[steamship]

Originally Posted by triumph2.5pi

Hi. Yes it's a 2000 facelift. BBA Reman said they had located a fault but it wasn't repairable and when I asked if parts from a donor unit could repair it they said no. That's all I know at the moment, I've just tried calling for more info if they have it but they're closed til Monday, I'll try again then.

Not that expert with a soldering iron, but the fault may have been in the actual electronics or even the PCB, hence not being able to repair it. I know others here have transplanted the displays between clusters without issue.

Originally Posted by triumph2.5pi

I also spoke to an Audi main dealer this week who said they were "reluctant" to reprogram the existing keys and a replacement cluster. They told me that a new cluster would have been available up until 4 months ago but is now obsolete.

When I made enquiries about this, a new cluster was costing over a grand. Not worth it when it's almost half the price of the car.

Originally Posted by triumph2.5pi

Also, if I did want to go ahead and supply them with a replacement used cluster, it would cost around £350 for two new keys and an estimated three hours labour, £360, to replace and reprogramme everything. They said even if they did this, they couldn't guarantee it would work, and if it didn't, I could be left with two unuseable clusters (and still a large bill of course!). I understand if they need cover their backs, but I have no handle on how risky this really is? Their parting advice to me was "Don't do it"!

To put it frankly, they are ripping you off! I just went through my spreadhseet and it cost me £117 to have the cluster replaced and 5 keys coded to the car; two Bentley style keys, two original keys and the plastic one. Time taken to do the entire job was one hour, and that was taking it into the workshop, scanning the old cluster and saving whatever information they need, replace the cluster, rewrite whatever relevant information back and programme all the keys. Also, there was no requirement to have new keys.

As to them being 'reluctant', 'no guarantees' and 'Don't do it', I suspect they just couldn't be bothered. When I contacted the Audi dealership about it, the 'only' requirement was that both clusters had to have the same part number. If not, there was a chance it wouldn't work, but no dire warnings of ending up with two knackered clusters (and an undriveable car). They would just put the old one back in, but I would still have to pay the bill.