Instrument Cluster Problem

[Hax]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.  I got in my car (a 2012 8P A3) last night, first time after Storm Eunice, and when I started it, the intrument cluster didn't light up as expected I had a series of warning lights illuminated (shown in the photo).

The day before everything was working fine and the car was just left parked up during the day of the storm so I'm wondering if it is a case of water being blown in causing a problem somewhere. I have checked the fuses and all look intact to me.

The car still starts fine and seems to run OK - I just have no movement in the speed, rev, fuel and temperature gauges and the display is in complete darkness.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Adam

[cliffcoggin]

Adam.

It is not unknown for the A3 instrument cluster to develop faults and need repair or replacement, but it's a bit of a coincidence it went wrong during the storm. Can you get the car under cover for a day or two with the fuse boards and any connectors open to allow any moisture to dry? Maybe use a hair dryer, not a paint stripping hot air gun, to warm them. If that fails you may well need to have the cluster repaired, though wait for other responses on the forum before taking it out.

Are there any other seemingly unrelated electronic problems such as limp mode, loss of cruise control etc that began at the same time?

[Hax]

Hi Cliff

Thanks for your reply.  As far as I can tell, the car is running perfect. I have just driven 12 miles to my office and back again without any problem.

There are no signs of water in the fusebox under the bonnet - the question is whether is has managed to get anywhere else. Unfortunately, I don't have a covered area to park in.

I found one video on YouTube where someone else had the same problem and after they checked everything out, they read that a low battery can cause this to happen and so took their car on the motorway and the problem "went away".  My car has been sat for long periods as I am working from home mostly - but normally I get a message telling me the battery is low - at which point I take the car for a reasonable run.

The 24 mile round trip to the office hasn't solved it. I've now left it with the negative battery terminal disconnected for the last 15 minutes - I'll go and reconnect that and if it doesn't fix it I'll go for a short run on the motorway to make sure there is some juice in the battery.

Otherwise, I guess I'll be sending the cluster off to one of these repair services.

I'll post back if anything changes after my motorway run...  Wish me luck!

Adam

[cliffcoggin]

Adam.

A defective battery can indeed cause false warnings in the instrument panel as well as other odd behaviour. It's why I asked about other symptoms.

If you have been getting battery warnings recently then I would put money on it, if I was a betting man, being the cause of the false warnings. Your only realistic option is to fit a new battery. Charging the existing battery will not solve the problem.

[Hax]

Hi Cliff

I've just returned and as expected, no change.

Interestingly, in the four years I have owned this car, the stop/start has only ever kicked in maybe 5 times. During this journey, it kicked in twice - the first time it caused a bit of panic as I was worried the car had died completely!! 

The battery warnings are more prevalent in the really cold weather - it happened last Winter too.

Maybe tomorrow I will pop to Halfords and ask them to test the battery for me...  

[Hax]

New battery ordered for fitting on Tuesday. Surprisingly, Halfords price was very competitive compared to EuroCarParts.  Plus the Halfords battery comes with a 5 year guarantee - only 3 years offered on the batteries sold by EuroCarParts.

Hopefully on Tuesday I will be posting with some good news about this. If not, then I'll be looking for an instrument cluster repairer.

[Stevey Y]

1 hour ago, Hax said:

New battery ordered for fitting on Tuesday. Surprisingly, Halfords price was very competitive compared to EuroCarParts.  Plus the Halfords battery comes with a 5 year guarantee - only 3 years offered on the batteries sold by EuroCarParts.

Hopefully on Tuesday I will be posting with some good news about this. If not, then I'll be looking for an instrument cluster repairer.

Hi if you need a cluster repair as they say up north there is Nowt finer than ECU Testing.

Steve.

[Hax]

Thanks Steve - always nice to have a recommendation and not use blind luck on a Google search!

[Stevey Y]

3 minutes ago, Hax said:

Thanks Steve - always nice to have a recommendation and not use blind luck on a Google search!

Hi, no problem, I have used this company several time over the past couple of years and their customer service is second to none, most recent was the father in laws 02 Volvo instrument cluster on which half the gauges and lights were out, sent it off ,the next day got a text and email saying it was repairable and I had been assigned an engineer, got it back a day later with a little note telling me it was now plug in and play, they did my mates ABS pump a three day turn round and again no coding, I asked a mate of mine who retcons alternators and he explained he gets round coded alternators by putting in a shunt which the ECU recognises.

Steve.

[cliffcoggin]

Failure of the stop/start system is another symptom of a faulty battery. Make sure the replacement is suited for stop/start, which requires a better duty cycle than standard batteries can supply.

[Hax]

12 minutes ago, Stevey Y said:

Hi, no problem, I have used this company several time over the past couple of years and their customer service is second to none, most recent was the father in laws 02 Volvo instrument cluster on which half the gauges and lights were out, sent it off ,the next day got a text and email saying it was repairable and I had been assigned an engineer, got it back a day later with a little note telling me it was now plug in and play, they did my mates ABS pump a three day turn round and again no coding, I asked a mate of mine who retcons alternators and he explained he gets round coded alternators by putting in a shunt which the ECU recognises.

Steve.

Thanks Steve - sounds like a decent company with a fast turnaround.  And much cheaper than having to go direct to Audi!!

[Hax]

4 minutes ago, cliffcoggin said:

Failure of the stop/start system is another symptom of a faulty battery. Make sure the replacement is suited for stop/start, which requires a better duty cycle than standard batteries can supply.

Hi Cliff, yes I have read this and have thought about getting a new battery for a couple of years, but whilst the old one kept going and I had no problems other than the stop/start I just left things as they were - I was tempted to replace in January but thought I would wait until after my service/mot which I had at the end of the month.  This new "issue" has prompted me to just bite the bullet. If it doesn't fix the problem then it is not a problem as it was, as I said, something I was considering doing anyway. 

The new battery from Halfords was the only one recommended when I put the car reg. in and it claims to be for stop/start functionality.

[Stevey Y]

1 minute ago, Hax said:

Thanks Steve - sounds like a decent company with a fast turnaround.  And much cheaper than having to go direct to Audi!!

 

1 minute ago, Hax said:

Thanks Steve - sounds like a decent company with a fast turnaround.  And much cheaper than having to go direct to Audi!!

Hi when you consider my mates A6 ABS unit was a shade under eighteen hundred quid plus fitting, they wouldn't warranty the part without them fitting it, the two hundred quid he paid was a fraction of the price.

Steve.

[Hax]

12 minutes ago, Stevey Y said:

 

Hi when you consider my mates A6 ABS unit was a shade under eighteen hundred quid plus fitting, they wouldn't warranty the part without them fitting it, the two hundred quid he paid was a fraction of the price.

Steve.

Indeed.  I've seen people saying a new instrument cluster will be well into 4 figures if bought from Audi. My car is 10 years old so spending that much on a display seems a tad excessive to me!  A couple of hundred sounds a fair price to me. I hate that the cluster has to be "coded" to work with the car. It is just a display. I work as a software engineer and have worked on complex CAN bus systems for marine electronics so I know there is no specific need for it to be this way, just a company grabbing money from their existing customer base.

[Stevey Y]

20 minutes ago, Hax said:

Indeed.  I've seen people saying a new instrument cluster will be well into 4 figures if bought from Audi. My car is 10 years old so spending that much on a display seems a tad excessive to me!  A couple of hundred sounds a fair price to me. I hate that the cluster has to be "coded" to work with the car. It is just a display. I work as a software engineer and have worked on complex CAN bus systems for marine electronics so I know there is no specific need for it to be this way, just a company grabbing money from their existing customer base.

Hi you have hit the nail on the head, with the advent of cracked software the dealers are beginning to realise that a lot of stuff is now within the capabilities of Joe average thats why the push is on for electric as they are the only ones with the equipment to analyse faults this will put us DIY folk back at least twenty years and think of how much money they can grasp in that time.

Steve.

[cliffcoggin]

2 hours ago, Hax said:

 so I know there is no specific need for it to be this way, just a company grabbing money from their existing customer base.

But of course, it's Audi we are talking about.

[Hax]

So, I had the new battery fitted today and the problem still persists - sadly 😞

Now to decide on the next course of action - book the car into a local garage for a diagnosis or just send the instrument cluster off for repair... 

At the moment I'm leaning towards the garage option just to understand what the problem actually is.

[Hax]

The garage I use can not fit me in until Tuesday next week so I have decided to just bite the bullet and go ahead and try the service offered by ECU Testing as I can possibly have a fixed unit back by the time I even get the car to the garage - or at least I will know soon enough if there is no fault and then I can book the car in anyway. 

[cliffcoggin]

17 hours ago, Hax said:

So, I had the new battery fitted today and the problem still persists - sadly 😞

Now to decide on the next course of action - book the car into a local garage for a diagnosis or just send the instrument cluster off for repair... 

At the moment I'm leaning towards the garage option just to understand what the problem actually is.

That's unfortunate, but the money was not wasted in view of the warnings the car gave you.

[Hax]

34 minutes ago, cliffcoggin said:

That's unfortunate, but the money was not wasted in view of the warnings the car gave you.

Indeed - I don't begrudge paying for the new battery at all. I have been considering changing it for a couple of years now.

[Stevey Y]

4 hours ago, Hax said:

The garage I use can not fit me in until Tuesday next week so I have decided to just bite the bullet and go ahead and try the service offered by ECU Testing as I can possibly have a fixed unit back by the time I even get the car to the garage - or at least I will know soon enough if there is no fault and then I can book the car in anyway. 

Hi as it stands if there is no fault with the unit they don't charge and all you have lost is some postage money, at least that will have ruled that potential problem out but my money is on the cluster having gone, either way its win win as you have ironed out two possible diagnosis that the garage may suggest.

Steve.

[Hax]

10 minutes ago, Stevey Y said:

Hi as it stands if there is no fault with the unit they don't charge and all you have lost is some postage money, at least that will have ruled that potential problem out but my money is on the cluster having gone, either way its win win as you have ironed out two possible diagnosis that the garage may suggest.

Steve.

On their website, it states that if there is no fault found then there is a £45 diagnostic fee to pay.  Which still isn't bad as I would be paying £60/hour at the garage anyway.  And, as you say, that rules out another potential cause so the garage can then look elsewhere for the problem should it not be the cluster at fault.

I sent the cluster off special delivery this morning so it will arrive with them by 1PM tomorrow. So, fingers crossed by Monday or Tuesday (maybe even Friday!) I will have heard something - either no fault found or they found a problem (and then I hope they can fix it!).

[Stevey Y]

10 minutes ago, Hax said:

On their website, it states that if there is no fault found then there is a £45 diagnostic fee to pay.  Which still isn't bad as I would be paying £60/hour at the garage anyway.  And, as you say, that rules out another potential cause so the garage can then look elsewhere for the problem should it not be the cluster at fault.

I sent the cluster off special delivery this morning so it will arrive with them by 1PM tomorrow. So, fingers crossed by Monday or Tuesday (maybe even Friday!) I will have heard something - either no fault found or they found a problem (and then I hope they can fix it!).

Hi they are to say the least rapid with their responses I have always had an update within a couple of hours of the unit hitting the deck and if the part is repairable they assign an engineer to your unit who must work at the speed of an unmarked missile you are never left wondering.

Steve.

[Hax]

15 hours ago, Stevey Y said:

Hi they are to say the least rapid with their responses I have always had an update within a couple of hours of the unit hitting the deck and if the part is repairable they assign an engineer to your unit who must work at the speed of an unmarked missile you are never left wondering.

Steve.

Just received a text message that the unit has been received and waiting to be assigned to an engineer. So yes, they do seem to be very good with the communication!!

Now waiting for the "unmarked missle" to get to work on it 😅

[Stevey Y]

8 hours ago, Hax said:

Just received a text message that the unit has been received and waiting to be assigned to an engineer. So yes, they do seem to be very good with the communication!!

Now waiting for the "unmarked missle" to get to work on it 😅

Hi you ought to see the testing equipment they have theres a video on youtube for the ABS renovation service the testing machinery alone looks like something out of a Star Trek film.

Steve.