Remedies for Spilled Soda on MMI Control Module?

[ALFRED]

Looking for some remedies and how to...Thanks in advance.

[JoshDub]

Don't drink soda in the car.

[AofC_RR]

Don't drink soda in the car.

Sippy cups or bottles with screw tops are also wise. But seriously...depending on how bad it is...you may need a new one.

[ALFRED]

Don't drink soda in the car.

Thanks for your mature response.

[ALFRED]

Sippy cups or bottles with screw tops are also wise. But seriously...depending on how bad it is...you may need a new one.

I would like to explore the alternatives before purchasing a new one. Thanks for the mature response.

[at1183]

Seems to be a common thing.... why do german cars have such little cup holders?? is it revenge for WWII ?? lol

i worked in the computer field my whole life... spilled fluids (especially soda, coffee and juice) are the enemy... its usually not repairable, and must be replaced..eventually the liquid will corrode the circuit board bad enough, to cause a major short...

[HiTMaNN]

Thanks for your mature response.

He sort of has a point though, not really an immature response if you ask me.

[Audi_Fan]

I spilled soda, coffee, and juice in the past on my MMI. I took it apart several times and cleaned all parts with rubbing alcohol and q-tips. That at least loosened all the buttons. If some of the lights went out, there is no quick fix for that.

[JoshDub]

Thanks for your mature response.

Meh. Thought I'd give you some helpful advice since I am not the one with a screwed control panel. If you don't drink pop in the car then you can't spill pop on the buttons and ruin the circuit board.

You can attempt to clean it. But if it still works now then I'd just start planning to replace it down the road.

[nedrager]

Alfred aren't you the guy racing Hyundia Tiberons and complaining when they pull you when you hit the top speed limiter?

Your getting answers on the same level as your questions.
Take the control out, dissemble it and clean it up.
If you break it you were going to buy a new one anyway.

[tenspeed]

Take the control out, dissemble it and clean it up.
If you break it you were going to buy a new one anyway.

Sounds like what I would recommend too.

Remove, flush with water to remove residue, flush with rubbing alcohol to remove water, dry and test.

[ALFRED]

For all of you out there, I asked a question on these forums for help. I'm not here to judge or be judged. I don't go off telling other people the obvious with a hint of sarcasm or what you should or shouldn't do, that is your own thing. And yes nedrager, that was me. Now back on topic, does someone have some sort of detailed instruction on how to remove and clean the MMI? I tried searching on google and nothing.

[Kevin1]

For all of you out there, I asked a question on these forums for help. I'm not here to judge or be judged. I don't go off telling other people the obvious with a hint of sarcasm or what you should or shouldn't do, that is your own thing. And yes nedrager, that was me. Now back on topic, does someone have some sort of detailed instruction on how to remove and clean the MMI? I tried searching on google and nothing.

A hint of sarcasm?

[jrwebb01]

I realize that the audi cup holders are not great, but you should check out the ones in the 5-Series. We have had a couple of those cars and the cup holders were 2 little plastic arms that swung out about an inch above a console. Pretty sure you would even spill a sippy cup in there.

[chuckee98]

Alfred aren't you the guy racing Hyundia Tiberons and complaining when they pull you when you hit the top speed limiter?

Your getting answers on the same level as your questions.
Take the control out, dissemble it and clean it up.
If you break it you were going to buy a new one anyway.

Sounds like what I would recommend too.

Remove, flush with water to remove residue, flush with rubbing alcohol to remove water, dry and test.

I would do this also, but in the following way:

After removal:

Flush with a baking soda / water solution (to neutralize the acidity of the spilled soda - I do this to clean up residue from leaking batteries in small electronics).

Flush with Distilled water (to rinse off the basic solution used previously + no dissolved organic contaminants as in tap water).

Flush with Isopropyl Alcohol (to displaced the rinse water used previously).

Dry with forced air (air compressor or cans) (to dry off excess water / alcohol).

Toss in a ziplock bag with desiccant packets (salvaged from sneakers, electronics, etc. packaging) to completely dry module. If no desiccant packets available, then use uncooked rice to absorb the remaining moisture. Leave in ziplock bag for at least one week.

Replace module and cross fingers.

[Midwestuser1]

What I decided to do since I just got a new MMI unit when I bought the car used is put a rag over all of the buttons (between the shifter and cup holder) when I have a drink in the car. This way if there is any sort of spill or splatter it lands on the rag which is easily washed in the washer. No it doesn't look pretty while the rag is laying over the buttons but I'll take that over spending 1K to replace it if it were to start having issues from a liquid spill.

[j_sonel]

I have heard of using wd-40 as a means to getting the buttons un-stuck, but haven't tried it nor heard of anyone else actually trying it and reporting results. If your buttons are stuck, and you're willing to try anything to avoid replacement, it might be worth a shot. Apparently the wd-40 won't remove the goo, but it will keep it in more of a liquid state allowing movement. Maybe try it on one button and report back?

[AnthraciteA4]

I would do this also, but in the following way:

After removal:

Flush with a baking soda / water solution (to neutralize the acidity of the spilled soda - I do this to clean up residue from leaking batteries in small electronics).

Flush with Distilled water (to rinse off the basic solution used previously + no dissolved organic contaminants as in tap water).

Flush with Isopropyl Alcohol (to displaced the rinse water used previously).

Dry with forced air (air compressor or cans) (to dry off excess water / alcohol).

Toss in a ziplock bag with desiccant packets (salvaged from sneakers, electronics, etc. packaging) to completely dry module. If no desiccant packets available, then use uncooked rice to absorb the remaining moisture. Leave in ziplock bag for at least one week.

Replace module and cross fingers.

When you get the module out of the car and taken apart, take pictures and post them here. You can use a small SOFT bristle tooth brush and some isopropyl alcohol to scrub off the corrosion and sticky goop assuming you don't have access to an ultrasonic cleaner (the kind they use for jewelry but big enough to fit your MMI board). I would do the scrubbing as step 3 between the distilled water flush and the alcohol flush. I'd also only use canned air because depending on the air compressor you can actually damage some of the smaller components on the board.

[SlickMachine]

Stick it in your freezer over night, in the morning the sticky stuff won't be sticky, it will be frozen and brittle. While it's in this state, exercise each button carefully, hopefully breaking free the soda syrup from the button perimeters.

[nedrager]

Once you get the replacement MMI control in after this one is destroyed, get a new lid for your sippy cup. Sarcastic enough? Maybe you can be the first to post the how-to on cleaning MMI controls after beverage mishaps...

[Maillard965]

Looking for some remedies and how to

[SlickMachine]

I would just like to add my experience to this thread, even though it is an old thread, as a sort of therapy for me in getting over the severe anger I feel right now toward my dizzy wife and mother who are the responsible parties today.

After an exhausting day of shopping, the said two females stopped at Chick fil a to get whatever dizzy females get at that place. It involved hot mustard. The hot mustard ended up upside down on the MMI controls. The volume knob is completely effed, as are the buttons on the right side of the unit. Sticky button presses and essentially a frozen volume knob. Now the kicker: This thread prompted me to warn my wife the day i purchased the car one year ago about not taking any chances spilling ANYTHING on that MMI control panel. Hows that for irony?

[MainlandMig]

1st everyone should know that inorder to do this properly one must remove this unit ..and to do that you have to remove the whole center console 1st
if u are NOT ready to do this then u can
1 take it to dealer and pay out the ears
2 try lightly spraying Distilled water then alcohol to dilute syrup on problematic button and work into unit by gentle repeated pressing then let properly dry...this may take multiple attempts and multiple days..and this will only give you slight improvement ...*not sure how i feel about wd40

if u can do center console removal and get to the unit then i would recommend chuckee98's steps

After removal:

Flush with a baking soda / water solution (to neutralize the acidity of the spilled soda - I do this to clean up residue from leaking batteries in small electronics).

Flush with Distilled water (to rinse off the basic solution used previously + no dissolved organic contaminants as in tap water).

Flush with Isopropyl Alcohol (to displaced the rinse water used previously).

Dry with forced air (air compressor or cans) (to dry off excess water / alcohol).

Toss in a ziplock bag with desiccant packets (salvaged from sneakers, electronics, etc. packaging) to completely dry module. If no desiccant packets available, then use uncooked rice to absorb the remaining moisture. Leave in ziplock bag for at least one week.

Replace module and cross fingers.

opening the unit is easy and basically its 3 pieces

once open i would 1st go to work on rubber piece and get any debris out of crevaces

then i would use chuckee98 steps on buttons then CAREFULLY on circuit board


BTW mine now works great...even my power button started working perfectly

[SPONGE]

Can you replace the knob alone? If yes, How hard is it to replace the knob only?

[Unleaded20T]

Don't drink soda in the car.

x2

[MainlandMig]

Can you replace the knob alone? If yes, How hard is it to replace the knob only?

the volume knob is a straight pull up job

but the MMI Main (large/rotary/center) button i would not try to pull up
if u look at the 3rd pic... u will see the back of the knob has a gold colored pin that is held/riveted into place by a silver saucer star washer and forcing up i believe will damage this and it wont function/rotate properly
if u source a used MMI unit on ebay u should be able to swap it in from the inside by removing those hex screws
but that requires removing the center console

[ocinataS]

Looking for some remedies and how to...Thanks in advance.

I had to fix a sticky "forward" button in my 2012 S5 this weekend after someone spilled soda on the MMI console. Some websites suggest spraying something like window cleaner on the button, but that's just a temporary fix. They stick again when they dry. Just follow the directions here for disassembly:

http://www.audienthusiasts.com/Project_MMILED.html

http://blog.ocarbon.com/2010/06/b8-a...removal-guide/

Once apart, I just cleaned the buttons with q-tips and window cleaner. You can use alcohol if handy. Very easy. Took me less than an hour and they now work like new.

[geekinc]

This stuff worked for me. Don't know what spilled as I bought the car that way but this will clean the contacts, won't harm the plastics and is electronics safe. Just spray and actuate the buttons or knob. It may take a couple of applications but it will take care of the sticky situation.

[AzJazz]

Whew! I finally got our MMI control panel working. Something dripped onto our panel that was causing all the main control buttons to stick, especially the Menu and Back buttons.

I was really concerned that I would have to remove the panel, and wasn't sure if I would be able to clean it effectively if I did.

I used the MG Chemicals Contact Cleaner referenced above, and it got most of the buttons working freely again. But, the Menu / Back buttons were still sticking after multiple applications.

I figured that what I needed was something thin enough to slip around the edges of the buttons, but stiff enough to allow maneuvering and run around to loosen the dried gunk.

The buttons fit really tight (German engineering) - but I found a solution. I used the SIM card ejector for my cell phone, which is very stiff and much smaller than a paper clip. Combining the MG Contact Cleaner with running the SIM card ejector around the button edges did the trick!

My MMI buttons all move freely now, and hopefully I've saved myself a fist-full of hundred dollar bills.

AzJazz

[jang]

Whew! I finally got our MMI control panel working. Something dripped onto our panel that was causing all the main control buttons to stick, especially the Menu and Back buttons.

I was really concerned that I would have to remove the panel, and wasn't sure if I would be able to clean it effectively if I did.

I used the MG Chemicals Contact Cleaner referenced above, and it got most of the buttons working freely again. But, the Menu / Back buttons were still sticking after multiple applications.

I figured that what I needed was something thin enough to slip around the edges of the buttons, but stiff enough to allow maneuvering and run around to loosen the dried gunk.

The buttons fit really tight (German engineering) - but I found a solution. I used the SIM card ejector for my cell phone, which is very stiff and much smaller than a paper clip. Combining the MG Contact Cleaner with running the SIM card ejector around the button edges did the trick!

My MMI buttons all move freely now, and hopefully I've saved myself a fist-full of hundred dollar bills.

AzJazz

Had to replace circuit board while ago, apparently some liquid got inside and corroded it. Some buttons and lights stoped working.
About 35 usd new circuit board + my own labor.

Sent from my iPhone 11 Pro Max using Tapatalk

[mobiquio]

The craziest thing just happened.

I jumped in the car after 2 days to get some food and the MMI Screen went to the navigation screen and the radio was still playing so I didn't think any of it. Then while I was driving I noticed there was some spray on the MMI Control buttons. The spray was from a little bottle of air freshener that I put in the cupholder. Apparently, when the plastic bottle expands from sitting in the car it builds up enough pressure to spritz out some spray. So now I am back home and grab some paper towels and wipe up the spray off the buttons and that's when I find out none of my buttons work or show the active button indicator light. None of the buttons on the MMI Controller work now. The on/off button on the dash next to the screen also does nothing.

Wow, this is the most sensitive control board I have ever seen. Seems like just a little bit of liquid will freeze up the system.

So far I dried the spray as much as I could and also used an air compressor to blow out any liquids around the buttons. Sprayed some Alcohol around the buttons and blew it with the air compressor again. Now I am just gonna wait and see if after the liquids evaporate it starts working again.

Just in case. Does anyone know where I can find the part number for the Control Board for this 2011 A6.


Thanks!