Chris's S4

So I'm in sudden need of transpo. I had an accident with my bike on the fwy today. Someone forced me into another car in a turn during a junction change. Anyways, I had sent my cluster into for lcd repair.

So my question, would it be safe for the car, to drive without the cluster? (now that my second vehicle the bike is down due to a cracked crank cover and spuing oil all over the rear tire)

just for a few days, would it matter to the ecu or any other modules?

jjm82

I have exchanged the cluster for a new one before but I never started my car when the cluster was out.

I dont think you will even able to drive without cluster in place...

I remember someone told me I must disconnect the battery when removing cluster gauge but I never did and now sometimes I get RPM niddle not moving smoothly. It lags...

Peter Badore

On a 1999 A6 2.8l 30V pre-immobilizer car I had no problems driving the car without the I/P cluster. Since the US B5 S4 doesn't have an immobilizer I think you should be OK to drive without the cluster. If you have a VAG-COM you should be able to scan off most DTCs related to the I/P. I would like to know the results since I need to sent mine out for pixel repair also.

Chris's S4

I've taken the cluster out many times and never had an issue with any of the gauges showing lag. RPM raps up like it should.

As for the negative wire on the battery, I'm guessing that's for limiting the power surge effect when plugging the cluster back in.

I'm not real worried being it's on 12v and low amperage. Now doing it while the engine is running is a lil more concerning being the alternator is running and producing anywhere from 13.5 to 14.6 volts, plus amperage. So that could be an issue.

Basically it's common sense and being careful of what your doing.

My bro and I sent ours out together to Modulemaster.com

So the news for driving with out a cluster is: DRIVE-ABLE.

The downside, I've got no idea what speed I'm doing. So I just follow the traffic. Also what I've noticed is that I have power shutdown somewhere at the higher rpm's when pulling fairly hard. Now this could be due to my rear hubs having flakes of rust that confuses the abs into thinking the wheel are spinning at different speeds while accelerating hard, so it cuts power. I'm not sure being I have no cluster to see if ESP comes on while power is being cut.

So we'll have to wait till next week when I get my cluster back to find out. Can't wait!!!! I'm putting in a FIS-control, hence the new spiffy lcd. lol

I wanna beable to read my info, not guess.

Hope this helps someone down the line some time.

Chris