I have an Audi A4 with 75k miles and just recently have had instrument cluster problems. Has anyone else? I'm pretty upset by it given that when I call Audi to discuss the problem they say on the phone, after talking to me for 10 minutes about a recall issue on the timing belt, that they've never heard of any complaints on this issue.

I first had the problem when I thought I had a quarter of a tank left in my car and was on the highway and ran out of gas...both the guage and the mileage counter were off. I had my dog and 2 others in the car...had to pay $140 for towing and caused a backup and was in the most unsafe situation as my car was stranded on the highway. The instrument cluster is completely off now, so I'm using the odometer to track my mileage for the next fill up.

Please post any helpful feedback on issues related to this one as I'm trying to get Audi to help me out. Currently they want me to pay $1,600 for a new instrument cluster...in my opinion, it went out too early and there's nothing I've done to cause that so I don't think I should have to pay for one.

 

hahaha 1600 for a cluster? wow. Mine completely stopped working - no tach, speedo, odometer, or guages. I am about to buy a used one for $100... dont know if it'll work

 

I've got a 2003 A4 and my temp. gauge doesn't work. All other gauges and instruments seem to be fine. I took it to the dealer today and they said it wasn't the ECT sensor since no code was triggered.

The solution for fixing the gauge is a bit less than $1000+ tax + 2 hours of labour ($202).

They said (and I read this elsewhere too) that a used cluster cannot be used because the milage has to be matched and apparently there's some code that has to match. I guess it's difficult to find a used cluster with the correct code and a milage that matches/is closer enough (but more than) my milage.

Is it true that the clusters have some kind of code that has to match? And is there a place I can purchase a new cluster from that at a reasonable price?

I've read that once on instrument goes the others follow shortly.

Thanks.