I just got a 96 audi a4 2.8 5 speed fwd. I went to drive it today and the speedo and rpm gauge wasn't working. The speedo needle just set there and bounced till I shut it off. I re-started it and everything was fine, turned it off, re-started again and it came back. Coolant, oil, volt, and fuel all work fine. Do I need to replace the cluster or could the battery be causing this?

 

ok so this morning my dad drove the car and the speedo worked. I then switched him cars and re-started it and the speedo didn't work. It was a message that flashed [1n 2] under the odometer. any ideas?

 

IN2 is an inspection warming lamp, its purely driven by time since the last time it was reset. Its usually set at 36 months. Theres an IN1 indicator which is an annual inspection, and OIL indicator which is set to some specific mileage like 7500 Km and is a reminder to change your oil. They all show up under the odometer and the two IN warnings are to get you to come to the AUDI dealership to give them money to find any thing they can to fix, and reset the indicator. I has nothing to do with your speedometer issue. You could have a loose connection on the cluster, or your speed sensor in the transmission may be on its way out. You need to have the car scanned by someone with VAGCOM software to see if there are any codes set in the instrument cluster.