[Vwdiesel] Temp Gage

[William J Toensing]

Not sure if wiring & instrumentation on the Rabbit are similar to the Dasher, but suspect they are. Working on my Dasher a year ago, I was fishing a wire back of the instrument cluster to install an extra water temperature gage in an auxiliary instrument cluster for an oil pressure gage & voltmeter, as there was room for an extra gage. After installing it, the fuel gage & temperature gage failed to work. I felt I had dislodged a wire while working back there. Then a couple of months ago while working on the Dasher, I studied the Bentley manual on how to remove the instrument cluster & what might cause gage failure. I don't recall whether it was a tip from this blog or trouble shooting suggestions in the Bentley, but one suggestion suggested the "Voltage Stabilizer" might be at fault.I pulled the instrument cluster from my '80 Dasher parts car, found its printed circuit board to broken & wires soldered into it. I also took the voltage stabilizer out of it, replaced it into my '81s cluster & vola, the water & fuel gage worked again. I bought a couple of extra "voltage stabilizers" as spares since they may be some of the weak spots with VW Dasher diesels. Haven't worked on the Rabbit instrument cluster but suspect it might have a voltage stabilizer too. By the way, what is the function of the voltage stabilizer? It is small & looks like it might have a transistor or diode in it. Let us know if this or something else is the cause of the instrument failure.