Weird Issue

[wolven]

hey guys last night i became the proud owner of a '97 rs4 and all was going well, took it for a boost up the express way absolutley loving the power delivery and ride comfort, tore around a couple of back streets good stuff.

anyway I was almost home down a back street when upon accelerating hard and hitting 60kph my speedo, tacho and fuel gauge cut out and just went to zero as if the car was off, now the strange thing is the car was working fine still speed up and slowed down with no issues.

got home turned the car off left it for a minute and then turned it back on but the gauges still didnt move. went inside and called the previous owner and he said he had never encountered this issue.

went back outside turned the car on and then all the gauges were working took the car round the block and everything was peachy..

anyone encounted this issue before? what do you think the problem might be?

I find it a bit suss that the car is 11 years old with no issues and i have it for half an hour and something goes wrong.

any help would be greatly appreciated

[M I K E]

could just be a loose wire to the back of the cluster, could always pull it out to have a look as it's not overly hard

[wolven]

ok so how does one go about removing the dash cluster?

it was really weird car was fine on the express way, fine tearing down the back street then suddenly no speedo!!!

[chook]

like mike said, undo all connections off back of cluster and re-attach them, also could be a bad connection in the fuse box, pull all the fuses out and push them back in. Spray all of the connections with a contact cleaner if you want to be fussy.

[chook]

remove steering column shroud- about 6 screws underneath, remove cluster surround- 2 screws on top and some wiring harnesses, remove cluster- 4 screws. about 3 or 4 harnesses at back.

[wolven]

All right cool i will get the trusty screw driver out and have a look on the weekend?

hyperthetically if the wires are shot can they be replaced? cost?

[chook]

wires will be fine, 99% it has just developed a bad connection, chances are you will never see it happen again if you reset the connections at back and fuse box.

[M I K E]

yep, simon's got it covered there

[Mouseness]

hey guys last night i became the proud owner of a '97 rs4 and all was going well, took it for a boost up the express way absolutley loving the power delivery and ride comfort, tore around a couple of back streets good stuff.

anyway I was almost home down a back street when upon accelerating hard and hitting 60kph my speedo, tacho and fuel gauge cut out and just went to zero as if the car was off, now the strange thing is the car was working fine still speed up and slowed down with no issues.

got home turned the car off left it for a minute and then turned it back on but the gauges still didnt move. went inside and called the previous owner and he said he had never encountered this issue.

went back outside turned the car on and then all the gauges were working took the car round the block and everything was peachy..

anyone encounted this issue before? what do you think the problem might be?

I find it a bit suss that the car is 11 years old with no issues and i have it for half an hour and something goes wrong.

any help would be greatly appreciated

Did your warning lights come on? Did anything else happen or just the gauges died.

if your warning lights started flashing also, then I'd be saying your getting low voltage problems. Check your battery condition.. you'd be surprised how many issues stem from a bad battery!

[BKC34]

sorry its a bit off topic, but just reading about how to get the steering column shroud off, i was wondering if anyone has installed a turbo timer them selves.... I'm just not sure whether to try it myself or just get an auto leccy to do it...

Cheers, Bradd

[KiwiRS4T]

sorry its a bit off topic, but just reading about how to get the steering column shroud off, i was wondering if anyone has installed a turbo timer them selves.... I'm just not sure whether to try it myself or just get an auto leccy to do it...

Cheers, Bradd

Mine was already in the car but if you are getting a brand new one it should come with wiring instructions and you can have alook and see if it means anything to you and if not a sparky should be able to do it in 30 mins (or phone around a couple and ask for a price).

[M I K E]

TT installation is pretty straight forward, have a look at it before you give it to someone else to do as you might find you can save yourself a few bucks

[BKC34]

Cheers fellas, well it always helps havin an old man who is a sparky too lol, i should probably ask him...