Michael S.

SO... here's an interesting story that hopefully will save someone a lot of grief (and expense) some day.

For the past several months my wife's 05 Cayenne S has had a very "sick" sounding door chime. And, it wasn't just the chime... The turn signals and seat belt warning sounded horrible as well. Additionally, the bottom third of the LCD display in the instrument cluster would go fuzzy on really hot days, and we couldn't reset the trip mileage.

So, when the vehicle was in the dealership for the 100k service, I asked that they take a look at the problem. They did, and came back telling me that I needed a new instrument cluster... to the tune of $1690 plus labor to install. I passed, deciding instead to just "live with it" for a while. Unfortunately for me, I'm not very good at living with such things, so I began researching how difficult it would be to replace the cluster myself.

Sunset would sell me the part for $1280... So, that saved me $410 right off the top. But, as I looked at the DIYs that are out there involving removing the cluster, I became a bit timid about doing it myself. Plus, I would still have to take it to the dealer to have the new cluster "coded". A quick call to my dealer revealed that for $180 they would install and code the new cluster... And, when confronted with what Sunset was asking for the part, their parts dept. agreed to sell me the cluster for the same $$. So, I scheduled the appt for Wednesday...

Wednesday comes and I have been sitting at the dealer for maybe an hour, when they come to me and tell me that the new cluster is doing the same thing as the old one. "That's not good", I said... "I bought a $1300 part on your recommendation". True they stated, but all indicators pointed to the cluster and once it's coded, it can't be returned... The technician suggested that maybe the problem was.... wait for it.... cracked coils! I had gen 3 coils, and they are already up to Gen 5 (or was it Gen 7?)... I agreed to have the coils replaced (after negotiating another $300 off those parts based upon Sunset's price (thank you Droid smartphone!), and asked that they replace the plugs as well while they were in there.

Sure enough... cracked ignition coils were the problem all along! I don't know for sure about the lcd problem, or the trip odo reset not working... But, I suspect the coils were causing that problem as well!

So, in the end what should have been a $350 fix turned into a $2k bill for me...

The one thing that I should have noted was that the chime sounded fine with the engine not running... I would have sworn that I had checked it that way, but apparantly I had not. At least I now have a nice pretty instrument cluster whose neon markings are no longer fading away (at least for another 6 years, or 100k miles)...

I know I probably could have pressed and maybe somehow got away with returning the new part... But, I have to agree that all indications were that the cluster was bad... So, I made the decision to not press the issue...

Just always remember... Electrical noise on the ground bus can cause all sorts of wierd problems! Hoepfully someone can learn from my quite expensive mistake!

yeldogt

Very strange.

My 06 had the cluster replaced for the sound not working -- also had three sets of coils ............. ???

pstine58

hi, I wonder if I'm having similar issues. When the car is cold the center LCD on the cluster displays everything perfectly. But after driving for around 20 minutes the center LCD display starts fading and some of the lettering like the main menu bar starts getting blackened. Also, the D2 and bottom part of the speedometer fades. I've attached a picture although it's actually worse to the eye.

I appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

I've also seen a replacement VOGT high voltage transformer for the cluster for sale, with the following:

"VW Touateg - Porsche Cayenne owners have many problems with this car instrument cluster. Problems include no color LCD lighting, partial lighting and / or flickering or intermittent lighting. Mainly to repair this dashboard you need replace defective lighting transformer to the new one."

that link is

http://www.codecard.lt/electronics/c.../prod_332.html

thanks in advance

Pete- a new member

RESP

Very Strange!!
Good luck!

andrewgarland

my center instrument cluster is fading (unreadable) after 20 min or so of driving now.... Any thoughts?

DWPC

Failing LEDs screen was not an uncommon problem in Audis and other German cars in the early 00s and some techs advertised installing replacements in your cluster. I wouldn't be surprised if a little googling wouldn't turn someone up.