Mordred

Yup Iv'e seen it many times... it's an old film I think it's set in 1978, and in the best Carpenter era, "They Live", "The Thing", "Christine" etc, whatever, it's pretty good for a car based film anyway. Regards the problem, I think it's going to drain the battery which is why I'm going to have to pursue it. I may just yank the fuse and refit. 🙂 Oh - I think of the cars used there are still a few surviving in collections.

Nope - heading is totally correct - I'm referring to the 1983 movie, spoiler alert, the dash lights up in the murderous "Christine" 🙂 If you haven't seen it its a good watch... Anyway, I'm on Audiworld and there are a few people having something very similar going on. I think it must be a back feed current, perhaps a failing component or water ingress. My money is on water ingress as the flashing has no pattern and goes brighter then dim. Interestingly yanking the instrument cluster fuse stops the flashing so whatever is causing it is using the power and might be creating leakdown current to the body. I have a plan, I’m going to order a replacement cluster from ebay, bash that in the dash and see if it flashes, I’m assuming the Immobiliser will activate, but I will know if the cluster flashes it’s not the cluster. – I’m making a big assumption here that the cluster will still power the backlight with component protection active.

So driving I noticed that the little green car with an arrow appeared on the dash - see pic - this makes it look like it's lit really well - it isn't. My car doesn't have air suspension so I was wondering what it could be, then I noticed that it was quite dull and flickered very slightly... Anyway when I got out and locked the car, I looked back and the dash lit up, so I investigated, now when parked, all locked up everything off, it does what you can see in the video, VCDS - doesn't see any issues, any ideas please. Christine.mp4

Turns out it's totally possible. So I rummaged through my box of old car stuff and found an amp. I then bought a Audi AMP the same as fitted to my Audi A6, one that had been hacked out of the car and had a length of harness still attched (thanks ebay -£20)... I opened up the amp and cut out the harness connector, I then wired the connector from the Audi amp onto my old skool amp, making sure to pass through the power and open circuit connectors onto the piece of harness and plug. To drive the amp I bought a blue tooth connector that just needs power and provides a stereo output. So I have tried it and it does work although I'm short of a couple of channels, and I need to find a switched live otherwise the amp stays powered up draining the battery... Connecting it is just a matter of fitting my harness (see pics) inbetween the cars existing amp and harness using the plugs. All the unconnect wires come from the plug and aren't needed as my amp is now feeding the speakers... It's a really cheap way of getting something out of the cars sound system if you dont want to fix the existing mmi.

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.

Check the air quality sensor under the wind screen

I have had this issue on a v6 both sides were causing issues one the arm was really loose and had fallen off also triggering a limit issue the other was hitting the limit too. I removed the arms warmed the ends up just a bit and squeezed them closed to make them a better fit on the balls. Refitted everything, light still on, then bought a set of limit brackets of Amazon the pressed kind https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DXFB8NLH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share fitted those reset the DTC and so far it’s working great. I was prepared to have to bend them to create a new stop position but they just worked. Super cheap too

This seller on eBay says if I have an amp in the boot then this is plug and play upgrade. I’m tempted to be honest, but I really can’t see it being that simple… https://ebay.us/m/Rz7zQp When I chatted with him he also said the unit had Component protection removed… if that’s possible. what do we think about this as an option - and will it really just be plug and play?

Just an idea. I’d suggest you revisit the oil filter. Buy a new one and install it. I think it’s probably collapsed or become distorted on the reinstall. Maybe…

2006 c6 4f - I have the mono red low MMI no aux - which has now got a CP lock on one of its components meaning there is no sound. I am planning to ignore this and try to use the speakers post amp. My plan is to T into the multiplug that goes into the amp install another amp and Bluetooth / media player and use the remaining speakers / audio system that way from my phone. my question as I don’t want to be hacking the hell out of the loom, is there a commercially available loom adaptor with a breakout piece that will leave the car loom factory and allow me to install the new amp media player? Simply I want to have a short harness that plugs into the existing amp, and into the existing loom, with extra connector that allows me to use the speakers and power etc. Anyone tried this? Links and thoughts please.

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. 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). 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.

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.

New battery - plenty of charge / also tried another and the situation is the same. Car wont crank - See vid WhatsApp Video 2025-12-11 at 09.35.17_a0b02bb0.mp4 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.