Fun with soldering iron. aka replacing an A6 IC chime

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04-23-2007, 08:53 PM

DaveInSaltLake

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Fun with soldering iron. aka replacing an A6 IC chime

Got a wild hare tonight and decided to tear into my 97 A6 instrument cluster to replace the silent chime/ buzzer/ warning tone.

Ends up this speaker is responsible for the alerts associated with the "lights on", "key left in ignition", "brake light out", and all probably all the other autocheck sounds.

Step 1: remove the instrument cluster. 5 minutes if you've done it before. Plenty of write ups in the FAQ.

Step 2: figure out where the speaker is. the perforated back of the circuit board cover is a dead give away.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/DavesData2/A6%20chime/DSCN4060.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

Step 3. Remove all the shizzle req'd to access the speaker. This took a little time to figure out. Ultimately the speedo, tach, temp gauge, and fuel gauge all had to come off. It only took the removal of 4 nuts and about 8 torx screws to get the gauges and cover off. Hint: it's not really necessary to remove any light bulbs.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/DavesData2/A6%20chime/DSCN4062.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

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Step 4. Scratch your head when you compare the new part to the original part. Initially they don't look like they'll work. I almost threw in the towel at this point and gave up. After another drink I figured 'what the Hell' and decided to "get 'er done". I desoldered the speaker from the circuit board, removed the the old speaker from the plastic housing, broke the new speaker out of it's "non matching" housing, straightened out the wires, popped it all back together, and soldered 'er up.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/DavesData2/A6%20chime/DSCN4063.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

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Step 5: probably unique to my situation: High five my 74 year old father-in-law who provided the tiny little soldering iron and solder vacuum that sucked off the old solder, and who provided much moral support; install repaired IC back in car, turn on key and 'listen to the music'. I've never heard so much noise from a car before in my life (see previous post about being a life long Saab owner)....granted I pulled a couple of brake and tail ligts out and turned on the headlights to test the system.

Step 6: Pull the red bulb out of a seat heater switch while we had all the necessary tools out and the wife was in the bath, i.e. not there to rant about all the crap on the kitchen table.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/DavesData2/A6%20chime/DSCN4072.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

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Step 7: Clean up and have another drink before wife gets out of bath.

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A HUGE thanks to AveMech1 for supplying the spare speaker/ buzzer/ chime for the project. It's always good to make a new friend and have a reason to trade some Audi parts back and forth.

Feel free to ask for any clarifying info...all that celebratory single malt has helped me erase some of the details.