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Audi A6 (C5) DIS LCD Replacement

Images of Broken Pixels in original DIS

This document is a guide, sharing experience in changing the DIS LCD Screen in a 2000 Allroad C5, & will be common on many other VAG models.

This poor display can be found on many models of Audi, VW Which is caused by damaged pixels in the DIS (Driver Information System) LCD Screen. There are threads showing how to add pressure to the screen connections to improve in some cases, but the only way to repair one in such poor condition, as below, is to replace it completely.

Images Below show before and after results:

Images after new LCD fitted

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Items and tools needed:

All items I didn’t have were purchased on a well know auction site, [basically copy the below description into the auction search and if they are still available they will show up!! ☺]

Total cost of all items required below: £67

• LCD Screen: LCD CLUSTER DISPLAY - AUDI A3 A4 A6 S3 S4 S6 VW – VDO. [$75 from Denmark]

• 12ml rosin flux pen

• 2.5mm de-soldering wick braid

• Tin Lead solder wire reel 63/37 2% flux core 0.4mm

• 15w Soldering iron with fine point

Items I Used:

• Star screwdriver,

• Torx screwdriver,

• Flat screwdriver,

• Small pliers/cutters,

• Magnifier,

• LCD Screen,

• 15w soldering iron,

• Flux, solder,

• Solder braid.

It’s also useful to have a meter to check continuity of joints and ensure no solder overlap, & some masking tape to hold the LCD in place.

This guide was created to give fellow DIY Audi/VW enthusiasts a guide on to how to change a DIS LCD. As mentioned this guide was carried out on a year 2000 Audi Allroad C5, UK Model, This guide will be identical in all Audi A6 C5’s and I assume a similar process in many other VAG

models.

Please Note: It takes patience and in some cases a level of precision to ensure a fully operating

screen is the end result. This document is purely a friendly guide and if you are confident on your hand skills, and tools you own, by all means use this document but as a guide only, I accept no responsibility for any damage or un-useable Instrument clusters as a result!! ☺

Purpose of this document:

Ok once you have all the tools you are ready to start the whole process, I Hope I don’t miss anything!!! ☺

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Remove Instrument Cluster

• Pull panel, shown in photo below, upwards.

• Remove the 2 star screws shown below, NOTE: these are very tight!!, use a correctly fitting screwdriver and apply plenty pressure against the screw.

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• Cover the Top of the steering wheel housing with a rag to protect it from scratches, You will scratch it if you do not

cover this area!!

• Carefully pull the cluster towards you using the 2 reset/adjust buttons on the lower half of the cluster, this can take a bit of manoeuvring, other times it just slides out

• With the cluster out as far as the steering wheel, look behind the LH side and you can see the 1st of 3 connectors to remove To remove them press the catch shown in the 1st two photos below and then lift, and rotate the purple locator 180 deg and pull the connector from the cluster, (if the locator is rotated fully the connector will slide free easily. Pulling the cluster out slightly more then follow steps again to remove the other 2 connectors.

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• With the cluster removed from the car, take it to a clean workspace (dining room table for me!!) & lock all children & pets out of sight to ensure no loss or damage to parts is anyone's fault other than you own!!

• To open the cluster remove the 2 Torx screws, location shown below.

Open Instrument Cluster

• Next Un-clip the 6 clips around the edges of the cluster, see photo below. A tip would be start with the 4 found on the one side, working on 2 at a time, then turn over and unclip the last 2, the cover should separate, with ease.

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• This is where you have 2 options. Basically the task is, you need to remove the white plastic housing under the rev counter to get to the LCD soldered area under it. To remove the white plastic mount we need to remove the needles, backing inserts, & then the white plastic mounting.

Unfortunately this white plastic is all in one piece under all the dials, so one option is all instrument dials have to come off �.

The other method (option 2) is to remove the rev counter/ oil temp needles and lift up the water temp backing insert to cut the white plastic mount where it joins the rev counter and water temp. This saves removing all the other needles. This is up to you, both are possible. In my strip down I removed all the needles and the full white plastic area.

Which ever method you choose you have to remove at least 2 needles and to do this is described below. Before removing needles take photos of the needle positions and note the height from the surface they sit to ensure putting them back together in a similar manor.

As I removed all the needles, I marked up the needle’s with there positions using masking tape so if they were spilled on the floor I had half a chance of putting them back in the correct positions!

To remove a needle, use a protective material to protect the backing insert and lever the needle upwards using a flat screwdriver (or less sharp object!!). Remove the needles very carefully, They are held tight in place. Do not hold or lever near the actual needle pointer, only the needle centre mount. Ensure to lever off a suitable strong point Remove all the needles, required.

Instrument clusters can vary having digital LCD clocks and analogue clocks in the rev counter, so there may be slight differences from my photos.

Removing Instrument Needles

Option 2: Cut through area

shown

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• Next remove the backing inserts. See photos below showing steps to remove the rev counter insert. Rotate the insert to match up the cut-outs then lift off. Same procedure for the Speedo if you have removed all the needles, oil and volt inserts do not need to be removed. Store safely as they can be scratched easily.

• Now we can remove the PCB board from the black outer housing, once removed I found it useful to sit it back in this housing during some procedures to protect the PCB rather than lying it on a flat surface.

To remove, release the 2 clips shown below, one at each end and lift out the casing

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• The metal housing holding the LCD can now be removed. To do this bend the 4 pins shown below, located on the rear of the Cluster, bend them so they are in line with the slotted areas in the PCB.

• Lift off the metal housing carefully,

[My photos show removing this before removing the needles and backing inserts. It is easier to remove this once the inserts are removed to save damage and scratching them. I had been in this far a few times previously and in doing so I had cut outs made on the water temp-fuel gauge inserts to save removing the needles and dash inserts.]

• This is a good time to check you have the correct size LCD before going much further!! ☺

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• With all needles off and backing display inserts removed, we can remove the white plastic part.My Dash cluster has LCD screens in the Rev counter and Speedo, the white plastic also is mounted under these �. At this stage I thought I had removed enough and as a short cut I snipped the 2 areas shown below to prevent having to remove the small LCD Screens. This caused no lasting issues and all went back together with no problems.

• Now the compete white plastic part is removed by unclipping the clips on the rear, some shown opposite, and lifting it off the PCB.

Removing the white housing

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• Again check the new LCD matches the connections in the PCB, overlay it to check it has the correct amount of pins (51 pins from memory), the next stage is breaking the old one off, now reaching the point of no return!!

• Carefully lift out the LCD to be removed and bend it back and forth (very carefully) near the soldered pins. We want to break the connectors just at the PCB, DO NOT PULL IT. You don’t want to lift the connections off the PCB as this will cause damage, the idea is to break the old LCD and then unsolder all the connections, one at a time. You could also cut the ribbon on the old LCD to take more care. I found bending it back and forth gently a few times, it snapped off cleanly right at the PCB, the connections are very small so very little pressure is needed.

• The photo below shows the LCD connections after bending and breaking the LCD screen off. It shows the small connections left on the PCB

Removing The LCD

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• Some more images of what to expect

• Removing the old LCD ribbon connectors using 15W soldering iron. I found the best method was to heat for 2-3 seconds then with soldering iron still in contact lift the ribbon connector with a small screwdriver. Lift the removed contact out of the cluster and onto the working surface (dining room table) to ensure you remove it from the cluster.

Preparing the PCB Connections

• This image shows, working from top to bottom, 6 left still to remove. Make sure you completely remove the old connections and dispose of them off the PCB so none are left trapped. Any trapped connections in the Cluster could potentially cause a short if not removed. Once finished this process I inspected the whole area for loose connectors (I lost a few, removing them with the small screwdriver as they are so small. Turn it upside down and give a gentle shake or blow out any loose hidden ones.

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• Use the solder braid to clean any solder off the solder pads.Once the solder pads are cleaned and ready for new solder, use the Flux pen to apply flux to the area to be soldered ready to tin the solder pads with new solder.

• Apply 15W soldering iron to PCB connection and then add solder to tin all connections. This is where the 0.4mm Diameter solder was useful to add a little solder carefully but precisely. Work on them one at a time ensuring no bridging & by applying Flux frequently.

• If too much solder is applied the solder braid can be used to remove any excess or mistakes!!

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• Once all the 51 pins are tinned/soldered, we need to prepare the new LCD. Start by making sure you have the front facing outwards!!, It is not obvious to start with, I marked it with masking tape, you can tell the front if you look at the small connections, in the top photo (1) this shows front facing up and you can see the plastic strip on top of the connectors rather than underneath.

The lower photo (2) shows the back of the LCD for reference.

Preparing the New LCD

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• The photo below shows an area I had to cut out of the plastic to fit correctly around some of the components in the PCB.

• Once ready to fit the LCD, remember to remove the protective strips fitted on BOTHsides of the LCD Glass, the photo opposite is showing this.

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• Align the new LCD connections up to the PCB, make sure they match exactly, I tucked the ribbon under the white plastic housing then fitted the LCD into its housing, use tape to hold the connectors in the correct orientation, double check before starting to solder, The idea now is to apply the 15W soldering iron to melt the solder below the LCD connectors and joint them, but without melting the plastic of the LCD!!,

• Take your time, I found the best method was to hold the soldering iron against the LH side of the length of the contact to be soldered, wait 2 seconds and move to the right then lift, this created a complete length of solder along the joint, (not all of them worked this well!!)

• Use solder braid (see top photo) if too much solder was applied and keep using the flux pen to keep the solder flowing from PCB to LCD connections smoothly, [This was one of my error’s I started fine then started having some flow issues, but refluxing improved the performance dramatically, so use the flux on small areas, 5-10 pins, then solder them, and re flux and so on, I tried to solder the whole lot on one application of flux but by about 1/3 of the way down the solder wouldn’t flow as well, so eventually found re-fluxing fixed the problem.

Fitting and Soldering the New LCD

• My pictures run out here with a mixture of the pressure of the job and not being able to hold a camera, soldering iron, and keep a steady hand. the other (real) reason is some of my soldering may not be as pretty as it was compared to the original and so I don’t want to embarrass myself!!!

• Once all connections soldered I tried a continuity test using a meter between each neighbouring contacts to ensure no bridging was created between the contacts. Then I was desperate to try it, so re-fit the metal housing to hold the LCD securely and bend the 4 pins over on the rear, as opposite photos show.

• At this stage I actually tried it back in the car, refitting the 3 multi-plug connections and turning on the ignition. It all lit up will all pixels intact proving that, at least so far, it was a success!!

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• So if its all working OK, start putting it back together in theopposite steps it came apart. It you are happy all the solderinglooks OK and the new LCD is sitting firmly in its location you can start by clipping the white plastic dial surround back in place.

• Then put the instrument backing inserts back in there correct locations noting all the locating pins to hold them in the rightorientation, and position.

• Before putting on any needles rotate all the small steel spindles on each gauge anticlockwise until you feel a little resistance (there is an actual stop so don’t force it). Once in this position I pressed the needle on very gently but holding it in roughly a 12o’clock position, then once pressed on 1mm, or so, I could rotate the needle anticlockwise against the spindle stop until the needle was in the correct position against the background scale. Then push until the same gap as before is created. See photo 1 & 2 below. Use your photos or notes to align the needles back to thepositions they were in before strip down.

• To give you a rough idea of different needle parking positions: starting from left to right my oil temp was well below the start of the scale, the rev counter was bang on 1st marker, water temp was just under 1st marker, fuel was just under, the Speedo was right on 1st marker, and volt meter was quit a bit under the 1st marker.

• It doesn’t sound much but if you’ve came this far aesthetics is everything, in good old VAG style you want the water temp to sit bang on 90 when at running temp anything off this mark will stand out.

• To be honest I had to power mine up again and in doing so some of the needles parking position changed half a needle width or so, so I had a few goes at some to make it right, depends on how fussy you are!!

Re-building the Instrument Cluster

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• Re fit into the surround, it all just clips together and finishes with the 2 Torx screws, then back into the car remembering to place the rag over the steering column cover to protect it and re-insert it into the car. All back together and sit proud of bringing your DIS back to a useful display, rather than it previous ugly existence!! ☺

The new LCD screen fitted is dual colour as per the original.

Finishing up

The LCD replacement I used is very slightly brighter than the Audi original. See the photos of the new DIS dimmed (1 on left) & to full brightness (2), but as an aftermarket item it is excellent & really difficult to see any difference from the original, I would recommend this LCD.

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I won’t put any more pictures I think we have seen enough!! You get the drift.

With DIS Successfully changed…… on to the next problem to fix!! (There is always something).

Many thanks to Lee from VWAF for being the 1st to post his successful DIS change, I followed on with his advice and we have created this document for some to browse and others to use hopefully as a guide to changing there own DIS LCD.

Any questions you can contact us at VWAF members, Snugglebum (Lee) or Bagpipingandy (me) or e-mail me at andy_fulton1@hotmail.com.

Best of Luck, Regards,

Andy.