irenesbob

Those who have been on this board for a while may recall my rantings about swirls/scratches appearing in/on the instrument cluster lens in certain bright sunlight conditions with my 2013 A6.I did have the dealer replace the cluster (allegedly a $5,000 item) and after that since it was already late summer (lower, less intense sun) I did not see the swirls/scratches and was happy. I turned that leased car in in November 2015 and got a new 2016 A6 on a 3-yr lease. All winter there was no indication of instrument cluster swirls/scratches with the new car. Last week when the bright sun came out the condition appeared on my new car.
Last year when I was ranting about the problem I thought that the swirls/scratches appeared when direct sun was coming from over my left shoulder directly onto the cluster lens. I subsequently figured out that the problem occurs when driving at a certain angle to overhead bright mid-morning to mid-afternoon sun with the sun coming from almost directly above (the binnacle does not come out far enough in my opinion). For me that meant that if I was driving from my home to north to Albany, NY or Montreal (places I go a few times each summer) the swirls/scratches were visible virtually the whole trip, making the car seem crappy to me. I tested with aluminum foil and tape and came to the conclusion that a tint strip would be a workable solution by blocking the overhead sunlight.
Today I had a tinting shop install a 20% windshield tint strip that comes down 6 inches in the center and slightly more at the left and right edges of the windshield. The issue is completely resolved/eliminated – wow!
I had feared that a darkish tint might make it difficult to see traffic lights, but actually it is very easy to see through the tint even though it keeps the sun off the cluster lens. From the outside the tint strip looks fine; my fear was that it would look too youthful for me at age 74. This is the best $40 I have spent in many moons. The car seems much more high-end again without the summertime swirls/scratches.

gk1

Thanks for the info. Always helpful and glad to hear it resolved your issue.
Post a picture of the tint strip when you get a chance. Thanks

snagitseven

FYI, some states limit the size of a tinted strip on the windshield and some do not permit any aftermarket tint in that location at all.

DB22

My Audi is the first car that I have ever owned that didn't have a windshield tint strip. I didn't think that any car would not have one yet alone an Audi.

irenesbob

Here it is six inches - they told me I was right at that limit so I went with it. It really helps since the binnacle does not protrude deeply over the instrument cluster lens as it does with many other brands (BMW, Scion to name a few I know of). At one point he Audi dealership joked that since there is little bright sun in Germany, Audi designers probably had no idea it would be an issue in countries that the sun favors - lol

irenesbob

Just so folks know what issue I was concerned about I have attached a photo of the issue. Note that while the portion of the cluster lens that is "in the shade" looks crystal clear, the portion at the bottom not protected by the binnacle hood and being hit by direct sun from above looks very bad. With the tint strip putting all of the lens "in the shade", the entire cluster looks as clear at the top portion in this photo. The problem is that the lens is not really scratched, but the molecular composition of the material shows those crappy scratches and swirls when hit by bright light from certain angles while looking clear when light hits from other angles. I really believe that if Audi continues to use this material for the cluster lens they should have a deeper instrument cluster binnacle/hood.

dwboston

How about a photo of the windshield so we can see the tinting you had done?

irenesbob

Cannot do right now, but attached is a photo I found online showing the exact kind of tint strip I have. Will post a photo of mine later.

snagitseven

I wonder if the reason Audi does not provide a tint strip is because of the rain sensor gel pack and ACC camera located above the mirror which could reduce their effectiveness.

DanfZX14

Maybe irenesbob will report back if he experiences that?