nathanwind

Payment sent, thanks mishar!

Ajzrdo

Dear Mishar, thank you very much for your tutorial.
Finally repaired!
It took 4 hours and I thought that I could not fix it but it was worth it to follow the instructions and do it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to make and upload a tutorial like this.

Álvaro

Matt@H2OTuning

Can the motor be unplugged while the unit is open easily? I just want my Nav screen to stay open all the time.

mishar

Yes. Check the other tread.

Kris Hansen

Adding to AW tech section.. =)

MP4.2+6.0

Mine started doing the stuttering open or close a month back. I got Misha's gears and completed this last night. The unit is complex--both to get out and mechanically. Misha's illustrated instructions were all correct and the parts a precise fit. A great contribution to the community and much more cost effective repair for the able DIY'ers. Thanks!

It took me probably 5-6 hours all told. I struggled with a ancillary few things that were not documented and eventually sent me to Bentley. I also have the leather dash, and wondered a few times is it made clearance a bit tighter for things like pulling the MMI itself out, getting out the vents and the like--all the stuff right up against the upper lip of the dash as you pull the given part forward and out. Specific things I struggled with were how to get the wood trim off the screen (didn't want to break anything), how to deal with the electrical and optical connection (I left both hooked up, but eventually undid the various plastic retaining stuff to give me more slack, and especially the need to remove the display itself from the mechanism. That also got the optical cable (the tighter of the two connections) out of the way, and finally gave me better access to things like the drive motor screws.

Other things I ran into as independent issues:

• I found the insulation on one of the two drive motor wires worn down to the conductor. It was on the side away from the (metal) motor housing, and eventually I traced it to rubbing against the long plastic shaft area that rotates each time the screen moves. I put some electrical tape on it (about all I could do since both ends were connected), plus tie strapped the wires to the motor casing.
• The very small diameter thread on one of the two display mount screws almost stripped at the T10 Torx head. I took it back out, and happened to have the right die from an old set (IIRC 4mm x .7) to clean up the threads. The problem was the old factory LockTite was just too hard and too much; they used pink/red for whatever reason. With clean up I used blue and got it tightened up correctly.

When all was done, I turned on ignition and sure enough open and close very smoothly, just like new! Thanks Misha! I was cautious to test basic opening before screwing the whole dash together again, since some disassembly like the air vents was slow and felt a bit risky breakage wise--I did not want to have to repeat anything unnecessarily.

This was another one of those pretty hard on the 9 or 10 point scale for me; maybe an 8. A lot of precision work and you can't break or lose a single part, either in the assembly, or in the extensive trim R&R in general. And by the way, having eventually pulled apart dashboards in most every Audi I have owned, the D3 A8 is really a super beautiful work of industrial art behind the scenes. Nothing like the cheap plastic crap like most dashes. Very elaborate and careful construction, supurb fit, exacting parts details, all this on my car built 9 years ago (May 2005 stickers and markings on many parts) with 105K miles of wear and tear and climate exposure. Well beyond what I found on my last operation on the 2000 C5 A6 that I did last year to replace the whole dash cover, itself a well regarded interior in its time.

greginfinity

I know I will get ragged on here, but if mine starts to go, I am hunting down a wire to cut to leave the screen up. I think the opening and closing is terribly 90s. What is the point?

mishar

I don't like that moving screen either, but I don't agree that it is 90's. New A8 and Mercedes have them too. I prefer Bentley screen but I don't like the rest. OK may be the engine.

So, to help you hunting, underneath passenger carpet find Electrical System Module 2 and unplug pin 87 yellow/blue wire. If the gear is broken screen might not stay opened. Use a cork to prop it up.

Or fix it. Most people like it. Your buyer might be one of them.

MP4.2+6.0

As you say, the newer D4 A8 has them. So does the just getting here brand new A3 redesign. Backing up, it is whatever Art in Engineering wants to give us. And, let's face it, these are known (new) as "old man's cars." Single biggest new car market for A8's is Florida--and was for D3's too. Hence the almost laughable "boat throttle" shifter in the D4 as an example that Audi PR hacks try to glorify as design and function art. Maybe the hoor house inside multicolor light show as some described early on; maybe popping a Viagra or two completes the thought... Thus, "older" or "classic" designs that will still look good some years later done very well (said more seriously) are what is going the target new car market for these, where Audi focuses.

I actually think pop up is more like leading edge (A8) early millennium. But hey, Tesla now does it on their door handles--apparently their most common warranty repair, and I see how the Refund King eventually snagged them. We also have the coveted pop up speakers on the high end sound, or the Jag XJ rising shift **** as other incarnations. Also only so many ways to do these. Could be like my 2013 Q5, your basic flushed into the dash angled look. Well, lets see, that's kind of later 70's BMW gen. 1 530i dash look as the early one, or 80's Chevy S10 if you throw some faux aluminum around it, or C6 Audi A6 that was never a sales hit and was very forgotten S10 look. C7 is on pop up now too; with A/S8, A/S7 and A/S6, kind of a basic differentiator to the lower line A/S/RS/Q 4/5 stuff.

Then again as more ideas for Art, we could go for the now out of fashion/prior fashion touch screens a la Honda and used to be Toyota before they got smeared with a few too many PB&J's and make up on the run from soccer moms (or basic grease from the guys). Or we could go with the gazillion button "mine's bigger" of a current Porsche set up. Maybe some leather covered side console grab handles along side the gazillion buttons to help us on those three hour cruises...when the water starts getting rough. All possibles.

Heck, we could go with what the younger set really does anyway, blow out the whole Nav, lose the boat throttle approach and wanna be BMW slant dash stuff, throw an iPhone or Samsung into our crotch area and pretend not to be texting while using the bluetooth or phone speaker all at the same time, and switch to Google Maps as needed all while doing all the other stuff and maybe sipping a Latte to go while stuffing a super sized whatever. That's what the real market on the move says, every day, every road.

Anyway, I like my pop up Nav, and I like it OE and functioning. Thanks Misha for saving me like a grand, and the on line tech support you offered along side the machine work. As Misha said in another post recent (I think it was him) as I chuckled along, disable enough of these and you end up with basically a nicer riding Impala. Maybe repainting my roof cop car white to go with the Brilliant Black otherwise might a thought there if I head this way...and Art turns over in his D3 grave.

greginfinity

Hahaha, you guys are too much. And can't thank Mishar enough for his products and posts.

I just don't see a reason for any screens to pop out. It's not like you have more room for something if it goes away. It just creates an aesthetic of a seamless dash... with an ugly seam for the pop up window?

At least the Tesla door handles serve a purpose, aerodynamics.