Intermittent dash turning off/not turning on at all

[Drogen24]

I swapped out 10, 17 and 26 last night and dash still turned off this morning so I'm now trying to locate the steering column earth point to check that.

[firebeast]

Spoke to a good mate who is also s&t on network rail, who said to use wd40 on the back of the display circuit board to help any dry solder points ,if you eventually get that far without finding anything,, to see if it works,, then if it has done the job, as it won't last too long before it dries out on the board,, apply acf50 on top of the wd40 to create a more long term barrier that should last atleast a couple of months..
I am going to have a go at some point, but as mines just been fine again, it's difficult to obviously try to pinpoint the actual problem on it...

[nikroc]

Im following this as my 03 2T has a similar issue..it wont always start with the clocks in place ,erratic as it is... it also continues to display the miles when turned off with the key out.

Just been out to investigate /change the fuses..no change but you can hear the fuel pump prime. The fan/blower system is erratic too..fuses changed with no differences. Maybe its something to do with the passenger side fuse box...

Gonna give the wd40 tip and try too.

[Dog_Book]

I take it no one has done the age old reflowing of the connector block contacts?

[Drogen24]

I take it no one has done the age old reflowing of the connector block contacts?

I knew something got reflowed but never knew it was just the connectors. Was literally just about to go and take it out and open it up, that'll make it loads easier.

[Drogen24]

Obviously DogBook was right!

Opened up the dash as it hasn't turned on at all for the past week and a half and I've been driving it a fair bit more than I usually do at the moment.
Immediately I was worried by these scorch looking marks on the plastic casings of the motors and all over the fascia of the dash:
20210911_205603.jpg20210911_211102.jpg
They turned out to be nothing (I think) perhaps just due to the age of the components.

Looking at the solder joints for the connector port and immediately saw the problem:
20210911_212103.jpg
There is little to no solder on the bottom right connector so the pin isn't making contact with the board at all.

I dropped a bit of solder on there and tested it before reassembly and it lit up like a very orange Christmas tree. Don't want to say it's fixed yet but I'm hopeful as this is the first problem I've actually seen but will continue to monitor.


For the others in this thread having the problem and anyone in future coming across this, I watched this very quick disassembly guide on how to take it apart and did the reverse to put it back together.
Important note: There isn't a whole lot of information about how to put the needles back on properly but what I could find said that they shouldn't be turned clockwise. I'm not sure if that means when setting them or full stop.
I did turn mine clockwise before removing them as in the video and they seemed to work when I tested (didn't check the speedo) but my suggestion would be to turn them anti-clockwise when removing as this sort of unlocks their position relative to 0, remove them and when putting them back on, put them above 0 and turn them anti-clockwise to the correct position.
You'll also need a T8 screwdriver for the 9 screws on the back and doing this is also the perfect opportunity to change the LEDs if you were ever thinking of upgrading to a non-orange colour.

[firebeast]

Looks like a result there,
I had it go last Friday for a brief trip, on the way back just gave it a tap on the top of the fascia, slightly to the right as it curves and it came back, lol, been fine since as well, so hoping mines just a loose connection tbh.