I noticed on my car that it would normally have a delay when my guages would start to function after starting up the vehicle. It was never a huge deal and it didn't bother me that it had a delay, I could just tap on the top of the dash to get them working immediately.

Turns out that I replaced my factory black guage overlay with the silver guage faces. I noticed that after removing the 6 torx screws and the glass cover that the overlay actually fits very tightly, with no clearance up against the needles. This is only on the fuel/temp guages as the speed/tach have sufficient clearance. After removing the needles and replacing the overlay with the aftermarket silver face, I replaced the needles and found that they actually rubbed worse because of the very slight curve of the NEW aftermarket overlay. I pulled out the needles very slightly and checked the clearance between the face and the needle itself. Replaced the glass cover, and re-installed it into my vehicle.

No problems at all now, the needles always work right when the ignition is turned on.

It was re-assuring to find that this wasn't an electrical problem with the guage itself, but a case of the manufacturer in France, installing the needles too tightly. Im not sure if this is common knowledge here, or if others have had sticky needles, as I have never seen a post on it, but wanted to let everyone know that: If you have this issue, you can fix it yourself by removing the cluster, which took me no longer than an hour to remove and replace. I would have never fixed this had I not replaced my guage faces with the aftermarket faces. Saved me a complaint to the dealer though...

 

I only have the sticky temp and gas guage every now and then and a little tap on the top of the dash fixes it quickly.

I am very hesitant to have the cluster replaced as I have heard that others on this forum's problems have only gotten worse. I can live with the little tap on top of the dash every now and then.

 

Same problem with my brand new car, since the beginning. But since it is a brand new car, I insisted on the dealer to change it. And, I've been to the dealer three times already, and I'm still waiting. See, at first they didn't have the part. Then they ordered it, but it was the wrong part. Then, when the right one finally arrived, and they replaced it, they had to wait for a secret code for the inmobilizer to re-program it to coincide with the keys. Well, after waiting for four hours at the dealer (they initially told me it would be a 45 minute wait) they had to replace the old unit so I could use the car again, since the code never arrived. And, I've been waiting three days for it to arrive. So, I'm still tapping the gauge for the needle to move. And, by the way, a friend of mine has the exact same problem, but hasn't bothered to go to the dealer.

 

and I brought the car in the next day and replaced it. The only problem was that I wasn't told to bring my other keys in for reprogramming so I had to go back again to have that done.

No problems since then though (with the instrument cluster, that is. I've had plenty of other problems.)

 

this means if you have a spare ecu this must be reprogrammed also

 

Spending an hour removing the cluster and removing the needles and replacing them so that they do not rub, are worth it in my opinion. I think the 7 days waiting for the dealer appointment and finally ordering a cluster and returning is too much work. It was a simple fix anyway. my .02

 

us have the issue. It seems that a replacement would be with another cluster that does the same thing. It's much easier to open the cluster up and fix it yourself. The needles are removed very easily. Just replace them the same way that you remove them, paying attention to their position, just leave a hair more of a gap similar to the tach/speed needles. In my opinion anyone with modest do it your self skills can do this themselves. It takes less than an hour and why take it to the dealer if they're just going to replace it with another NEW cluster that does the same exact thing?