something. I pulled them out a bit and I have all of my gauges again. Speedometer is a little "steppy" though, as in it doesnt sweep totally smooth but I can deal with that for now. Thanks all for the assistance.
 
Last edited:

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
yeah after reconnecting the battery it went back to 0. havent driven it since yet though.
 

jhax

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Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
I do and I shall.
 

jhax

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Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Well I havent gotten a chance to hook up VCDS yet but so far my efforts have been fruitless. Still no speedometer. I suspect block 018 is the block to use in VCDS.
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
I havent gotten a chance to get VCDS plugged in yet but I will this afternoon. If it is the case of the speedo, I assume the fix is to take it out, apart and re-solder all the joints. I also assume that the stepper motor for the speedo is fine due to it currently sitting in the parking lot at work, shut off and the speedo is reading 120mph haha. If not, luckiuly there is a 2000 cabrio in a yard near by that I can grab the stepper motor from.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I havent gotten a chance to get VCDS plugged in yet but I will this afternoon. If it is the case of the speedo, I assume the fix is to take it out, apart and re-solder all the joints. I also assume that the stepper motor for the speedo is fine due to it currently sitting in the parking lot at work, shut off and the speedo is reading 120mph haha. If not, luckiuly there is a 2000 cabrio in a yard near by that I can grab the stepper motor from.
I've bought regular JY Mk3 clusters for just that purpose, the stepper motors are expensive new from what I've been able to find, so I like to keep a non-TDI cluster around for parts....

Steve
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
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Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I'd forgotten about that post on Vortex, thank you for linking to that. It's unfortunate that Vortex has fallen by the wayside for the sake of FB. There's such a rich trove of information still on Vortex although with the forum changes and the password debacle so many have left and if you add to that the photobucket extortion scheme, well, it's just not the same as it was a decade ago.

Still, there are very relevant posts there that are well to be preserved and reminded of when necessary.

With FB there's such a repetition of the same questions over and over, there's no reservoir of 'sticky' posts or DIY things to refer too. Maybe at some point FB will crash and burn and people will go back to the Tex in enough mass to revive it.

Steve
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
I am noticing that more and more, people getting sick of facebook. I never fell into that crowd luckily. It's sometimes difficult to dig through the info, and a lot dont even have any photos anymore.
 

Steve Addy

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Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I am noticing that more and more, people getting sick of facebook. I never fell into that crowd luckily. It's sometimes difficult to dig through the info, and a lot dont even have any photos anymore.
I'm there but not socially, I use the marketplace because it has displaced CL in my area for for sale / wanted stuff, although it's just not as good as CL was.

Steve
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Yeah I have a significant other for that FB marketplace haha.
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Is it possible to replace the B4 cluster stepper motors with MK3 stepper motors, I noticed in photos they are different. I pulled the stepper motors from a mk3 cluster tonight.
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Also, I think I would like to change the power capacitor while I am in there, is there a recommended specific capacitor to get or am I just looking for any 470uF capacitor?
 

ToddA1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Location
NJ 08002
TDI
'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Digital Corpus, used to sell the caps. Maybe search his old threads.

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Also, I think I would like to change the power capacitor while I am in there, is there a recommended specific capacitor to get or am I just looking for any 470uF capacitor?
I used a 470uf 25v cap when I replaced mine. If you're going to do the one I would think it wise to do the other as well.

The 470uf is a Nishicon cap, the 220uf 6.3v cap was Fcon. You may not find these brands though, but I don't recall if I specifically looked for these brands either. You will have to buy a few more than you want but that just means some backup for another cluster down the road too.

I just searched on e-bay to find the ones I needed. It was 50k miles and 5 years ago and I've had no problems. When I got the cluster it squealed like a pig, so even before I powered it up I replaced the caps in hopes of salvaging the cluster...and it did.

Steve
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Thanks folks, speaking of has anybody heard from DC? His photography website is down and I havent heard from him in a long while.
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Also, any information on jetta vs passat stepper motors would be helpful as well. See above post regarding the matter.
 

roadrunner89

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Eurovan R5 102HP
There were several versions of Jetta steppers.
I don't think, your steppers are faulty.
The problem will be more the caps and the elmos regulator/stepper driver
 

jhax

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Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Where would the Stepper DRIVER be located on the PCB?

Thank you
 

jhax

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Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
WHat do you mean when you say "the buyer still isnt set up"? Maybe I could call him and get him to mail me something?
 

ToddA1

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Joined
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Location
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'96 B4V, '97 B4 (sold), '97 Jetta (scrapped)
Means he isn’t repairing clusters, yet.

A lot of Derek’s inventory was used parts. He fixed my Jetta cluster twice, with used parts. When I sent it in the third time, he said it needed a board. He didn’t have a spare.... it sat with him for well over a year, before I got it back.

When you consider how much I spent on repairs and shipping, it adds up. It’s cheaper to buy a working cluster, but it’s a ticking time bomb, lol.

-Todd
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
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Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
...When you consider how much I spent on repairs and shipping, it adds up. It’s cheaper to buy a working cluster, but it’s a ticking time bomb, lol.

-Todd
Ditto, I've bought "worked great" mk3 clusters before and been disappointed when they're actually no good. Seller's don't seem to want to stand behind what they sell, and most often they prefer to sell as "untested" to get around that.

WHat do you mean when you say "the buyer still isnt set up"? Maybe I could call him and get him to mail me something?
What is it you're wanting him to send you at this point?

Steve
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
I would just like a stepper driver and/or capacitor I would need to replace the faulty one. I currently have a torn apart mk3 cluster board, if that has the capacitor I need, where on the board would I find it?
 

jhax

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
96 Passat B4V, ALH engine out of a 2002 Jetta, some IE Rods and ASV Pistons. Nothing drivable yet though
Aw, i appreciate it, yeah a bit far away. Im confident I can do the soldering too I am wondering if I could just unsolder this capacitor from the spare mk3 cluster I have and solder it onto the b4 board. ANy idea which capacitor it could be on the mk3 cluster?
 
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