Instrument panel issues, 1995 90

[Huw Powell]

great info.

there are a bunch of really bad photos of most of the process of 
dismantling the instrument cluster (from the previous style 90, but they 
are virtually identical) here:

http://audi.humanspeakers.com/cluster-T89.htm

On 9/22/2012 5:32 PM, Printhead wrote:
>     I wanted to share the problems that I have been having over the last
> year or so with the instrument panel. It is a 1995 90q, manual trans,
> manual ventilation controls with 220,000 miles. 1) The speedometer would
> not work early in a trip during cold weather, and would start working
> after the car warmed up. The cruise would not work while speedometer was
> acting up. 2) The clock would reset itself to 1:00. I could never catch
> it in the act of re-setting, so I didn't know when it would do it. I was
> eventually able to duplicate the problem by wiggling the clock set knob,
> discovered by accident. 3) The back-light went out on the beloved
> outside temperature display. 4) Intermittent general back-lighting. 5)
> Finally, the ignition switch took a dump, sometimes leaving the starter
> motor engaged, and dropping some accessories. Luckily I heard the
> starter motor running, so no damage done. This is the third time this
> has gone out on this car. Solutions: 1) Wiring diagram shows that cruise
> control gets VSS (vehicle speed sensor) signal from the speedometer
> circuit board. Upon dis-assembly, I found that there are multiple
> modules in the instrument cluster. In the case of the speedometer, the
> VSS signal come into the main cluster board via the wiring harness, and
> is then fed to the speedo by pins and receptacles. This allows repeated
> separation of the layers for initial assy and later maintenance. The
> pins are tin plated copper and had corrosion on them in exact the point
> the receptacle made contact with them. I needed a magnifier to see this.
> I scraped the corrosion of and then cleaned them with contact cleaner.
> The speedo problem has not recurred since this fix. 2) The clock is a
> similar modular pin-fed device, but in this case, the pins had cracked
> solder joints where they come through the clock circuit board. Since I
> resoldered these, the clock has been working solidly. 3) The temperature
> display is another module, and upon disassembly, I found a small light
> bulb soldered in place. This was an easy fix. I don't think Audi intends
> for this lamp to be replaced. Also, I do know that this one has been
> covered here before. I like having the temperature display and am glad
> to have it back. 4) Self explanatory, although the replacement lamps are
> not super easy to find. Even the dealer parts dudes had to dig to find
> the lamps. Weird. 5) Ignition switch. Replaced with new one from dealer.
> New one was all black plastic, instead of a mix of black and white. They
> changed the design from some old junk ones I have around. Main return
> spring appears to be mounted in a better place. All the old and new
> switches I have were made in Germany. While I had cluster out and apart
> I was able to carefully clean the plastic lens, and get accumulated dust
> off of the faces of the gauges. Dang instrument panel looks new. I
> highly recommend this. Taking the instrument panel apart to its
> individual pieces was not too bad. Very doable if you take your time and
> have a nice clean and well lighted bench to lay it out on. Also while
> apart, I was able to figure out that the little 'dummy' button next to
> the fuel gauge is actually a calibration/zero adjustment. If you want to
> adjust the full or empty position of your fuel tank needle, pull the cap
> off of the nearly flush knob near the fuel gauge with a nesdle nose (it
> mars it up a bit) then turn the inside of the remaining knob with a
> metric Allen wrench. I would never have messed with mine because my
> gauge was accurate, but I diddled with it trying to figure out what it
> was, so now I am committed. I'll keep a gallon of gas on board until I
> see if my 'E' is accurate.
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