[V8] Quad four relay driver "was '90 V8 IC capacitor spec needed"

[allanvega at comcast.net]

For those of you suffering from dead gauges accompanied with a dead radiator fan, and dead courtesy lights, then chances are the driver prom chip for the on board relays is dead or dying. Years ago, a fellow lister smarter than myself, identified this chip as "quad four relay driver". He also listed a part number for them, and listed digi-key as the source. 
The relays and the chip are part of a daughter board mounted at the back of the cluster. (2 pin connecter at the back of the cluster) the board itself is about the size of a half pack of cigarettes 
If their is enough interest, I may consider repairing these on an exchange basis ( I think i may have 3 or 4 cores to use.) 
I will dig up the part number, and post up for those willing to tackle the job themselves. 
Allan. 

----- Original Message -----

From: "patrick gillen" <pat_gillen at msn.com> 
To: v8 at audifans.com 
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 5:57:28 PM 
Subject: [V8] '90 V8 IC capacitor spec needed 

A plea to you cluster experts who may have one on the shelf and apart for a 
quick look-see: 

I have been running a Marketplace WTB 1990 V8Q IC pn 441919930X about 2 
months now, similar on Audiworld. So far I have one reply on a 239k mile IC 
I am leary of because of the mileage and me going through two clusters in 
about 120k; latest has been bad for at least 6 yrs. I have erratic temp & 
gas gauges that together seem to read accurately 1/3 of the time or 0. 
Idiots lights randomly come on, low oil pressure the most while the oil 
pressure gage is 40% at idle and otherwise pegged. I can't say I totally 
believe the oil gage but it goes way up on increasing RPM. Now the radiator 
fan doesn't come on at any speed with the sender, fuses and motor good and 
the schematic says relay control is from the cluster (via its bad pins). 
Also, the interior light has been wacky for years, another cluster feature 
created by some bonehead engineering. Why didn't they put the PCM and TCM 
etc into the cluster too? 

There are 14 yrs of posts on bad IC jack pins and poor/cracked solder 
joints, though no one says which jack and all of mine look equally bad but 
no pin feels loose or looks worse than any other. Several years ago spraying 
Deoxit on everything actually got rid of the problems for about 6 months but 
they resumed. 

Net searches and Portland's oldest speedo repair shop has not yielded any 
info on this VDO board. And their grey-haired IC board repairman said he 
wouldn't touch an older Audi cluster. So he sends me to their outsourced 
electronic cluster repairman and he refuses too. And I am not prepared to 
shell out $1850 for the last new cluster in the USA for a 24 yr old beater 
that runs like a raped ape once it gets moving. 

I posted pics of my defects at 
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=CB0AD649E5FEAA4A!6645&authkey=!AG7CHz4 
EUYdCtm4&ithint=folder%2c 

Questions: 
1a. There appears to be a cap that has leaked; please confirm from pic 
that looks like a leak and not somebody doing a really sloppy job gluing it 
down to the board for why I don't know. If it is just glue and your working 
IC is like it, ignore question 1b. 

1b. Assuming my cap did leak and yours is clean, what is its value so I 
can replace it? Due to the jism, I can't read any value on mine and I am 
afraid scraping it clean will destroy any spec. Is there a solvent that can 
do the job without eating the printed data? 

2. Ditto for the similar colored jism on the 3 legged regulator under 
the narrower ribbon cable, though I can read my part number and they are 
readily available. I have never heard of regulators leaking like caps but 
this is out of my league. 

3. Blue and yellow jacks: the solder joints look poor bad from the 
pics, but I don't see or feel any obvious loose ones. I have not yet 
dissected to get to the black and white jacks yet; were yours found 
similarly corroded? 

I guess I have to resolder all jack pins but am concerned about using the 
wrong heat, minimal clearances between the pins, my out of focus eyes (the 
worst issue) and ancient soldering skills which never did circuit boards. So 
I found a local industrial instrument guy who solders boards routinely but I 
need to find the cap spec and your help is appreciated. Then after this 
repair I can actually drive it to the crusher without the gages flapping, 
random idiot lights going off with chiming, and overheating as being the 
last memory of a great car. 
Thanks, 

Pat 

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