1997 Jetta Speedometer going out

I just bought a 1997 Jetta VR6 5-speed for 4100. So far I like the car but I have a slight problem. the speedometer randomly goes to zero sometimes and the air bag light will blink. Sometimes if I hit the instrument cluster or the steering wheel right it will come back on. Anyone have this problem before or know of the fix? Could it just be a loose speedo wire? Thanks!

For the air bag you will need to have the trouble code read. The instrument cluster is prone to dying, the intermittent speedometer is a common symptom of it.

I'm experiencing the same problems with the speedometer and airbag light on my 1997 Jetta. In addition, the fuel gauge seems hyper sensitive to movement of fuel in the tank. They are all intermitant problems, but they all seemed to start around the same time. I'm thinking they may have some common fault. Did you ever find the problem with yours?