The light that illuminates the speedometer is out in my 1997 A6 Sedan. I read through the manual and could not find out how to fix it. Can anyone offer assistance?

 

Not a driver servicable item, which is why its not in the manual. To change it, you have to pull the dash apart, and move/takeout the instrument cluster and replace the bulb. Often these things take a few hours to do, and sometimes interesting amounts to thought to find the clever way they fide the screws. (All for the sake of a 1-2 dollar bulb.)

I have the procedure on the repair CD. Dashes can be annoying to take apart, and it looks like half the car is apart when the pad comes off. Usually they sqeak after you put em together again, at least they do when i do them.

 

Opps, my manual only covers 1998 and on.

 

Is it any different getting into the dash on a 97 than a 98?

 

Honestly, not sure. You might want to ask service what it costs to replace the bulb. I will look on repair CD for process.

 

I was quoted $70 for the repair. Sounds like the way to go vs. hours of uncertainty, especially now that we got some snow today and I don't have a garage to do the repair in. Thanks for sharing.

 

You may want to have them replace all the bulbs in the instrument cluster, depending on the cost of the bulbs. I have to figure most of the $70 is in labour to get to the bulbs, and the bulbs should be cheap. My thought is this: If one bulb burnt out... how long till others start? Then again, I have had some go for 1-2 years after the first one went. Just a thought.

 

I changed mine on my 97 one. I had to replace 3 bulbs actually (these sucker have about a dozen there!). It's a fairly straight forward if you're carefull and have the patience for it ;-). The bulbs are sold by the dealer (I bought it at $3.50 Canadian a piece). Under neath the dash there are two screws. Remove them, then the front piece in front of the instrument cluster at the bottom will come out. Be carefull as there is a pin at the right end of this piece so make sure you pull it to left to get it out. Now all you have is a few screws that hold the instrument! unscrew them (gently!) and you can pull the cluster out. There are a few wires connected to it so try to work around that stuff. There is no need to pull the wires out, just twist the panel and pull it out! finding which bulb is bad can take sometime. I tried changing the ones closest to where the dark spot with a new one. When you replace them, try turning your lights to see if the burned out light bulb is replaced or not. After you're done, do everything in reverse. Overall this shouldn't take you more than an hour. Buy a few bulbs before doing this to make sure you don't come short! The bulbs are a twist one but they are recessed. Use a small plier to twist them if you can't get to the bulb using a screw driver. It's a fairly straight forward procedure. I tried to find the website that had a tutorial close to this but the website seems to be down! Try the website later on, it may become available: www.12v.org . If you don't feel comfortable doing this, then $70 may be worth it for real! I personally wanted to do it for the fun! I would perhaps do it for ya if you lived in Eastern Canada ;-)!

PM me if you have any Qs,

Kianoosh