Jose'sB5

i have a 96 A4QM 12V. which everything works great However my RPM and Speedometer doesnt work some times. what i notice is the Speedometer shakes very fast at 0MPH. the RPM does not move at all. everything else in the cluster works just fine. any idea what it could be?

here's some history of the car.
When i first bought the car for really really cheap, it didnt turn on. i found later that the Crank Position Sensor, Engine Speed Sensor and 3 of the injectors were chewed up by a rat or something like that. Well i twisted the cables together as a momentary fix and voila!!! car turned on and so far it has given me no issues whatsoever.

A year later, two weekends ago, i replaced the intake plenum since my EGR passage was clogged. i decided to go this route so i can clean the entire plenum i purchased to avoid longer than necesary down time on my daly driver.

i took it to my mechanic friend that works at audi and did a check with their VAG-Com system and saw a vaccum leak engine light this was due to the little nipple on the throddle body, i just put a hose and capped it which took care of the rough iddleling. we deleted all the codes and now my RPM and the speedometer don't work, "Some times". everthing else works on the cluster, coolant temp, oil temp, gas level, miles run, lighting, everything. the only thing i notice is the speedomter shakes really fast on 0MPH and RPM is not moving at all. any idea of this issue and what can cause it?

Jose'sB5

Does anyone know how to do a Cluster check to make sure that everything works?

Lago Blue

I've swapped them into a known good car for confirmation.

a4quattrojon

Same thing happened to my 96 a4 quattro, just had bought it and 3 days later bam all of a sudden the speedo kills and twitchs at 0-4 mph, then i shut the car off turn it back on and the tach goes dead, i let it sit for 2 days and come back start it up and it acts like nothing happened, drive the car shut it off, turn it back on still fine. then that night got home shut the car off and the next day went to work and the tach is dead. i couldnt figure a fix out so i bought one off ebay for 40 bucks it had roughly same miles. but there is a place that you can send your cluster in and they will fix it for you, google it i forgot where it is, i think its like 180 bucks. thats the only fix i have heard so far, or buy a new cluster and get vag com and wipe it and enter your miles in.. idk unless anyone else has another fix i would love to hear it as my original cluster is still shot right now

a4quattrojon

You have to take apart the complete cluster n take the speedo and fuel gauge off you pull the needle for the speedo off and under that is a little tiny case with the needle for the speedo under this case there are 3 sprockets very small about 1 cm big each and on the pin fir the speedo there is a little coil with a end on it that lays in a certain spot the end comes off and cause the speedo to go crazy put this back in place and your set to go I will post a DIY as soon as I can

Jose'sB5

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!! i did exactly what you did plus i would recomend resodering the four points where the coil is connected to, just heat them up then let go, just in case theres a cold point in there. other than that, spot on. i thought of doing the how to as well and giving you the credit but i forgot to take pictures when i was doing that. but if anyone can read and know how to solder no need for pictures, just read what you did and done IMO.

thank you

Jose'sB5

almost forgot. we would have to figure out some way to calibrate the speedometer just so we're not speeding when our speedo read out 40MPH...lol
maybe use a GPS to compare and get a ball park figure i guess. or use the Climate control 17c code where it displays the speed in KPH and compare to what our cluster says.

neilcho

I had the same problem with my old Audi A4 combi (estate 1996), I took it to three mechanics and two told me it was the dash cluster needed changing, I then took it to a local mechanic and he said all the clocks, dials are fine, when this happens, it is the computer system giving you a warning that something is wrong with the timing, firing system of the engine, when I hit the dash they would work, apparently that knocks a sensor in the dash to turn this off, as it is illegal to drive without a working speedo, I left my car with this guy and he changed the spark plugs and the leads, one of the leads had a crack in it, I haven't had the problem since, so my advice is to check your spark plugs and leads first and get everything checked by a mechanic who knows about this issue, even Audi told me to replace the cluster, grr, glad I didn't!! Find a good local mechanic who knows Audi and about this issue. Good luck. Neil