Official DIY 2000 Audi S4 LCD Instrument Cluster Pixel Repair

[TWiST]

Curious what would happen if we soldered in a color display like in the newer cars ? Are the colors being send from the controller or are the colors built into that screen itsself ?

And anyplace in the US to get the OEM displays ?

[airbone-x]

New clusters with color screen use different displays. Display is not soldered, but only connected via ZIF connector. All that applies for VDO / Continental cluster instruments, I am not sure about BOSCH ones....

[Audi99]

I soldered New LCD screen, as you can see there is no info at all. What Could It Be?
I noticed if I look from pass side I hardly can see that there is some picture is moving.

Please help. Don't know what to do.

I did exactly like in this post.



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[fdation]

fix my shit for 100 bucks.

[Audi99]

photo of NEW LCD - soldered using chipquick, as you can see its pretty good.
I resolder each contact again - and nothing..



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UPDATE:
Advice of audizine member (use multimeter and measure possible shortcut between all neighboring contacts. (always measure two neigboring contacts). It is very possible that there is really some very thin bridge that is not possible to see by eye) to use multimeter helped me to find shortcut in two places!!! It was under the thin ribbon even with magnified glass you can't see it until you raise ribbon with wood pin. Once I get rid of shortcuts, retest it with multimeter and connect it to the car – it works.

[wolfland1]

how hard is it to remove the instrament cluster to have it shipped out?

[Audi99]

how hard is it to remove the instrament cluster to have it shipped out?

Read 1st page:(its 2 min job)
First off you need to remove your cluster the vehicle. There are plenty of DIY's out there showing you how to do this. I used the one provided on Stratmospere:

http://www.stratmosphere.com/OCT_S4_...auge_Strat.pdf

No need to remove any of the lower panels shown in these instructions just start at figure No.6 remove the black trim piece and unscrew the screws and wiggle out the cluster then undo the 3 rear connectors. Follow the instructions to pull apart the cluster.

[TWiST]

Read 1st page:(its 2 min job)
First off you need to remove your cluster the vehicle. There are plenty of DIY's out there showing you how to do this. I used the one provided on Stratmospere:

http://www.stratmosphere.com/OCT_S4_...auge_Strat.pdf

No need to remove any of the lower panels shown in these instructions just start at figure No.6 remove the black trim piece and unscrew the screws and wiggle out the cluster then undo the 3 rear connectors. Follow the instructions to pull apart the cluster.

Your link doesn't load.

[Audi99]

Your link doesn't load.

This is a copy paste from PAGE1(we right now on page 2 ;-) ) - I'm repeating again re-read page1. Is not to hard to click on page1?

[TWiST]

Haven't looked back at page one for a while sorry. Just clicked on it and it didn't work just wanted to let you know.

[Audi99]

just in case:(works for me) http://www.stratmosphere.com/OCT_S4_...auge_Strat.pdf

[TWiST]

Yah that one works!

[BlackOnBlackA6]

This looks great and thanks for the information. This will work for my wife's Avant. Now I need to find someway to fix the display on my Bose radio with a row of pixels out across the middle of the display.

[bps4]

buy another one for 39 bux from ECS

[nefkntym]

buy another one for 39 bux from ECS

Got a link?

[airbone-x]

Dear folks,
As described above and also as stated by S4_Raleigh in his installation instructions, OEM display has been used. THose who are interested in getting OEM unit, please contact me by PM or look at my Ebay auction listed bellow and read through.

In auction I decided to spend time with some more detailed description and comparison with aftermarket (mostly chinese) units.
For DIY installers, with OEM display you spend few more bucks, but what will you avoid:

- generally soldering difficulties with aftermarket displays as connector pads are made from cheap material that does not want to adhere to the motherboard pads. A lot of solder tin and higher temperature must be used that complicates soldering procedure and may result in damage of the mainboard of your cluster instrument due to the copper parts overheating and they may come off from the pcb! (experienced few times with aftermarket units installations). ALso due to a lot of solder to be used, higher risk of bridging contacts that also may result in display or motherboard damage, in better cases just by display not working.
- connector bonding to the LCD glass at aftermarket displays is poor and after installation you may experience missing lines. When you press on the connector at the place where it is bonded to the glass, they will come back.... If you put metal frame back over the display, it may work ok, but this will result that very soon the lines will start diseappearing again.
- most of aftermarket untis have excessive contrast / glare. LCD crystals not enough dark and backlight translucends display backround. This can be reduced by soldering additional resistors onto the pcb which complicates the work and risks another motherboard damages.
- lot of units do not work at all. Crappy packaging and protection during the shipping and handling procedure from China. China sellers never warranty their products. Even if your unit is replaced, this causes other problems with doing the job twice, removing cluster, removing displays etc etc.


OEM display is much easier to solder, has pretinned contacts and only very small amount of the soldering paste or solder is to be used. All connection pads adhere to the pcb connector very easy just by hitting the contact with soldering iron tip for a short period.

OEM display can be seen in two variants. Older generation has blue color of the connector ribbon from top, another side where contact lines are seen has beige color. However, latest generation (used lately 2006-2009 has both sides in blue color). Display is not produced anymore, and last VDO cluster instruments that it was used in were vehicles VW Transporter T5 and Skoda Octavia. VW T5 production ceased in early 2009, new model has different type display. Second generation of display has been improved to the first generation just due to the missing lines problem, connector is more resistant to the temperature changes and vibrations.

If anyone of you are interested to get one of these OEM units (I have only limited supplies) , please contact me by PM or see my ebay auction where you can see additional pictures and information:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ht_7036wt_1165

[DavidPdF]

Great write up. I went through step by step. I had my doubts while I was soldering the new screen in. Reinstalled the cluster and to my relief, it worked.

[mani]

OK.. I placed an order few minutes back. Hopefully I too can follow the instructions and get my cluster back to life!

[S4_Raleigh]

I can't comment on the aftermarket displays, however I can confirm that the units sold by airborn-X are OEM and very high quality. The soldering was easy without a hot air work station.

[S4_Raleigh]

good jon Audi99 glad it worked for you

[S4_Raleigh]

Great write up. I went through step by step. I had my doubts while I was soldering the new screen in. Reinstalled the cluster and to my relief, it worked.

wow glad to hear it. Thanks for the kudos

[mani]

EDITED to remove

[gregor10]

Dear folks,
As described above and also as stated by S4_Raleigh in his installation instructions, OEM display has been used. THose who are interested in getting OEM unit, please contact me by PM or look at my Ebay auction listed bellow and read through.

In auction I decided to spend time with some more detailed description and comparison with aftermarket (mostly chinese) units.
For DIY installers, with OEM display you spend few more bucks, but what will you avoid:

- generally soldering difficulties with aftermarket displays as connector pads are made from cheap material that does not want to adhere to the motherboard pads. A lot of solder tin and higher temperature must be used that complicates soldering procedure and may result in damage of the mainboard of your cluster instrument due to the copper parts overheating and they may come off from the pcb! (experienced few times with aftermarket units installations). ALso due to a lot of solder to be used, higher risk of bridging contacts that also may result in display or motherboard damage, in better cases just by display not working.
- connector bonding to the LCD glass at aftermarket displays is poor and after installation you may experience missing lines. When you press on the connector at the place where it is bonded to the glass, they will come back.... If you put metal frame back over the display, it may work ok, but this will result that very soon the lines will start diseappearing again.
- most of aftermarket untis have excessive contrast / glare. LCD crystals not enough dark and backlight translucends display backround. This can be reduced by soldering additional resistors onto the pcb which complicates the work and risks another motherboard damages.
- lot of units do not work at all. Crappy packaging and protection during the shipping and handling procedure from China. China sellers never warranty their products. Even if your unit is replaced, this causes other problems with doing the job twice, removing cluster, removing displays etc etc.

I have chinese lcd and it have very excessive contrast that i can't read anything. Where put resistor on pcb ? On which lcd pin ? And what ohm value ?

Thanks for reply.

[HETPE3B]

Is there anyway to power up the instrument cluster without the car? Want to check if there any dead pixels on the screen. Have 98" A4 cluster.

[airbone-x]

I have chinese lcd and it have very excessive contrast that i can't read anything. Where put resistor on pcb ? On which lcd pin ? And what ohm value ?

Thanks for reply.

Too risky and I do not recommend to do it because of possible motherboard damage. Buy display from me and your problem will be solved :)

[gregor10]

Too risky and I do not recommend to do it because of possible motherboard damage. Buy display from me and your problem will be solved :)

Hi
I don't know what happen ? LCD was started working normally - first it flashed few times , next, after 100km ago it started to work perfectly . Contrast is great and works fine.
BTW what is your price for oryginal oem LCD's ?

[bobos]

Too risky and I do not recommend to do it because of possible motherboard damage. Buy display from me and your problem will be solved :)

Im guessing you are unwilling to help because you do this for profit.

Does anyone else know what ohm resistors to use and where to attach them? I have the LCD ready to install and want to dim it down as i am using a chinese made display. Short of someone coming through with the correct resistor values i will be applying window tint over the LCD.

[mpower]

Someone else tried the resistor and it didn't work too well.... Your best bet for dimming the brightness/bleed-through on the China LCD is to use a piece of window tint. This is what ModuleMaster does to offset the brightness. Still will not look nearly as good as OEM, but much much better than without the tint.

[bobos]

I can solder. I have no issues with that. Did it not work well because the resistor solution does not actually work or because of poor soldering skills.

Any idea what % window tint would be best?

[mpower]

I believe it wasn't the soldering skills, but a much more complicated solution, such as identifying the PIN to place the resistor on, etc. The issue with the China panels is the background brightness and bleed-through, so if you start dimming you'll be dimming the entire LCD with letters and characters, not just the background which is the main issue. You achieve the same result with window tint. There is a reason others (repair shops) use window tint and not resistors. I think McGyver was the guy that tried the resistors and gave up on it. Use the lightest window tint, 35%. Anything more will make the letters/characters too dark in comparison to the other LCDs (clock/odo).

[bobos]

Window tint it is. From the pictures on the internet that ive seen it looks like the entire LCD is brighter, lit pixels and background. Ive never seen a china lcd in person lit up so i guess there is less contrast in addition to the added all over brightness.

Oh, and im guessing you meant to say 50% (lightest) as 5% (darkest) is what they call limo tint as it only lets 5% of the light pass through.

[michalborz]

Dear folks,
As described above and also as stated by S4_Raleigh in his installation instructions, OEM display has been used. THose who are interested in getting OEM unit, please contact me by PM or look at my Ebay auction listed bellow and read through.

In auction I decided to spend time with some more detailed description and comparison with aftermarket (mostly chinese) units.
For DIY installers, with OEM display you spend few more bucks, but what will you avoid:

- generally soldering difficulties with aftermarket displays as connector pads are made from cheap material that does not want to adhere to the motherboard pads. A lot of solder tin and higher temperature must be used that complicates soldering procedure and may result in damage of the mainboard of your cluster instrument due to the copper parts overheating and they may come off from the pcb! (experienced few times with aftermarket units installations). ALso due to a lot of solder to be used, higher risk of bridging contacts that also may result in display or motherboard damage, in better cases just by display not working.
- connector bonding to the LCD glass at aftermarket displays is poor and after installation you may experience missing lines. When you press on the connector at the place where it is bonded to the glass, they will come back.... If you put metal frame back over the display, it may work ok, but this will result that very soon the lines will start diseappearing again.
- most of aftermarket untis have excessive contrast / glare. LCD crystals not enough dark and backlight translucends display backround. This can be reduced by soldering additional resistors onto the pcb which complicates the work and risks another motherboard damages.
- lot of units do not work at all. Crappy packaging and protection during the shipping and handling procedure from China. China sellers never warranty their products. Even if your unit is replaced, this causes other problems with doing the job twice, removing cluster, removing displays etc etc.


OEM display is much easier to solder, has pretinned contacts and only very small amount of the soldering paste or solder is to be used. All connection pads adhere to the pcb connector very easy just by hitting the contact with soldering iron tip for a short period.

OEM display can be seen in two variants. Older generation has blue color of the connector ribbon from top, another side where contact lines are seen has beige color. However, latest generation (used lately 2006-2009 has both sides in blue color). Display is not produced anymore, and last VDO cluster instruments that it was used in were vehicles VW Transporter T5 and Skoda Octavia. VW T5 production ceased in early 2009, new model has different type display. Second generation of display has been improved to the first generation just due to the missing lines problem, connector is more resistant to the temperature changes and vibrations.

If anyone of you are interested to get one of these OEM units (I have only limited supplies) , please contact me by PM or see my ebay auction where you can see additional pictures and information:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ht_7036wt_1165

Do you still have the OEM screens. Or any buddy know where to buy one, not the china version from ebay?

[nomad!]

Do you still have the OEM screens. Or any buddy know where to buy one, not the china version from ebay?

x2 please!

[inzunzar]

x2 please!

X 3 !

[S4 00 2.7]

^ I also want to know.

[jfields77]

I saw that there are some recent posts on here, so hoping this really old thread is still alive and kickin'... Anyway, I bought an OEM screen (I think) and am about to attempt this DIY. However, I have what is probably a stupid question. I understand the Chipquik is used to remove the old screen from the cluster, but what type of solder is used to attach the new one? Is the Chipquik suitable for this as well, or am I missing something? Please help! Thanks.

[mylittlemonster]

The link to taking apart the cluster isn't working. Any other place I can look to find out how to get the needles off?

[Audi99]

just use google:

here is the new link
http://www.vaglinks.com/Docs/Audi/B5...auge_Strat.pdf

[Audi99]

Chipquik suitable for this as well

[jfields77]

Chipquik suitable for this as well

Great! That's what I figured, but just wanted to verify before I screw something expensive up. Thanks!