Corsa C instument cluster speedo cutting out and car wont start

Few years back my mrs owned a Corsa C and I did a little bit of work on it, so when a mate was having trouble with his Corsa I said "yeah I can sort that out for you". First fix on the list was the instrument cluster cutting out symptoms of this problem are:

- Car wont start with starter motor turning over but you will notice the dash is not powered on. If you physically push the instrument cluster back it will temporary fix the loose connection and you can start the car.

- Dash will cut out and the most inconvenient times like indicating round a corner. When this happens you loose the indicators until you push the cluster. This is quite dangerous at roundabouts so worth getting this fault fixed.



Took three attempts to sort this instrument cluster issue:

1) Mate originally took this to a garage and they cut out some dashboard plastic behind the connector. Presumably to give it more room, but that's all they did. It lasted a month or two then the fault returned.

2) Attempt 2 was mine. I took out the connector and ensured it was all clean with electrical degreaser. Then using a glue gun covered it and the surrounding wires to make a solid connection. I don't have a pic of this as it's a bit of a task juggling a glue gun and speedo as the wire is only short. This repair lasted 5 months before one or two instances of the problem again.

3) Attempt 3 was mine and after some research I realized I missed a crucial step in attempt 2. You have to slightly bend the prongs out in the connector. This creates a tight fit for each electrical connection. So I did just that and repeated the glue gun approach. This worked and the connector felt a really good fit even without the glue in place. Six months on it's still going strong with no occurrences of the fault.....result!

Useful tips for this job are:
The storage tray under the headlight controls has two plastic clips built into the top off it. Use a plastic credit card cut to size or other stiff plastic to bend them down while pulling on the tray. Don't use any metal tools as you will scratch the plastic. I hate seeing the marks on a dashboard plastics where someone has dived in all quick with a screwdriver. I have some plastic phone tools that are great for dashboard clips and jobs like that. The surround and cluster unbolt very easily and indicators are clipped into place. Just make sure you get the top clip on the speedometer 100% right when reassembling. That stops the pressure being applied to the plug when someone presses the trip reset button, so crucial you get that right.


Gutted I didn't take any pictures of this work but worth blogging as it might just help someone out.

Here's an old picture of my Mrs's Corsa C dashboard just to brighten up the blog post a bit.