New battery - plenty of charge / also tried another and the situation is the same.

Car wont crank - See vid

 

 

The car has power, locks etc and the MMI wakes up, the small odometer wakes up but the rest of the dash is dead and turining the key doesnt do anything.

I don't think the steering lock is releasing either.

I have checked the fuses in the driverside panel, all good.

I have checked the relays in the driverside, they all work - What are the things labelled 395 in my picture I haven't looked at those yet. (I'm testing the relay that's missing in the pic.)

In the boot all fuses are good, I had one for the MMI blown on the brown tray.

I know about the compnent lock - its been there for ages...

I need some other things that I can try as I am out of ideas.

It's possible the instrument cluster is faulty. There are specialist companies who will test and repair it, though you will have to remove the cluster yourself and post it to them, then refit it afterwards.

Hi Guys - updating - I'm pretty sure its the steering lock module, I can reset the DTC's and it starts. I'm going to replace the relay and microswitches in the lock mech as this seems to be the fix.

By the way removing the steering lock is not easy.

It has a secuirty security bolt on the bottom which holds it in place, drill it out.

And a horrible small fixing that holds the actuator to the lock (flat metal piece) in the column which prevents removal, you need to align the fixing with a gap in the steering UJ to get at it...

The fixings on the steering mech case are also secuirty type and I just drilled with left hand drill bit to remove, all the security bolts that you need to replace are M6, two about 25 mm for the case and one mounting bolt about 15mm - go for button heads as I think other head types will foul something.

 The screw location im pointing at is the difficult screw to align and remove, the other pic shows the security bolts on the case of the steering lock mech.

 

Wasn't there a fix where you just had to cut one wire and that would disengage the lock? I think I've seen a YouTube video to that effect. Apparently the mechanism can be problematic as cars get older. Could be mistaken and I'm sure someone wiser will correct me here. Of course the procedure would mean the lock is permanently disabled, no matter if the key is in the ignition or not. My car has a steering lock permanently disabled. Done by the previous owner (I guess he had some issues with it). The fact that it has been "disconnected" has not caused any issues during my ownership of the car. 

Just to add as a clarification, the wire needs to be cut when the lock is disengaged. Otherwise it will remain permanently engaged. I realise that this solution may not be for everyone, but for me the age of my car and relatively low value of it would be enough to justify such a crude "repair". 

I’ve fixed it – Lessons Learned:

Appears there are some basic options for older cars like mine, I’m discounting going to the dealer for now, so no new unit or recoding second hand units isn’t going to be discussed.

1. Using something to reset the DTC's unlock the car then cut the RED/Black wire on the three wire connector. (simple free – I wanted it to work properly though, and I will do this next time if my fix fails).
2. Buy a repair kit - (relay and micro switches) - needs soldering skills. (I chose this option).

I decided to repair; this isn't complicated just unsoldering and re-soldering 3 micro switches and a relay with 9 pins.

The kit I found on Amazon had all the components, the micro switches are generic and not exact replacements.

Micro switches:

The pin spacing on the OEM micro switches is poke-yoke and has a spacing that means they only fit in one orientation; the ones supplied in the repair kit do not have the same pin spacing and need to be pressed and helped into the circuit board.

The metal rub spring on the top of the new switches also has a very different profile, the profile matters; the ramp on the replacements activates the switch too soon and causes the mechanism to fail.

Bend the rub spring to match the old ones or swap over the spring from the OEM to replacements, I swapped them, but you have to be really careful and wiggle it out using some needle nose pliers so not to crack the plastic slot the sit in.

I've attached pics of the micro switches - it's easy to see the difference - Grey are OEM - Black aftermarket kit.

Relay:

Unsoldering the relay isn’t really easy because of the number of pins it took quite a while to completely unsolder this.

Finally the circuit board has been lacquered in places and this had got onto the components making them difficult to pull out as well.

Case:

Don’t bother crimping the lock mechanism back together, it allows removal of the circuit board later without removing the whole steering column, this helps in the event you find your circuit board or switches aren’t correctly working, the lid can be held on with M6 button heads, bin the security fixings as these are likely mullered.

Refitting:

If your struggling to get things back together the steering column can be detached from the steering shaft completely by pulling the shaft out of the steering wheel end (just tug on the steering wheel and it will come off the shaft still attached to the column) – if you do this be careful as the steering wheel and column need to be refitted in the same orientation because it has a clock spring and can get over wound, there is a bit of extra harness you can release that gives you the freedom to do this.

Hope this helps someone.

Edited December 15, 2025Dec 15 by Mordred

Thanks for description and images. Have got to the stage of replacing the switches and relay but car still dead as a dodo. Noticed when putting module together that black sliding thing did not want to move. Do I need to take everything out and look at this again to see if it slides. Also not sure as to what spring you are referring to. Time to remove steering column is not long 15 to 20 minutes once you have done it a couple of times. First time the steering wheel ended up at minus 90 degrees off centre. Have tried to clear Dtc by brake, hazards, lights but didn’t realise that it meant turning the lights on full beam at the switch so will do that first before removing the module, but it would be good to know if the black plastic sleds when not in place or whether it is locked in place.

 

You need to clear the DTC's using something like VCDS - the DTC's that get thrown because of the lock prevent the car from starting and don't automatically clear, well they didn't for me.

The Black sliding thing is driven by the motor / worm-gear and doesn't just slide it needs to be driven, its what you hear when you turn the key.

Removing the steering column can cause some issues, mainly if the wheel is turned in any direction and not refitted as it came off, this is because the clockspring can become wound more in one direction. If you haven't maintained the position of the steering wheel in relation to the column then you will need to align the clock spring - I had to do this...

The "spring" I refer to are the rub strips on top of the micro switches, the Audi spring steel rub strips have a distinct profile, whereas the repair kit ones are plain (see picture). Its also worth noting that the spacing of the switch pins are slightly different and it's not easy to get them to sit flat on the circuit board.

The spring rub-strip can be pulled out of the microswitch but be careful as the slot they sit in has a very thin top layer, they can be wiggled out though so the spring profile doesn't need to be bent into the plain springs.

My tip when refitting is to not bother crimping the case back together and make sure it can be slipped off after removing the retaining bolts, this makes it possible to remove the circuit board from the car while the unit is still fitted and takes about two minutes, it was a really useful when I realised that the springs meant I still had the issue.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Mike giving it another go today