Hi Don

Pop into Maplins with a tenner in your hand, buy a can of freezer spray, go
into McDonald's drive through and get a big Mac with the change, Go home.

Open up your dash whilst its warm and working, pick a corner of the display
system and give it a short squirt with the freezer, if the display vanishes
you're in the right area, continue this until you can localise to one
component or PCB area and diagnose accordingly.


> I've got a problem with the gf's 2001 Audi A3. The instrument cluster is
> completely dead first thing in the morning when the car is cold, but after
> about 20 minutes of driving the whole thing pops into life. The car starts
> up fine, its just that you're driving with a completely inert display.. no
> speedo, fuel gauges, temp, clock etc..
>
> I've taken out the cluster and checked that the connectors going into it
> aren't loose and I've also replaced all the fuses relating to the
> instrument panel but its still there. Today I called up Audi and they said
> it sounds like it needs a new instrument cluster which will cost serious
> £££.

--

(º·.¸(¨*·.¸ ¸.·*¨)¸.·º)
«.·°·. Steve .·°·.»
(¸.·º(¸.·¨* *¨·.¸)º·.¸)

 

Don Turner wrote:

>
> You may be right with respect to it being a bad solder joint or track
> however I would do more damage than good if I attempted to find it. I opened
> up the cluster earlier and there are dozens of surface mounted chips with
> tiny solder joints.
>
AS it is dead when it fails, it's more likely to be something like a
voltage regulator with a dodgy connection. These are among the larger
compnenents, so they are easy to hand-solder, and of course they tend to
heat up and cool down in use. I'd start by looking for that.

If you know anyone who has TV repair experience they could be worth a
try- the majority of intermittent TV faults are soldering too.

 

Don Turner wrote:

>
> You may be right with respect to it being a bad solder joint or track
> however I would do more damage than good if I attempted to find it. I opened
> up the cluster earlier and there are dozens of surface mounted chips with
> tiny solder joints.
>
AS it is dead when it fails, it's more likely to be something like a
voltage regulator with a dodgy connection. These are among the larger
compnenents, so they are easy to hand-solder, and of course they tend to
heat up and cool down in use. I'd start by looking for that.

If you know anyone who has TV repair experience they could be worth a
try- the majority of intermittent TV faults are soldering too.

 

Don Turner wrote:

>
> You may be right with respect to it being a bad solder joint or track
> however I would do more damage than good if I attempted to find it. I opened
> up the cluster earlier and there are dozens of surface mounted chips with
> tiny solder joints.
>
AS it is dead when it fails, it's more likely to be something like a
voltage regulator with a dodgy connection. These are among the larger
compnenents, so they are easy to hand-solder, and of course they tend to
heat up and cool down in use. I'd start by looking for that.

If you know anyone who has TV repair experience they could be worth a
try- the majority of intermittent TV faults are soldering too.