Air Bag Warning and Instrument Cluster Problem

[cmdrew]

Hi,

I was hoping for some help and advice. My Audi S4 B6 had a new instrument cluster fitted by Audi about 8 months ago by the former keeper who has told me that the air bag warning light kept coming on afterwards but he hadn't bothered about it. The car went in to Audi Doncaster as the original dealer who fitted the cluster (Docklands Audi) no longer exist and Doncaster are my local dealer. They have tried to code the air bag system to the cluster as it was thought this was the most likely reason why the light came on after 9 minutes but went out every time the car was restarted.

Unfortunately the coding has failed and they have told me that the car needs a new air bag control module and re-coding again as 'the old module won't talk to the new cluster owing to incompatibilities with the software'. The cost - just £750 or so. I am going to try Audi UK again as they paid for the diagnostics as it was thought to be a coding problem done by Docklands Audi. I'm now left wondering if there is an alternate way of getting these modules to talk to each other as the air bag control module is not faulty just won't talk to the (new) cluster. Any ideas please?

The technician suggested that perhaps one of the 'mileage correction' type people may be able to re-code the module so that it will talk and I have also thought about VCDS but unless I know it will correct the problem just seems like throwing good money after bad...

 

[@udi A3]

Im not far from you, do you want to meet up on sunday and have vcds scan the car? If you are replacing the module, I could cetainly recode the new module, but pointless replacing it if it doesnt need it! pm me your details?

 

[dualmono21]

wow !!!

ive a b6 s4 and had very similar trouble i ended up finding a setting which had lost its original coding and this was screwing everything up
im in barnsley and if you want to bob across ill have a look for you as i have fully registered vcds

 

[cmdrew]

Im not far from you, do you want to meet up on sunday and have vcds scan the car? If you are replacing the module, I could cetainly recode the new module, but pointless replacing it if it doesnt need it! pm me your details?

I have vcds lite and have scanned the car myself. Oddly a few of the control modules report incorrect vin. I have also noticed tonight that the air bag light does not come on immediately even though the 01794 code is logged. It comes after 9 minutes when if I scan again I get an additional 00474 code or another (can't remembr the code at the moment) which goes on about a high resistance. I do wonder if its these codes which are putting the light on...

 

[@udi A3]

Plenty of info on rosstechs website relating to those issues, not sure if the lite cable will fix it though, mines full and registered, where abouts are you based?

If coding doesnt fix it, 3d group in nottingham may be able to repair the clocks.

 

[cmdrew]

The clocks are new - that seems to be when the problem started. I have someone I know with vcds try the adaptation on Ross-techs wiki where 02905 is entered into the controller but this just reported an error and would not adapt. He's going to contact Ross tech to see if they have a suggestion as not sure what to try next

 

[@udi A3]

Looks like corrupt clocks then, back to audi after all, or contact a specialist to eeprom your clocks, or buy another set, known good second hand and have them coded by somebody who knows how to with vcds.

 

[cmdrew]

This is where I started today! The car was in audi today to try and code the srs module to the cluster to get rid of the srs light but thy could not get it to work!

 

[@udi A3]

Wait for Rosstech then, they are usually pretty good