Hello. I just joined this forum this morning to see if anyone out there can answer my questions. So here is the story.

I do not own the 96 A4 I am working on. I am trying to get it back together for my friend. He started working on replacing the heater core last spring and he asked me to help him get car back to together. He has gotten pretty far by himself, but he has gotten busy/frusterated and I am trying to help him out. I have no experience working on Audi's. I tackle most issues on my families domestics cars though. The current condition of the project is the center dash piece that holds the radio and climate control unit needs to be put back in and the center console as well.

The first question is the AC. The snowflake icon comes on when I push auto at "max cool". But the icon goes away instantly. I do not hear the compressor kick on. The ac worked fine before he started this project. He said that he paid a local shop to recharge the freon. I did do some searching for this and am thinking that it might be a relay that is either behind one of the head lights or under the dash. Basically I was wondering if anyone else has an idea what would cause the icon to come on and go off right away.

The second question is I do not know, and he does not remember, what this plug is for, and where the vacuum line goes (see attached pictures). I was hoping someone who is familiar with these cars would know off hand.

Thanks in advance.

 

I think the black tube with the elbow is for the battery vent. Not sure on the wire.

 

The wire is the...ground for the stock radio, if I'm not mistaken.

Take a look at the back of the radio head unit. You should see the multicolored plugs on one side and on the other side, a small rectangular metal connector (male end). Next to that is a circular antenna connector. I couldn't find a picture online for you, but that's what it looks like. The connector on the radio doesn't look normal, but it works.

AC snowflake is hopefully a relay.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I really appreciate it. I will look into that.

 

You are correct on the radio ground. I totally missed that on the stock radio. Thank you!

 

I did a dash job on my dear departed 96. You can swap a couple of plugs that will totally hose the climate control. One plug goes to the little motor that drives the fan that pulls in air through that little grill under the radio. Don't rember where the other plug is, but they are identicle and if swapped, that might be your AC/snowflake issue.

 

To elaborate a bit, it's actually labelled as alarm ground, and I'm assuming that it triggers the alarm if it becomes un-grounded while it's armed. Pretty much useless these days, nobody's gonna steal your stock head unit.

 

And nobody who isn't standing right next to the vehicle can hear the alarm anyway. I like that in a car. A nice quiet alarm that sounds like a duck choking.

 

Duck choking. That's pretty good, and acurate.h

 

I think he means the security ground for the radio itself which puts it into safe mode. But anyway, thanks for the clarification. It's been months since I've seen the inside of a B5, let alone the back of the radio.