w202 instrument cluster works intermittently. HELP
 

W202 c250TD instrumentspeedometer. It will work in like 1 out of 6 starts and the rest of the time doesnt work. Odometer, outside temp work all the time but the needle gauges will work sometimes and most of the time they dont. Really strange. I have pulled the cluster out and tried cleaning the contact points with electrical contact cleaner and made no difference. Very bad as means i never know how much fuel left**The lcd info things work all time its just the needle gauges like revs, fuel, speedo and engine temp, they are intermittent. Say i start the car today they might all work till i stop and switch engine off. Restart the car literally seconds later and they dont work*

Checked fuses and even replaced relevant ones made no difference. Would an OVP issue cause this or an N15 relay Any ideas as drives me crazy

Electronics can fail in various ways. In your case it is likely a common power supply on the board for the gauge motors. It is unlikely that it is an external problem.

Unless you know of a place that rebuilds these, a replacement is the only solution.

So you think its the cluster itself yeah?

I can't think of anything else that would take out part of the cluster. Be sure to have someone with a Mercedes dealer level tester scan for codes then trigger the gauge test function. There _might_ be a self test that can be triggered by pushing some buttons.

What year is this car?

Its a 1997 model thanks