Subject: Re: Tempermental Tachometer

[Tom Winter]

Max - I had a similar problem with my '95 S6 Avant. I replaced the ignition
switch (which involves removing the instrument cluster). Upon replacing the
cluster I found that both my tach and temp gauges were dead, and my
autocheck was very flaky.

There are two ways to go about fixing your problem. Both involve removal of
the offending I-Cluster. If your car is anything like mine, there will be
three small screws under the lip of the plastic dash part that sits below
the IC. Remove them, remove the plastic and then you'll expose the screws
which hold the IC in place.

There's a good description of how to do this in the A-fans knowledge base in
directions on how to replace the ignition switch, but it's very
straightforward, and you should be able to figure it out easily.

I covered both the top of my steering wheel and my dash with clean rags, as
the edges of the IC can be sharp plastic and can scratch things.

There will be electrical plugs in the back of the unit holding the IC in
place, but carefully pull the unit forward and then gently remove the plugs.

Once you have the IC out, you can examine the back of it. Once again, if it
is anything like mine, you'll see where you can open it up to get into the
guts, and then fix the cracked traces.

Or, if you are like me, you can spend a couple of months searching the
marketplace and junkyards, find a different (new to you) IC and hopefully
just plug and play. Interestingly enough, the unit I now have installed
reads exactly 10mph slower than I'm going. The fix is to remove it, take it
apart and install my old speedo. Maybe I'll do that at some point. But
probably not, since I'm the only person who drives my car and I know that 60
is really 70 ;-)

Tom
'95 S6 Avant