[s-cars] INOP Tachometer this evening

[Kevin Day]

On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 10:07:09PM -0500, AUDIJIM at aol.com wrote:
> OK, I finally have my S4 titled and insured and tomorrow morning will be the 
> first time I take it out of my driveway since I drove her home from down south 
> to NJ. I needed to transfer all my car "stuff" from my 5000 to the S4. When I 
> started my S4, the tach was inop. Yes, it is very cold this evening and I am 
> wondering if that has anything to do with it. Is there any BTDT? This is the 
> first time I've seen this.

It's probably an electrical problem in the instrument cluster.  There is at
least one writeup on how to disassemble the cluster and re-solder the
old, potentially cracked solder joints.  At SJM's site I think.

I had a problem last winter with the tach dying when the BRAKE light was
on, like when the handbrake is set.  I did the resolder thing and it
has worked fine since.  The winter before that the Autocheck display got
funny and I resoldered everything then too.  I wouldn't be shocked to
have to pull the cluster again this winter...

The tach signal itself is generated by the ECU, and isn't likely to fail.
The circuit boards in these instrument clusters are junk.  So I'd
start there.

-Kevin