Facelift B5 A4 Gauge problems (Stock clocks) - Temp & Fuel

[GhostWKD]

Hi All,

Had a intermittent problem with my coolant gauge for the past however long - ie when the cars off it'll sit at well below the start of the gauge (starts measuring at 60deg iirc?) when you first give it power ie turn key it'll jump to 63 deg or so then go from there up to like 100 ish for operating temperature... when you turn the car off it resets to the 63deg for a min or so then presumably after its lost its kept charge it goes to 0...

not the biggest issue in the world, its not overheating and have tried changing sender to no avail... not a biggie as know as long as it doesnt go further its not overheating

However, the other day I ran out of fuel in the car, with the needle still above the E... it was about halfway between Empty and the red line before Empty... so looks like its a number of gauges that are playing up

Can anything be done to reset the 0 point on the gauges at all or is it a case of new clocks being the only way to fix it? (If so it'll stay not done as its not worth spending 10% of the value of the car on fixing niggles)

 

[aragorn]

you can use vagcom to do an output test on the dials and ensure they are centred correctly

When you ran out of fuel, how many miles did the DIS say you had left?

 

[GhostWKD]

Keep seeing people mention Vagcom - is it an expensive bit of kit? A4 is just a daily derv so bit hesitant to spend money on it beyond basic bits (will ignore the coilovers for that heh) must admit does sound rather handy mind

Not seen any controls enabling getting to a DTE figure or any sort of live mpg figure etc, always put it down to not having the top level of trim but not sure if thats the case?

Ironically didnt think of it at the time but the picture actually shows my problem with both gauges. The temp gauge is sat where it goes to on a drive out (wont overheat or go past that point though - although is a small hissing coolant leak somewhere behind the bulkhead/firewall - thought was aircon at first but def coolant) - and the fuel gauge is where it was when it had completely run out of fuel

 

[Jason.s]

Full Vagcom is about £250 i think and no i dont have it

MRC would do it im sure but you`d probably have to lube yourself first before paying them lol.

 

[GhostWKD]

Never minds - will live with crappy gauges if its going to cost that much to put right....

Might give MRC a shout, want to get my Skybus on their rolling road anyway before fit injectors etc so maybe see if they'll throw in a quick vagcom gauge check if I get a RR run done

You Bicester way tonight Jayjay? Sam mentioned something about it, fancy hungry horse or somewhere if so? gotta nip there to pick up a parcel anyways

 

[Jason.s]

i`d go elsewhere for a RR run. They charge a fortune lol.

We`re going to see this Leon in Bicester somewhere but gotta go shopping in MK after so doubt we`ll hang around tbh. Becky did say she`d been talking to Sam but i think she told her we`d be a bit too busy to eat out but can meet up to say hai briefly.

 

[GhostWKD]

Bleh never easy or cheap Skybus needs tyres and all the bits fitting & mapping done too... $$$$$$

Do the £10 cables on ebay not work then I take it? Or would they not do a gauge check thing?

Edit: This jobbie? OBD2 II Diagnostic Cable USB for Audi A4 A8 Q7 S2 S3 TT | eBay UK

Ah fair do's well give us a shout when you're there see what we're up to as think gotta go get parcel, then sam wants to waste monies in bicester village then going hungry horse for foods lol

 

[aragorn]

I use a £10 cable, and its fine. If your nearby then i'll happily check it for you.

If you know jason cant he just grab the VAS kit and do it at his work?

It looks like your car has a DIS in the photo, which should display the range remaining in miles... What does the DIS say?

 

[GhostWKD]

Ah might give the £10 cable a go then in that case - always good to have toys afterall

I do know Jay but live a bit of a trek away so not sure would be that easy to get it done at his work unfort...

When you say DIS i'm presuming you mean the large screen? Pretty much just does the usual doors open warning or "OK" then changes to displaying the outside temp and thats about it really I think

 

[Jason.s]

Someone could check it at work but it turns into a ballache finding time and stuff especially as it`d have to be done on a saturday morning.

Alex lives in Banbury so its a bit far from you. Hence me mentioning MRC. I think it has the screen but hasnt got the functions to scroll through info and stuff and its just on one fixed screen with time, mileage and stuff on. Cant remember fully from looking at it when we first picked it up.

 

[aragorn]

Weird, does your wiper stalk not have controls on the end?

Seems as though its some crippled version of the DIS then!

Does the fuel warning come on as normal?

 

[GhostWKD]

Nope no wiper controls on the end of the stalk, just the slider to vary delay on intermittent wiper.

Had always put it down to having the crappy 90bhp version tbh...

Fuel warning did come on but couldnt tell you when it was - although £25 took it up to just under halfway, then the next 65 odd to over full heh...

 

[Arrkon]

On the wiper stalk there is usually 2 buttons on the end, and one on the under side. if they are there, press the button underneath once and the DIS may show the MPG/range/time of drive/etc... use the buttons on the end to scroll through and hold (>2s) the underside one to reset

It is possible someone has replaced it with the wrong one...?

 

[GhostWKD]

Not got any buttons on the wiper stalk - the only thing on it is the adjuster for the intermitent wiper speed.

That said the car has a mileage discrepancy on it from 2005 so could well have had clocks either swapped or meddled with

 

[aragorn]

I suspect that they just standardised the cluster on later cars, but since its a base spec car didnt give you the DIS stalk etc.

I'm sure the B6's and newer cars are similar, with all of them having the physical panel and the base models only having some basic details on it rather than the full array of info.