Instrument Cluster Resolder

[Phil Rose]

At 7:58 PM -0500 5/8/08, michael wrote:
>You can do this soldering job all you want and it does not fix the 
>instrument cluster problem.

That's a non-useful (and defeatist) response. You may not have had 
success, but many others (I'm one) have been able to do soldering 
repairs on the IC with good results. Success or failure depends on 
what kind of IC problem you have and in hitting the right defect 
spots. Here's an old post of mine that describes what I did 
(resoldering) to fix two problems with my cluster--lighting and 
bouncing speedo. My repairs are still working fine:

The first link is that "old" photo showing one of the ground jumper 
wires that is needed to fix a problem with dim IC background lighting 
and turn-indicator weirdness (along with high-beam indicator 
madness). Then there's a link near the bottom to a photo that located 
a two-pin connector which I needed to resolder (at the base of the 
pins) in order to fix the bouncing speedometer needle problem:


At 2:25 PM -0500 11/13/06, Phil Rose wrote:
>I fixed mine about a year ago --after doing two things. First-- was 
>to run an extra ground wire as shown in the following link.
>http://www.lanikamal.com/audi/dashboard.html?
>
>  That repair wire jumpers over a crack that commonly occurs in the 
>upper PC board's circuit--a crack which prevents the "other side" 
>(left side in the photo) of the board from having a good ground. 
>That crack tends to occur near  the base of a small two-pin 
>connector (you can see the underside of this connector in the second 
>photo--two small holes and associated solder points). Merely 
>installing this repair wire as shown serves to cure a common problem 
>with the IC, whereby there is very dim IC backlighting along with 
>simultaneous display of both green turn-signal arrows (also 
>erroneous indiication of high-beam headlights). But this "fix" alone 
>was *not* enough to cure my bouncing speedo.
>
>It happens that a crack (or cold solder joint) can also occur at the 
>base of the little (green plastic) 2-pin connector, and this can be 
>the  cause of  the bouncing speedo needle. A bad solder joint at the 
>base of this 2-pin connector makes the connector unable to 
>adequately ground its mating pins (these pins carry ground to the 
>speedo circuit board below). Using an 8x magnifier, I was able to 
>see a faint crack right at the soldered metal base of the 2-pin 
>connector. I heated this spot carefully with my low-wattage 
>soldering iron and my bouncing speedo was fixed. At least for the 
>time being (one year so far).
>
>I've added a photo that shows the two small "speedo ground pins" 
>which are located near the top edge of the IC (--arrow-- at bottom 
>of photo); here they're shown emerging from the white, intermediate 
>circuit board cover. When the uppermost circuit board is put in 
>place, these pins must slide into the 2-pin connector discussed 
>earlier.
>http://phil-rose.com/miscellaneous/speedo_ground_pins.jpg
>
>This all probably sounds about as clear as mud. Will be easier to 
>understand once you have the IC removed and begin disassembly. Use 
>only a low-wattage iron.


Phil





-- 

Phil Rose.....Rochester, NY USA
'06 A3q 3.2 V6 (5K, silver)
'91 200q	(156K, Lago blue)
Gone to Audi Valhalla:
'91 200q   (Tornado red)
'89 100 (Bamboo gold)