I am looking at a 2003 A6 wagon. I like the car enough, but the red instrument lights drive me absolutely crazy! I noticed that the instrument cluster seems to be almost identical to the Passat - I was wondering if they were interchangeable? I don't know if it is the light or LED that is a different color or simply the overlay, but I was imagining it might not be that big a difficulty to fix at least the primary instruments.

 

Then buy the Passat.
No, it will not work.

 

Red is the best backlight color for night driving. It has the least impact on your vision. And it matches my Bel V965 leds.

 

i personally agree with cloudship.....

its actually the thing i hate most on my A6.... thats cuz i have to look at it all the time.

 

Try driving with your eyes closed like most of the Boston drivers. [X(]

My van and A6 were hit within two days.-- Just a small amount of damage, but a pain in the a$$ to get fixed![:@]

 

Exactly! How am I supposed to get any shut eye with all that red light?

I know that Red is supposedly good, I just have a problem with it. Don't know why, but it gives me a headache. So I was thinking if there was an way to change it. I like the Audi engines better than teh VW engines.

 

The only problem I would see you having is how integrated the red lighting is. It's not like it is just a background color, many things, like the LCD displays, show text in that color.

Swapping the color LED's in GTO's was all the rage a little while ago, but it did require you to send it out and have it professionally done. Given that (and knowing how low tech the GTO cluster is) I would imagine your only option would be to hack up everything to get to the bulbs and swap them.

While the straight cluster swap may sound like a good idea, I do believe that the clusters interface with the ECU and are coded to each other. So, a straight swap from a VW probably wouldn't work without getting the ECU re-programmed to match.

 

On the bridge ofNavy ships all lights at night are red so your night vision is not effected. I think all the red lights in the A6 cabin are cool.

 

Ask the Toyota Camry driver. The other day my colleague from work sat in my car at night when I have to drop him nearby and he was all impressed with the red display and lights. He said, I feel like I am sitting in a cockpit.

NH_USA, no... he wasn't sitting on my lap.

 

lol