As far as I can see ArgDub's me7 95040 eeprom tool v1.31 is for reading ECU not immobiliser, are the ECU and immobiliser PIN's not different? Or is the immo PIN also copied and stored in ECU as well?

Also not all immo 3 are the same. Many cheap tools will generate PIN for other cars with immo3 like A6 or Golf but not for petrol A8 from 1999.

It is a tool designed specifically for Immo3 in the instrument cluster. That is the 95040 EEPROM.
Google it and read the Nofarious Motorsport post on "95040Tool - Please test".

keep us posted on this and who did work for you?

thanks :)

Hi. I was hoping to have given an "all fixed" update by now, but things haven't gone smoothly unfortunately....The replacement cluster which was sold as being "tested and in full working order" has been fitted and subsequently found to have the same issue as the original cluster, but worse, with the two lower LCDs being unreadable (faded) all of the time :-( The chips have been swapped so I'm stuck with it unless I pay another £90 to have it swapped back to the original.
I can get a refund for the replacement cluster, but I'm still at least £90 out of pocket for the chip swap. I'm now trying to decide whether it's worth sending the replacement cluster to BBA reman (as I did with the original) for potential repair. Having spoken to them they don't hold out much hope to be able to fix it, but they won't be able to tell until they actually test it. Or, buy yet another cluster, risking the same issue yet again. Or, just give up and live with what is a small, but irritating faded LCD issue.
Urhhh!
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! :-)

Do you have access to VCDS? If you do, and do consider buying another cluster, you can connect up the replacement cluster and then use VCDS to run some tests on the cluster. It does things like needle sweeps, seatbelt warning, all the warning lights and most importantly a LCD test. It basically switches on all the pixels in the LCDs, and if they are all working should give a solid block of colour. It will not however help identify the fading pixels issue.

Having said that, I suppose you could try and simulate the effect of a build up of heat, but you'd either need to pre-heat the car before swapping the clusters, or blast a hairdryer at the back of cluster. At least that way, I suppose you could then return it as not working 100%.

Just wondering if this could be a problem on the car side rather than the cluster? Not sure if this is even possible though. :Confused:

Cannot see it being fault in the rest of car. Also not sure if it will work properly if you put another cluster in and then original back again. I think I have heard before that you will need to pair immobilizer to ECU again.

I know it's possible to do it on a FL D2, as when I bought the replacement one for mine, I had intended to do the swap myself, until I realised I couldn't get the relevant codes from the original cluster. All I did was plug in the replacement, switch the ignition on, and use VCDS. Since I knew it wouldn't start with the replacement cluster, I didn't even try. Once I confirmed that everything seemed fine, I put the original one back in, and it started first time.

Good to know, I am not sure if it would make difference if you tried to start it. It's just something I heard, no experience myself.