Michael Samson

I have a peculiar problem with the climate control on my '88 5Kcst. I have one of those oddball cars which has been, oddly enough, extremely reliable. The digital display, and consequently, the climate control itself, has gone completely dead. No lights, i.e., LEDs whatsoever.

I have done an initial swap-out of the control head/ display unit with a (known) good specimen. The two fuses in the fuse block are good. I have given a 'wiggle' to the electrical connections under the cowl and misc areas. Still nothing.

This vehicle had this problem for a brief period about a year ago. I took it to two of the best Audi people in the Rochester, NY area and both said flat-out that it was the control head. I acquired a replacement and installed it. No Dice. Finally, I pulled the fuses and lastly yanked the A/C relay out of the fuse block. Yanking the relay and plugging it back in turned out to be the solution. I swapped back to my original control head and it worked fine, thus verifying both control heads were OK. System has had perfect operation for the past 13 months.

So, last evening I pulled out the relay and plugged in a spare (used) one I had on the shelf. The thing came to life for two minutes, then died again. I purchased a new relay this AM and installed it, still nothing, except a few strange 'peeps' emitted from the control head area.

Knowing the history of connector problems/ electrical corrosion issues attendant to these cars, I'm a bit inclined to suspect bad connections at the base of the relay. But, the spades of the relay were clean, and moreover the car is a super-clean one with no other electrical problems of any kind, nor any history of them.

I don't have a Bentley manual, and haven't been able to network around to find anyone who may have run across this particular problem. I would appreciate any help anyone could give me with this, as I know that esoteric nature of these aged machines is making this sort of knowledge akin to scholarship of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Help!

SteveAngry

Mike,
go to audifans.com and subscribe...you will want to join the digest list. Tons of knowledgeable people are there and should be able to help.

Also I have a bentley and will take a look in it and see if I can find any "solutions" to your problems...I'll let you know if I have any ideas via e-mail...

good luck,
Steve Ankney
88 5k 79k