Speedo/Dials disassembly

S

Satyr

Member
My A2 is fitted with a FIS speedo which does not have the silver trim around the dials. Plus, the rubber coating has started to peel :eek:

I found a unit for a A2, with silver trim and perfect rubber coating, but it does not have FIS and does not work anymore.

My question: is it possible to disassemble it and take the front plate out (dials silver trim + plastic windows + rubber plate) and put it in place of mine ? :D

Thanks in advance
 
Satyr said:
My A2 is fitted with a FIS speedo which does not have the silver trim around the dials. Plus, the rubber coating has started to peel :eek:

I found a unit for a A2, with silver trim and perfect rubber coating, but it does not have FIS and does not work anymore.

My question: is it possible to disassemble it and take the front plate out (dials silver trim + plastic windows + rubber plate) and put it in place of mine ? :D

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Yes it's possible, AMG (Didier) has done it. Do a search on this forum, or on the French forum (audipassion). Apparently it's relatively straightforward...
 
I think I was not clear enough...

I was thinking of removing the front plate (fascia) as showned in the picture, but as I didn't remove my unit, I don't know, and thus was hoping for someone to have it :D

So, I would like to know if the fascia as indicated by the red arrow (picture is not from me) is removable in any way without destroying the unit ??



http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/496/img2075k2.jpg

Thanks
 
Yes, it is fully dismantleable (is that a word?)

I did it on my first A2 to see what was behind the blanking part of the DIS and from memory, you should be just able to drop the old electronics into the new fascia.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Excellent, that's great news Mike !

Will it be OK if my unit is with FIS and the other one non-FIS ? I just need the plastic transparent window, I suppose the LCD screen is built-in within the electronics, am I correct ?

Thanks in advance !
 
Yes, the LCD screen is soldered directly to the main circuit board and I'm pretty sure that the clear plastic section can be altered to suit.

Go for it!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Mike,

one last thing : could you confirm or not that the dials are removable from the front plate (as this would be a petrol cockpit...) ?

Tx
 
I'm pretty certain that the faceplate comes away from the electonics and the dials, yes.

CHeers,

Mike
 
Speedo

Agree with Mike. The face and part of the "shell" comes apart. Can't remerber if it is clips or screws holding the 2 together. Thing it was plastic clips.

A+ AMG / Didier
 
clips. If you want to remove the tacho dials themselves, you'll need to take the "needles" off, but mark where they were or your speedo will no longer be accurate!

Bret
 
Thank you all for your insights !

I will get the unit and have a look by myself. It should be straight-forward, the only mod needed will be some sharp cutting on the FIS window, as my car has FIS and the unit doesn't, so the top part has the black plastic with symbols.
 
And what is behind the blanking plate, Skip? Not the full-length DIS+Trip LCD, is it?

Also, I was trying to find the same part (plastic cover with Alu trim), but all I can find is the part number for the whole cluster including electronics. I think. If not, why would I get a different part number for diesel and petrol engines?
 
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If you are trying to disassemble the clocks with the intention of removing the black plastic cover over the top part of the DIS display, forget it - there's nothing going to be revealed other than a blank circuit board!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Well, it's all Audi's fault. All Audis except the A2 can get chrome rings for 5 pounds and 30 minutes installation. Is it so wrong to think that the A2 wouldn't be the ONLY Audi that is different?

So, a recommendation to all those who think of buying a (used) A2 - if you want chrome dial rings, don't think you can retrofit them like any other Audi. Buy it with them. Sorry if the majority of the forum reached that conclusion a long time ago, but I've been enjoying my A2 so far and just recently re-caught the Sprucing Up bug.

DIS is the same thing: On an A3/A4 (from A3 8L to the 2008 models), all you have to do, physically, is solder a new (bigger) LCD to the PCB and cut away the blanking plate (and activate DIS and get a new stalk). Or so it seems to be, from what I've seen in the portuguese Audi forum .

The A2 seems to need a new cluster. Just the cluster costs more than all the aforementioned parts + physical installation (not electric, mind you - that's another can of worms). It's nice that almost everything on the A2 is bespoke, but sometimes it becomes expensive or impossible to retrofit. The 1DIN / 2DIN radio saga is a case in point. It also gets under my skin that because the 2000 model year was the only year without CAN, my only radio option is Chorus1 / Concert1. And only A2 models, at that. Must be rarer than hen's teeth, which has be worried if my Chorus malfunctions. Would it have been so hard to adopt CANbus from the beggining?

(The resoldering of DIS panels on A3s and A4s came about because it's a recurring issue that the LCD will start having blank lines and sometimes it's NOT the connecting flat cable that's having the problem - so even the factory ones need replacement, hopefully for less than the price and the hassle of a full cluster)
 
tigas said:
It also gets under my skin that because the 2000 model year was the only year without CAN, my only radio option is Chorus1 / Concert1. And only A2 models, at that. Must be rarer than hen's teeth, which has be worried if my Chorus malfunctions. Would it have been so hard to adopt CANbus from the beggining?
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I don't think that only the MY 2000 A2 doesn't have the CANBUS, it think the 2001 misses it too ??
BTW, your A2 is like mine a late 2000, maybe it's a MY 2001 ?
Mine was registered on 1 oct 2000, and it's a 2001 model. You can check that with your VIN.
 
Well, to start off, sorry for the rant.

Next, I've seen the A2 as having started production in 1999, so it's really two years without CANbus, which makes more sense. I had heard that the CANbus version had started production in May 2001. And the Kufatec CAN emulators are not that expensive.

But getting back to the dials: just looking at all the adaptations listed in the Workshop Manual for changing the instrument cluster got my head spinning. Absolutely not worth it for some bling, and no wonder the dealers ask for arms and legs to do it. How easy is it to find a replacement faceplate, I have no idea.
 
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