First, the plug is the same, so yeah, you can transplant the thing straight into your instrument panel without the laborious task of taking off the actual dial fronts (metal believe it or not!).
The top right of the above image is the same black plug you will find as on the GTI (and vice-versa), just that the plug has turned 90degrees on the GTI black back of the dial VDO box (original is white).
The next bit is unscrewing the white backing off of the old clocks.
You will also need to do this to the new ones as well.
KEEP THE SCREWS SAFE!
(All will become clear soon! lol).
At this stage you will have to find out yourself that there are only two or three clips holding the dials in still (on the old clocks - white.)
The new dials are soldered onboard and cannot be taken out, hence why this is such a pain (otherwise I would of simply swapped the clocks over from new VDO unit to old).
Here is an image showing the old dials pulled out of the contact sockets.
*At this point if all you wanted to do was to change a dodgy dial, now you know how it all comes to bits*
The Third step is to get a small flathead screwdriver and prise the plastic solder points apart and get to the bulb display plastic under the bulb block off housing.
This is because the new unit had bulbs mapped to different parts of the unit, so your lights wont be mixed up.
As you can see there are four solder points (actually 5), although you cannot see this tiny one. Be VERY CAREFUL YOU DO NOT SLIP or you will end up marking the see-through plastic other side that faces you in the car OR pulling too much on the solder points to create a whitey-black strain mark on the front that faces you also.
It's under this white part you need to swap the strips under.
Do this now!... Then you should be able to clip the white housing back in (if you haven't been an animal lol)
The other reason for swapping the see through window unit... Is the MOT part.
Now, the GTI unit has the indicator bulbs up the top centre with the indicators, you need to get rid of these by using your old unit casing!
This is another reason for this is why we're doing this mod in the first place...
The indicator bulbs need to be taken out as well as the fog light bulb AND the high beam one - I know it's a bit drastic, but you'll find out why if you don't... you wont see the high beam window in the old unit or the inidcator windows anyway, plus you're hiding the inidcator light windows for MOT validity.
Compare the image below to your old clocks to see what I mean.
You may as well keep all 3 bulbs spare from the top!
Another good thing to do at this point is check the two bulbs in the upper most part of the unit (the bit that shines the light into the unit for night driving) and all the the other bulbs.
Hey... You have plenty of bulbs to hand at the mo! lol
You will also find you will have to keep a few more bulbs as spare from the bottom of the instrument panel window as some lights are used and some aren't.
I never got a picture of this as I was two-and-frowing to a light source to shine through the window in/out the house to see what ones I would need.
You will see by reading the other thread: 'GTI Clocks' of the symptoms on why we're doing this mod and I'd say try mod this at your own risk; but I really wanted these dials and thought what the hell.
- I personally found my fog light bulb, indicator bulbs were mixed up on the instrument panel as well as my indicator relay was buzzing on accessory ignition.
-I sorted the buzzing alone by taking out the right hand indicator bulb out!
*If anybody has a fix on how to solder up the proper bulbs later on, then scream at me and I will add it to this*
---
And finally...
Grab your screws after swapping the main see-through window over as well at the bottom bulb window, taking the bulbs out and keeping some spare (as above) and put it all back together.
As I also said above, YOU WILL have some screws left over, so be careful where you screw up as the NEWER unit backing has screw holes in other places, so don't go all animal on this as well and look to see where the holes actually go!!!
And the final result?............
FERKIN SICK!
Here are my old clocks with the newer discarded GTI window, bottom internal coloured light window strip and the old white screw backing plate (just so you can see what I actually trasnplanted in case you get stuck)... I think I broke it down ok lol!!?
P.S: If anyone needs to put their milage back or forward on the new clocks after this, look for something called 'VAG Tacho USB'... It is going for £12 in some places on the net!
HAVE FUN DOING THIS MOD!...........
Ant
Last edited: