My blinker relay, a part one would think would last the life of the car, went bad: erratic blinking, no blinking, or nothing at all. This relay is part of the hazard flasher assembly, P/N 8N0 941 509 A. I replaced mine tonight, and I know that others have had this problem, so here's the how-to.

First, you have to get the radio out. This requires special tools that fit into the two slots at the bottom of the radio. So rather than buy a set of tools I would use (hopefully) once, I went to Best Buy and asked the mobile electronics installation guy to do me a favor and pop out my radio. So he did.


Next, ease out the radio and gently set it down. No need to disconnect it and send it into lock-down mode.

Take out the plastic panel you see on the top of the radio slot in this picture.


It has a hole you can stick your finger in to yank it down.


It will drop down like this:


Note the piece duct tape I found at the back of the radio slot. Was this really designed this way? I wonder what the official Audi P/N is for duct tape...?


Next, pull down on this hinged plastic piece until it unsnaps. (My finger is touching it in this picture.) It takes a bit of force, but it releases all of the dash buttons.


Then you can push the relay inwards through the hole...


... until it drops down (or until you can grab it).


Unplug the defective relay.


Plug your new relay in the wiring harness, feed it back up into the hole, snap the lever back up into place (again, it takes a fair amount of force), insert the plastic plate, slide the radio back in, and you're done! Easy 10 minute job.

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Lots 'o problems; my sig got too long.
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