so AUDI is lost at fixing my car!
01-29-2009, 11:57 AM
#1
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so AUDI is lost at fixing my car!
My cluster had been acting up with the basics:
- Dead RPM Needle
- Dead Gas Needle
So i take it to the Audi dealer (Nov 25, 2008) and they say no problem your car is covered under the cluster recall and we will put in a new one. Sweet I'm thinking so off i drove in the 2009 A4 loaner car.
They call me saying its fixed come and get the car (Dec 4th 2008) so I go back and take it I knew it had very little gas so I go fill up and BOOM needle didn't move. Drive back to dealer and they said they have to reorder a cluster.
Jan 12th 2009 comes along and I get the call saying the cluster is in bring all my keys and come by. I go leave the car because it's a friday and off I go in my 2009 A3 S-Line. The dealer calls me again saying its ready (Jan 14th 2009) and same deal I go pump gas because the needle was at 1/4 tank this time and to my merry surprise the needle didn't move again!!!!
Drive it back and now they are stumped!! The car is still there right now and they are waiting for a master tech from AUDI USA to come look at it.
So far they have replaced the following parts:
- 2 Clusters (soon to be 3 from what i hear)
- Both Fuel Senders
- Fuel Pump
- ECU
- All wiring from tank to cluster
The ECU reads the correct 285 ohms for a full tank which is what the car has now but they still cannot get the needle to output the info.
Anyone ever run into this? Maybe i'll get lucky and they will label it a lemon and I get a break on a new Audi.
Baffled Canadian,
Dan
- Dead RPM Needle
- Dead Gas Needle
So i take it to the Audi dealer (Nov 25, 2008) and they say no problem your car is covered under the cluster recall and we will put in a new one. Sweet I'm thinking so off i drove in the 2009 A4 loaner car.
They call me saying its fixed come and get the car (Dec 4th 2008) so I go back and take it I knew it had very little gas so I go fill up and BOOM needle didn't move. Drive back to dealer and they said they have to reorder a cluster.
Jan 12th 2009 comes along and I get the call saying the cluster is in bring all my keys and come by. I go leave the car because it's a friday and off I go in my 2009 A3 S-Line. The dealer calls me again saying its ready (Jan 14th 2009) and same deal I go pump gas because the needle was at 1/4 tank this time and to my merry surprise the needle didn't move again!!!!
Drive it back and now they are stumped!! The car is still there right now and they are waiting for a master tech from AUDI USA to come look at it.
So far they have replaced the following parts:
- 2 Clusters (soon to be 3 from what i hear)
- Both Fuel Senders
- Fuel Pump
- ECU
- All wiring from tank to cluster
The ECU reads the correct 285 ohms for a full tank which is what the car has now but they still cannot get the needle to output the info.
Anyone ever run into this? Maybe i'll get lucky and they will label it a lemon and I get a break on a new Audi.
Baffled Canadian,
Dan
01-29-2009, 01:40 PM
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Remember all "new" clusters as part of the recall are actually "remanufactured" -->
I would not be surprised that the two clusters you have were repaired for a different cluster failure (like info display pixels) and you have newly found the fuel gauge issue in each of them.
Time for cluster 3 or 4 or 5
Time for cluster 3 or 4 or 5
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01-30-2009, 05:14 AM
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I had the same problem with the fuel gauge
It turned out after a LONG time in the shop they finally figured out that the previous times that they changed the fuel senders (2-3x) they had crushed some wires underneath/near it that messed up the connection. After replacing that it was all good.
You said they replaced all wiring...so iono. But that was my problem.
You said they replaced all wiring...so iono. But that was my problem.
01-30-2009, 06:39 AM
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Welcome to car diagnostics! It doesn't have to make sense -->
Audi trained techs follow the process given to them. Fuel gauge out, replace sender... oops, replace cluster... oops, replace wiring... oops, replace cluster again... wash and repeat.
It's not surprising that weeks later they are stumped. My cluster was replaced (with a new one) when the battery failed. I had to argue with the service rep to convince them that the battery was dead. Only after I insisted that they test the battery (but sir, the RPM indicator stays at zero for a moment, that's the cluster) did they concur that it was the battery. I guess I'm glad I actually got a new, non reman cluster under warranty.
Anyway, what should happen is to trace the signal onto the cluster itself. Provide a resistor to simulate the sender (VW has diagnostic resistor instruments - this proceedure is even actually documented in the service book). It's not rocket science, it's common sense but techs lack the experience to make calls on what to do next.
It's not surprising that weeks later they are stumped. My cluster was replaced (with a new one) when the battery failed. I had to argue with the service rep to convince them that the battery was dead. Only after I insisted that they test the battery (but sir, the RPM indicator stays at zero for a moment, that's the cluster) did they concur that it was the battery. I guess I'm glad I actually got a new, non reman cluster under warranty.
Anyway, what should happen is to trace the signal onto the cluster itself. Provide a resistor to simulate the sender (VW has diagnostic resistor instruments - this proceedure is even actually documented in the service book). It's not rocket science, it's common sense but techs lack the experience to make calls on what to do next.