Electrical issues and some questions.

Heya! me again.

after my last hassle with the golf (which still isnt fixed ) its a euro  87' cabriolet GLI with a K-Jetronic  (and now correctly counted) 611k km on the clock

i wanted to sort out the rest as best as i can.

so as a first, i want to wire up the vdo gauges in my center console. From left to right : Bar Clock Volt

But seen as i have a Gli shoudnt that Bar meter be an oil temp one?

my fuse panel is a hot mess, ill take a few pics tomorrow but the main question is, how do i wire these up with the ignition (except for the clock which obviously should run on constant 12v) but where to wire that to too.

second problem, the 12v red i have behind my radio is constant and not switched on ignition. ive heard there are empty spades somewhere on the fusepanel which are for the switched 12 volt, but im not too sure about this!

Hope these are all easy as they should be xD

Thanks boys

There have been a few of these posts recently. 

If you Google something like "Mk1 Golf VDO centre console clocks" you'll get quite a few posts to have a read around and probably the answer too.

Dano said

There have been a few of these posts recently. 

If you Google something like "Mk1 Golf VDO centre console clocks" you'll get quite a few posts to have a read around and probably the answer too.

Excuse moi, i actually looked for them before but coudnt find anything. Now i do😂

If you have a oil pressure Gauge, that is BAR, then you need the oil pressure switch Can on the side of the head that has 2 sensors one for BAR and one for Low pressure at Idle.  If you buy one off the inter web you will see there are Cheap (not cost effective ones but they don't work) so buy one from a reputable site as in VWheritage or werk34.de or other specific VW online retailers.

If your gauges are oil pressure (bar) Oil Temp,  then Voltage (standard on my 89-93 Cabbies) they are located in the lower center console.

Siroccos and GTI's  had a Clock between the oil and voltage usually in the upper dash.

in the Bentley or Haynes, you would wire an unswitched line 12vdc+ to the Clock.

All the gauges use a common ground.

You would tap into the gray/blue illumination light to power your lamps to the gauges, as the light would also be tied to the common ground.

Your Pressure sender would tie to the input of the gauge.  as well as your Ampmeter (volts) would need to tie into a switched 12V+dc source.

The Oil temp is you have that instead of a clock would tie in to a Black single pin sender for temp that is usually on the oil filter flange boss.

You also have a reference or biasing 12VDC+ bias (switched) for the oil temp, and Oil pressure gauge.

You can see how it was wired in the 88-93 Cabriolets as



On the oil pressure sender it is usually located on the side of the head


One wire goes to the pressure sender blue/yellow, and the other goes to the clocks for low pressure at idle which is the single sender on the head same location.
which iirc yellow .

Marauder said

Dano said

There have been a few of these posts recently. 

If you Google something like "Mk1 Golf VDO centre console clocks" you'll get quite a few posts to have a read around and probably the answer too.

Excuse moi, i actually looked for them before but coudnt find anything. Now i do😂

Hope you're sorted with previous posts and Briano1234 help. 

Briano1234 said

If you have a oil pressure Gauge, that is BAR, then you need the oil pressure switch Can on the side of the head that has 2 sensors one for BAR and one for Low pressure at Idle.  If you buy one off the inter web you will see there are Cheap (not cost effective ones but they don't work) so buy one from a reputable site as in VWheritage or werk34.de or other specific VW online retailers.

If your gauges are oil pressure (bar) Oil Temp,  then Voltage (standard on my 89-93 Cabbies) they are located in the lower center console.

Siroccos and GTI's  had a Clock between the oil and voltage usually in the upper dash.

in the Bentley or Haynes, you would wire an unswitched line 12vdc+ to the Clock.

All the gauges use a common ground.

You would tap into the gray/blue illumination light to power your lamps to the gauges, as the light would also be tied to the common ground.

Your Pressure sender would tie to the input of the gauge.  as well as your Ampmeter (volts) would need to tie into a switched 12V+dc source.

The Oil temp is you have that instead of a clock would tie in to a Black single pin sender for temp that is usually on the oil filter flange boss.

You also have a reference or biasing 12VDC+ bias (switched) for the oil temp, and Oil pressure gauge.

You can see how it was wired in the 88-93 Cabriolets as



On the oil pressure sender it is usually located on the side of the head


One wire goes to the pressure sender blue/yellow, and the other goes to the clocks for low pressure at idle which is the single sender on the head same location.
which iirc yellow .

Splendid explaination my friend! (i will need to do some google work for the sensors and all)

ive added a pic of the gauges, dont mind the immaculate radio wiring that the last owner did. almost burned the car down xD

would you happen to know which ''relays / fuzes'' are switched 12vdc on an 87 cabrio?

That is one sick twisted mess of wires.
bare connectors that are on melted wires.



If it was me, I would remove all the Crimp butt to butt splices, and use solder and heat shrink instead of crimp connector, the crimp connectors were made improperly.

You need a good pair of crimp tools to make a good crimp connection ones that dimple the Crimp on the wire. After crimping, then Pull the wires if they pull out bad crimp.




Why? because soldered connections don't fail, and are easier so scoot into places that your large crimps can interfere with things.

Soldered connections rarely fail, or go intermittent. There is a Primer for electrical, where I have pictures of good vs bad solder connections.

See the bottom half, they Crimp the middle of the connection not on the end only.

How I splice in wires. - Topless Rabbit Forums

Another style that I like ratcheting ones.



ok, you can Splice in to your defroster switch for switched voltage, the Black/Yellow wire.

For the Battery unswitched you can tie into the Radio Yellow wire, or pin 30 RED out of your Ignition switch.

If the Yellow wire in the picture is for your After market Radio, I would suspect that that should be tied to battery unswitched.

For the Love of safe cabbying, fix that rats nest of wires.

I found this jumbled mess when my dashbord started smoking on the highway, had the roof open and yoinked the radio right into the bushes.

all connections that arent original have been removed, everything is rewired. this is an older picture luckily enough.

it does seem like the yellow +12Vdc at the radio is constant and not switched.

when i have the golf back at my place i will go at it with my multimeter and find a switched 12vdc

I will find the black/yellow youre talking about (hopefully)

and just use the yellow at the radio for the clock indeed.

now i come to think of it, my fusebox looks the same, but without anything molten. might peek into that sooner than i originally thought…

i will keep you posted!