Zach Cummings

Hi all,

Last night, I started my Cayenne to move it to the street for a minute while I moved my truck.

When I got back to the Cayenne, I started it and noticed that I had no gauges. Only the digital readout on the speedometer and odometer were showing. I moved it back to the driveway and let it sit. No change overnight.

Tonight, I attempted to reset the computer thinking it might be stuck in some mode. I disconnected the battery cable in front of the seat - the acorn nut - for 30 minutes - no joy. In fact, it’s worse now - the digital speedometer and odometer are gone. The cluster is dead.

The rest of the car works fine. It still runs and drives. The radio works. The memory functions work. The fuse is fine. As far as I can tell, they all are - but I’m going to check them all in the morning.

Has anyone heard of this? It baffles me that I’ve somehow made it worse.

Zach Cummings

Update - the AC temp settings are now in Celsius. I have no idea why, but changing settings through the radio doesn’t change anything.

The lights for the suspension, sport mode buttons, all of that - are out - even though the functions work.

What is going on with this car?

Visualistics

How old is the battery?

Zach Cummings

2-3 years - it’s an upgraded size from what’s required for the hybrid - AGM, same size as the battery in the CTT.

That being said, on more than one occasion it’s lost power entirely and required me to jump it with my truck.

Zach Cummings

I’m still working on this.

The cluster came to life again at the end of 2022 but died again while my wife was driving it.

I pulled the cluster and checks term 30, grounds, and the gateway pins and everything checked out.

I also pulled the carpet and checked all of the wiring for water damage (none) and confirmed that each circuit in each fuse panel was getting the proper voltage.

That all points to a bad instrument cluster. I disassembled it looking for hot spots or traces that were rubbed through or damaged - and there’s nothing. That’s discouraging and suggests a deeper failure of some kind - a chip, or one of hundreds of surface mount components.

I’ll keep looking into it and keep posting here if/when I have an update.

silverfstop

Hey Zach, any luck with this?

My MY13 S just had the same thing happen this week. Cluster dead, AC controls in centigrade - and we cannot find any other issues. Battery is fine, harness looks fine (no signs of rodent issues).

Please let us know!

jroberts

Same problem. No codes, fuse 52 is good. Disconnect battery and reconnect--still no gauges. Can it be the cluster?

silverfstop

In my case that very well have been the issue. I purchased a second hand cluster and swapped it myself. Everything is pretty normal, but there are a few coding-related issues that will require a trip to the dealer. Otherwise, everything pretty much behaves as normal.

HETPE3B

Interesting what happened with the mileage? I would bet the replacement cluster shows the mileage from another vehicle. Hopefully it didn't "sent" the incorrect mileage to the other modules.
Did the car start just fine? In a lot of VAG products the cluster is one of the main components of the immobilizer system, meaning when the cluster is replaced - the vehicle won't start. Based on your description this was not the case when you installed the cluster, correct?

silverfstop

So I didn't note the millage carefully before the swap (I mean, how could I?!) - but either the mileage is stored in the ECU, or the new cluster had damn near the same amount of miles.

Car lit right up and was reasonably normal (save for a million codes and warnings). Drove to my friends place to play with some flashing, but he mostly struck out. It's going to the dealer next week.