Hello fellow B6 owners,

I went in for a smog check and registration process and failed my smog check test due to my MIL not working... I have searched high and low for a write up and a DIY lamp replacement for the MIL. I cant find anything on this subject. I checked with audi and they said they have to send it out to be fixed and will cost upwards of a $1,000 to have fixed... now I know LED's dont cost that much and i know how to use a soldering iron. but not to familiar with the dash cluster as far as removing it (which i know i can find a write up on that) just dont have a clue as to what type of LED, or bulb is required to fix the lamp. anyone here able to help me out here. Thanks in advance...

 

Bump!!!

 

honestly have never heard of this problem? so the light is suppose to be on but someone rigged it not to light up? So then my question is how did they know it was lit up. Do inspections where u live really go that indepth. HEre in texas they drive the car around check lights check signals and good to go! besides the fact what code is being thrown?

 

Noone rigged it to not light up... the light used to work, and i know this because when you first turn the key on when car does self test for the first few seconds all the lights light up on dash including the MIL.... it has recently gone out i guess as I dont pay much attention to it, but when i went to get a smog check to get new tags for my car it failed due to the fact that the MIL is not functioning. If i did have a problem with the car emissions wise the MIL will not light up as it is... i guess i will say burned out??? I do know there is not a bulb, that its a LED that is integrated onto the board...

Also, in California smog check they dont just check lights and drive car around. They check fuel emissions, fuel system, and may other things that will deem the car to be a gross poluter. along with other checks... if the MIL or CEL are on it will automatically fail unless they reset the fault and it doesnt come back... well I didnt know this but if the MIL or CEL do not work it will also fail the test. As far as the code that is being thrown its giving me a P1676

But at any rate, I did find a solution to my problem and found a used instrument cluster on ebay for $50 and won the auction.

But for learning sakes... an independant mechanic that i usually take my car to said he can send it out to a guy that he knows and he can swap the LED out for $300. I am the type of person that will fix things on my own within reason... and a LED is something that is within my realm of things im not affraid to give a stab at. i just wasnt sure if anyone has had this problem and did a write up already, as i dont want to jump into the job blindly and not know what to expect. Since I do have a new cluster on the way, im not worried about my old one and will dive into it and document it along the way so if this happens to anyone, they can see my write up and see if its worth it for them to do the job or just bend over for the stealership. or try and find a used cluster. I will update this once i get my new one in and repair the old one, that is if im able to repair it

 

yea your right on the cluster being one a circuit board with lights intergrated into it. Very hard stuff to solder. One small mistake and there goes your cluster. Either way u might have to recode the new cluster as the odometer and stuff has to being computer linked. long process from what i hear.