Getting inside the VDO Clock

I'm not into horology or clock repair - any that I took apart as a child never worked again - but if your dashboard clock refuses to work properly, well, what have you got to loose? The worst is that it still will not work!

Mine had decided that it would only move the minute hand. As long as the real time was between 5:00 and 6:00, all was okay. Pushing that centre button, in an attempt to reset the time, only succeeded in altering the minutes. So, it was matter of trying to fix it or get a replacement.

Stripping it out of the console is fairly straightforward. You will need to at least loosen off the upper half of the centre facia. To get enough access, I suggest you remove the radio and then loosen the whole of centre facia. It is not necessary to disconnect any of the switches, etc. Details for this are on a separate page - see Removing the Centre Console

Gently pull the top section of the centre console away from the dash and disconnect the power, earth, and bulb connectors.

The clock is held in place from behind by a retaining bracket. Undo the 2 screws at the back that hold the bracket in place.

Remove the retaining bracket, clock and 'O' ring.


I do not know if all MGF clocks are supplied from the same manufacturer, but mine was clearly identifiable by the fact that it had "VDO" stamped on the side of the casing. ( VDO is part of Siemens)

Opening the clock up is not easy. The front glass is retained by the black thin metal bezel that has been rolled over and around the lip of the main canister.

There is no easy way to undo this other than using something like a small screwdriver, and to carefully prise around the outer face of the bezel, levering it away from the canister. Try not to prise it too far or you might split the metal. Luckily, it is only the front edge of the bezel that is likely to be seen once the clock is back in the car

You will have to do this for something like 75% of the way around the clock before you will be able to remove the bezel and glass face.

Remove the black bevel from inside the front of the clock.


To remove the clock mechanism, undo and remove the 2 screws on the rear face of the canister.


You will now have to unsolder the ground connection from the rear face, and the mechanism should slide out.


I could not find anything obviously wrong with mine, but there again I am not a clockmaker! What I did notice that there was a tendency for some of the clock spindles to move laterally in what I thought was an excessive amount, which appeared to make a difference to how the hours & minute fingers could be adjusted.

What was also noticeable was that the rear PCB could be separated from the gear mechanism and was held in place via several screws and soldered posts. Note that there are very fine wires that connect to the electric motor. If you do not unsolder the 2 posts, you will break the wires, and you clock is unlikely to ever work again.

Luckily, at this point I found that I could now adjust the hours along with the minutes ( must be magic ! ) so I decided to test it. Partly rebuilding it, without the front face and bezel, I reconnected it up to the electrical circuit in the car, and it worked, keeping accurate time for several hours.

On the principal that "if it works, don't fix it", I fully re-assembled the clock, gently rolling over the edge of the bezel as best as possible, and re-fitted the whole thing back in the car.

And it is still working !