Official DIY 2000 Audi S4 LCD Instrument Cluster Pixel Repair

[S4_Raleigh]

DIY 2000 Audi S4 LCD Instrument Cluster Repair
No Special Tools Needed
Prepared By: Laser Red In Raleigh For AudiWorld

Tools:
Adjustable Temperature Soldering Iron
No. 10 Torx Driver
ChipQuik Desoldering kit
Jewelers Lupe
3M Blue Tape
Small Flat Head Screw Driver



Well for the last 7 years I have had to live with the inherent failure (loss of pixels) with the LED back lit LCD display in my 2000 S4 instrument cluster. This DIY will try and provide some general guidelines, tips and suggestions to install a new LCD screen. Be advised I will not be held responsible for any damage you may cause to your cluster by following this guideline. Perform at your own risk.

I purchased my new display off EBay from a seller in the Netherlands (airborn-x). I paid $115.00 for mine but it turned out to be a genuine VDO display and not a cheap replacement from china. The color matched the original perfectly.

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. You don't need anything special for the clip shims. I just broke up an old CD jewel case and made some shims.

Once you get it apart I simply followed the above procedure to remove the pointers and dials. One hint is use some blue 3m tape on the dials when prying off the pointers so you don't scratch it up. Also I took a picture of the dials to have a reference for the pointer positions. You don't want to remove the temp and volt dials or pointers. I will say the hardest part of this entire repair was getting the pointers back to the correct positions. I strongly suggest once you are done don't snap the cluster housing and the front cover together. First install the unit less the front cover and start the car. I had to do this about 4 times each time removing and reinstalling the speed and tach pointers until I could get them back to zero.

Ok now that you have the cluster cover and dials removed you need to remove the white plastic dial holders. As directed above you didn't remove the temp and voltage dials or pointers but in order to remove the large white plastic dial holders you will need to cut the big dial holders free of the smaller holders. See below:






Now with the dial holders nipped you can remove them by flipping over the board and bending the metal clips holding the milage and clock LCD's and pushing the white plastic clips out. Be sure you are wearing an anti-static wrist band (Radio Shack $5.00) or have the board placed on an anti static pad as with any electronic IC board static can cause damage to the components on the board or the chip in the display.




With the dial holders removed the last thing you need to remove is the metal LCD screen holder. Again just flip over the board and bend the metal tabs and it will pop out.




At this point removed the orange rear reflector and set it aside so I wouldn't damage it. Now its time to remove the old display.



You need to simply take your soldering iron and melt some ChipQuik SMD Rework solder across all the pins in the ribbon cable. Make one elongated pool of solder across all the pins

http://www.chipquik.com/smd1.htm





This rework solder has a very low melting temperature and will stay liquid much longer than regular solder and keep the original solder liquid as well. The old display will simply come right off. I kept my Weller WES51 at around 650 degrees F seemed to work fine.



Now you need to remove any ChipQuik from the pads. Just follow the directions with that came with the kit. Its important to clean it well. Then you need to use a jewelers lupe or large magnifying glass and tin each pad with a bit of solder. Some paste flux really works well here to insure you don't bridge any pads. Once all the pads are tinned line up the new displays cable over the tinned pads. When you can't see any pads you know you are lined up perfectly. I used some 3M blue tape to hold it in place. The simply hit each contact on the cable with your soldering iron. Don't hold it to long the contacts can detach from the ribbon if heated for too long. Once all the contacts are soldered to the pads you are good to go.






Now simply reverse the steps above and put it all back together. Remember don't snap the front protective cover on the display until you connect the display to the car to make sure your pointers are lines up. Here you go looks like new.




Thanks to everyone for the help and pointers. Especially MacGyver who really gave me some great advice. Hope this helps!

[Klum00]

great write up. hopefully this will inspire many more of us who's displays are un-readable.

[peterc23]

wow nice writeup!

[highPSI-S4]

in the near future for me.

[gointoscott]

Looks easy enough. but man with no experience I'd be nervous of holding sodder on too long and damaging board EEEK

But heck you could save some money.

IDK I think I'd rather pay a little more and have someone who knows what they are doing replace the board.

[2k1audiS4]

I will have to see how bad mine really is when it gets warm.

[VR4-S4]

Is there a color display that we can solder in?

[SlvrB6Turbo]

Wow, great contribution man.

[CONTROL ONE]

awesome, there's no way in hell I would attempt that myself though.

well worth the 200 bux I paid to have mine done over at www.pixelfix.info

cheers to going through with it an posting the info though.

[GramCracker]

Awesome write up!

Mods, you should move this to the DIY section!

[DxC]

yea i have to step in and say that while the writeup is awesome ... actually soldering .5mm x .5mm connections is not something the avg joe can do.

i offer the repair service, as does macguyver, as does pixelfix ...

or find someone with legit soldering skills ... its not worth messing up your screen and/or cluster

[infinkc]

i have a 00 cluster at home if anyone want to buy it for core, not sure of the mileage on it.

I vote Sticky for this thread!

[S4_Raleigh]

I am certainly no soldering expert but I have some experience with the older style thru board components. I have zero experience with surface mounted devices. With that said, I'm certainly not trying to cut in on yours or anyone else’s business. I posted this to help do it yourselfers not to force people to do it. I would be remiss if I didn't say the easiest part of the job was the rework soldering. I had a much tougher time pulling the enclosure apart and getting the pointers lined up to zero.

I did a bit of poking around on the net; tons of little instructional videos to help with soldering techniques. MacGyver also gave me some great information. I had the correct tools and took my time and was very careful. Also I didn’t want to invest the money in a hot air rework station, but when I found Chipquick it was a no brainer for me, since there was no risk of damaging a pad or other components.

Finally, the biggest thing was I get great enjoyment doing these types of projects and love the feeling of accomplishment I receive. If you are not like me and have any apprehension at all then by all means I recommend you send the cluster out for repair, assuming whom ever you send it to guarantees the work. I can assure you this...no one is going take as much time to do it right than you will.

[cavlovic]

I am certainly no soldering expert but I have some experience with the older style thru board components. I have zero experience with surface mounted devices. With that said, I'm certainly not trying to cut in on yours or anyone else’s business. I posted this to help do it yourselfers not to force people to do it. I would be remiss if I didn't say the easiest part of the job was the rework soldering. I had a much tougher time pulling the enclosure apart and getting the pointers lined up to zero.

I did a bit of poking around on the net; tons of little instructional videos to help with soldering techniques. MacGyver also gave me some great information. I had the correct tools and took my time and was very careful. Also I didn’t want to invest the money in a hot air rework station, but when I found Chipquick it was a no brainer for me, since there was no risk of damaging a pad or other components.

Finally, the biggest thing was I get great enjoyment doing these types of projects and love the feeling of accomplishment I receive. If you are not like me and have any apprehension at all then by all means I recommend you send the cluster out for repair, assuming whom ever you send it to guarantees the work.

Can you post the link to the display you bought? I'm from Europe, so EU sellers have advantage over US, because of shipping costs :)

[gaspeedracer]

Wow great post. This is tempting me to start work this weekend!!!

[S4_Raleigh]

seller is airbone-x original item No. of auction was eBay item No. 350152089713. Not sure if he has anymore but a guy over at AW said he contacted him directly and he has one on the way.

[Go_S4]

Im sure if i tried this I would just get mad and break it...

[amd is the best]

Very awesome write up! I see you mention specifically 2000 but I would assume that this is the same process for all B5's?

Nick

[S4_Raleigh]

Yes all the B5's are the same

[J-tec]

read the whole thing, very nice man, good and detailed

[tike0rz]

Lets figure out how to install a color display like the later Audis :)

[willowtreexx]

awesome, there's no way in hell I would attempt that myself though.

well worth the 200 bux I paid to have mine done over at www.pixelfix.info

cheers to going through with it an posting the info though.

has anyone else used this company? Im thinking of going to give them a try but thought id ask first.

awesome write up, im just scared ill ruin it with a dumb solding mistake haha

[Militant-Grunt]

Where did you get the new lcd from and how much did you pay for the part?

nvm, just saw the ebay link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...0%3D%26fvi%3D1

Wish there was a retailer for this.

[mholme]

Where did you get the new lcd from and how much did you pay for the part?

He got it from a seller in the Netherlands.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...9713&viewitem=

[airbone-x]

has anyone else used this company? Im thinking of going to give them a try but thought id ask first.

awesome write up, im just scared ill ruin it with a dumb solding mistake haha

I would highly recommend this company for pixel repair. Those folks do great job with repairs.
BTW, nice write up.

[J2 S4]

Great Write-up!! Awesome post. I hope I can do this correctly.

[macgyver681]

Figured I'd chime in too.

Nice job with the write up. Glad you did it so I don't have too. I probably would never get around to it.

Just so people know. A few clarifications. And I only says this because of my experience of doing 30+ of these screens.

Not all B5s are the same, there are 15 different clusters made over the years that had these screens. The A4, S4, A6, Passat and some Euro versions of other cars had these.

The installation is similar but how the screens look on different clusters varies. For instance the Chinese screens look fine on the clusters with the analog clock whereas the Portugese look better on the clusters with the digital clock. Only did 1 ebay bought screen and it looked like the Portugese ones.

The screens are hard to find. The only reliable supplier I have found is in Portugal, the Chinese aren't that reliable, hard to deal with unless you speak Chinese. Never been able to get a hold of the guy from ebay mentioned here. If anyone can put me in contact with him that would be nice. Maybe I will buy some from him if they are good quality.

I won't threadjack, everyone can find my thread about the repair service I offer if they want its in the A4 forum.

Be careful if you plan on DIYing this, you can easily break something that can't be fixed. Only do it if you have advanced soldering skills and the right tools!

[macgyver681]

Oh yeah.

I would recommend against removing the clock and odometer lcds. Just nip the little white plastic peice above them too when you are cutting apart the other ones.

The reason is that the electrical connection of those is totally dependant on the pressure of the metal cage around them and if you don't clean the pads and align them just right and bend the cage back just like it was you will end up with dimming/missing pixels on your clock and odometer too. They aren't in the way so its not worth removing them.

Also the needles are really easy to get off/put back on.

To remove them grab them in the center with your thumb & pointer finger and twist counter-clockwise(towards zero) while pulling up. It takes a little force but they will creak a bit and come right off.

If you try to "pry" them off with anything, especially a screwdriver you will risk bending the thin metal shaft that they are attached too or can break the dials internals.

Putting them back on is the same. Slide them onto the thin metal shaft just a little and spin counterclockwise to set to where they were when you started. A picture does help. They just press them down all the way. Don't press them too hard or they can get to the point the pointer is rubbing on the gauge face and they can get stuck later.

The toughest is the clusters on older A4s with an analog clock. Those little dials can be a pain to get off. I have broken 1 clock getting those off and had to replace it with a spare. No good way to do it, just pull them off and be careful.

[Scotty@Advanced]

Module Maters also offers a screen replacement service. www.modulemasters.com

[soundjamz]

yea i have to step in and say that while the writeup is awesome ... actually soldering .5mm x .5mm connections is not something the avg joe can do.

i offer the repair service, as does macguyver, as does pixelfix ...

or find someone with legit soldering skills ... its not worth messing up your screen and/or cluster

Just look for an old fashioned pager repair company, that is what I did years ago, traces on pagers are smaller than this.

I'll try to repair mine tomorrow, I aint scarrrrrred, and I'll let you know.

Rick

[GunSupplier]

Module Maters also offers a screen replacement service. www.modulemasters.com

I think you meant to link: http://www.modulemaster.com/en/index.php

The site you linked is for Microsoft .NET developers, haha.

[S4_Raleigh]

Just look for an old fashioned pager repair company, that is what I did years ago, traces on pagers are smaller than this.

I'll try to repair mine tomorrow, I aint scarrrrrred, and I'll let you know.

Rick

Go for it. Its very easy as long as you have some chipquik or a hot air work station.

[one audi tech]

Hey do you by chance know the name of the company where you bought the LCD? I can't find it on Ebay!

Thanks!

[KTM-Mike]

Do u have to reprogram the mileage and so on if u unhook
the electrical wires to the instrument cluster?

Or is this only needed when replacing the cluster for a new one (or a used one)??

/Mike

[pearlwhite]

Do u have to reprogram the mileage and so on if u unhook
the electrical wires to the instrument cluster?

No.

[KTM-Mike]

Thanks pearlwhite, that's good to know!

[NOTORIOUS VR]

Awesome write up! I vote that this be moved into the DIY section!

[airbone-x]

Hey do you by chance know the name of the company where you bought the LCD? I can't find it on Ebay!

Thanks!

Guys,
you can still get OEM display from my ebay shop.
Direct link here:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...e=STRK:MESE:IT

Or drop me a line to [email protected]

Be aware of chinese displays, these have very bright contrast and it must be reduced by soldering additional resistors onto the connector and pcb. Also connector is more difficult to solder. Lifetime unknown, but quality is rather much worse....
On request I also can recommend my contractor in Canada for complete installation (OEM display).

Cheers
Martin

[TheDarkness]

damn I may have to drive up there from Charlotte when mine poops out on me, it's still 75%+ good.

[MavSBM]

are you on the zine? http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/pts/1807570511.html