nemisis123

Hello AW,

bought a 1993 Audi 90 CQ, about 8 months ago, awesome car, i replaced the transmission, and the odometer on it kind of worked, it would pop like a clock while its turning, i took it apart, everything looked fine, worked for about 1025km and then stopped again took it apart, worked for about 100km then stopped working completely, Speedometer works fine, everything works fine, the gauge cluster bulbs i replaced, not sure if i put in 12w or 15w, I read on here that it could cause some troubles but that was after the fact. Any help would be grateful Thanks.

dtompsett

Well, if the speedo works fine, then it's very likely the odo gear... but you're saying it isn't, so I'll believe you. Since the odo and speedo are electronically driven by the sensor on the transmission, and since the speedo still works, you've ruled out a bad sensor.

And since the speedo still works, that's eliminated some of the potential electrical issues on the cluster.

A 'popping' sound implies a gear is hopping out of place... like the teeth are worn or there is too loose of a fit.


As for the cluster bulbs... no way you'd ever get 12w or 15w bulbs in there! Your typical tail-light is 10+ watts! IIRC, the cluster bulbs come in a couple 'flavours'... 1.2w, 2w, and possibly 1.5w. It's fairly critical that you don't mix&match different wattage bulbs... stick with the appropriate wattage in the appropriate place. The cluster wiring is fairly sensitive, and a couple extra watts of draw is all it takes to mess things up.

My first 90q cluster had some strange 'issues'... the cluster had somehow shorted out in several places... it was no longer getting power from the column switch (for running lights/cluster lights), so an extra wire + fuse was pulled off the switch (cause the switch still worked, but the wiring was pooched), wired into the cluster after the dimmer dial, and several traces on the cluster panel were patched with wire. It was a real mess. Crazy thing was, if you swapped in a new cluster, it still didn't get power from the stock connector for the cluster lights... so somewhere in there the stock wire was broken, and the dimmer dial was totally dead.

nemisis123

Ill take a look at the bulbs and wattages next time its out thanks, i ment 1.2w, its just really hard to find these bulbs in my area without ordering them, and since i had a few to spare from the rear brake light bar, i did some retro fitting. Thanks