Audi A6 2.7T Gauge Cluster Computer Display Repair

The instrument cluster, gauge cluster, on my 2000 Audi A6 2.7T has been steadily losing pixels over time. If the car sat out in the hot sun, the entire LCD pretty much vanished and was unreadable.

The picture below shows what mine looked like (on a good cool day) vs the photo on the right of a perfect display:

After searching a little on ebay, I found out that you can purchase just the new LCD screen for about $60. I thought, surely if they're selling them on ebay, they must be pretty easy to change so I bought one (see next photo.) This was one of those mistakes for which you wish you had the benefit of hindsight.

Long story short, I found out that I can't solder a ribbon cable to a PC board and was left with a completely bright red center LCD display:

A little searching on the internet brought up www.modulemaster.com. This company specializes in repairing failed ABS modules and, to my delight, Audi gauge clusters. In fact, the picture at the top of this post is from their site.

First, drop the steering wheel all the way down and out.

I popped out my cluster by removing the u-shaped trim panel just above the steering wheel. It is held on by two spring clips on either side. Pull it straight out as bending it upwards may break the plastic tab that holds the spring clips.

Next you'll see two phillips screw heads above the steering wheel along the bottom edge of the cluster. Use a pretty large (#3) screwdriver as these are usually stuck. Use a magnet to make sure you don't drop them inside the dash.

Next you'll need to pull the cluster straight back by gently gripping the bottom edge and the two reset "sticks."Again, take your time and wiggle it until it slides forward.

Now, angle the cluster until you can get access to the 3 electrical connectors on the back (Blue, Gray, and Green.) Each of them has a little purple locking handle that you'll need to pry up with a small screwdriver. Gently pull them up and the connector will come right out.

Then, lean the cluster back and you should be able to work it out. Your dashboard will now look like this:

Now the easy part. Fill out the repair request on Module Master, ship it to them, wait a few days for them to receive it, fix it, and call you back with the total. They'll ship it back to you promptly (I got mine in two days.) It came in a big box with tons of packing, wrapped like a papoose, good enough to survive a 10,000 ft drop:

Reverse the steps above to install it (take care to open the purple handle on the connectors completely so that they will seat properly, the purple handle should close easily) and you should be rewarded with the following now perfect display. (My check engine light is another matter, the secondary air injection system pump is bad again) :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/romney-gets-trump-nod-and-gets-off-stage--fast/2012/02/02/gIQAlGe8kQ_blog.html

When I heard the rumors this morning that Donald Trump was about to endorse Newt Gingrich, I was somewhat relieved for Mitt Romney. First, I should say I was a little surprised, that anyone would care who Trump, originally known as a businessman but these days more for being a celebrity, would endorse. But my relief was centered around the fact that lately crazy shallow minded hypocrites like Herman Cain are enthusiastically endorsing Newt. I thought it would bode well for Romney to have the hard core conservatives line up behind Newt...thereby keeping Romney attractive to the moderates.

Vanity Fair "The Dark Side of Mitt Romney"

I found this hatchet job on Mitt Romney to be illuminating, not from the standpoint of Romney's faults. But from the predictable attempt at positioning his steadfast character, analytical approach, and overall business success as negatives.

So let me get this straight, the man analyzes under-performing, sick, and dying companies then makes a calculated decision about how to invest, which paid off for his investment about 2/3 of the time and made millions for his investors, and this is somehow evil or dark? He pores over tons of data to identify redundancies and inefficiencies, yet this is not the kind of person we need in Washington? Its laughable.

Dell TouchPad suddenly stopped working

I went out of town the other day, which means something is going to go wrong in my house that I'll have to fix when I get back.

This time it was the touchpad on my wife's Dell Inspiron N5030 stopped working suddenly. The backstory is that she and my daughter were trying to find some funny kid videos on the internet when it suddenly stopped.

I hooked up a mouse and it worked just fine, but sure enough, the touchpad was completely dead. I suspected a hardware failure until I googled "Dell touchpad not working." In no time, I found the problem listed along with the solution on this link:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?docid=424135

Luckily, it was just the touchpad enable/disable key which is located just to the right of the F12 key. It allows you to toggle the touchpad on/off. A very useful key for those who inadvertently hit the touchpad when typing text.

Garmin Edge 500 Mounting Tabs Broke Off

I attempted to replace my Edge 500 on my bike mount this morning as I've done hundreds of times since getting it in April of 2010. To my dismay, it fell off and when I checked the mount the two little mounting tabs (ears) on the back of the case were inside the bike mount. My heart sank thinking about having to trash a perfectly good unit.

A brief internet search reveals that more than a few other folks have had the same issue.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_printable;post=3140886;

I just emailed Garmin product support in the hopes they'll replace it for free. I'll post their response later. Fingers crossed!

Clinton Warns Tehran Against Iraq Encroachment - The Wall Street Journal.

It's nice to see the Obama administration warning Iran not to meddle in Iraq. On the other hand, if they can't resist, maybe our Nobel peace prize winning President will wipe the iran's nuclear program off the face of the earth.

The best outcome, of course, would be another Iranian green movement, which predates the Arab spring. Of course, maybe this time NATO would help.

I thought you would be interested in the following story from The Wall Street Journal.

Clinton Warns Tehran Against Iraq Encroachment

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576649033562607332.html

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http://www.wsj.com/ipad

Sent from my iPad

Acurite Wireless Thermometer, not dead yet

I own an acurite wireless thermometer that I purchased at Home Depot for around $16. It's worked flawlessly for a couple of years and mainly helps me figure out how to dress for my 4:30 am bike rides. I confess it's also been the cause of more than a few blown off rides, but I digress.

I learned that when the battery in the outdoor wireless sending unit fails, you can't just replace the 2 AA's. The indoor display and the outdoor sender will lose synchronization if you just replace the sensor batteries.

The proper battery replacement procedure is to remove the batteries from both display and sensor. Then put fresh batteries in the sensor. Next, within six minutes, put fresh batteries in the display unit. They should magically pair up immediately. If they don't, make sure both components are within 100 feet and repeat the battery replacement procedure. Good luck!