Ownership Verified: My Audi A3

I should get a pair of rear mudflaps too. I've been sandblasting the bottom corners of my rear bumper for 30,000km now.
 
I kind of like where this is going

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I quite liked your previous Steering wheel I thought it looked quite clean with the metal ring around the Audi logo, it's a bit like the Aston Martin DB9 Steering wheel, My 2003 A3 has this sort of plastic gear looking thing which I was told was the incorrect steering wheel for the model of A3 I have.

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Your steering wheel looks like a pre-facelift model or maybe it's just the design of the non-leather steering wheel.
You should make a thread about your car, at least, I would be interested.
 
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My original instrument cluster slowly disintegrated(electronically) since I got the car. When I got the car, the fuel level was off by half a tank. Since then the center display started to lose lines, the trip distance digits got corrupted and a couple of months ago the coolant temp indicator started to have a mind of it's own. The cluster was made by Jaeger/Magnetti-marelli, and this faults are quite common on them. The original cluster today and it's faults:
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I searched for a new cluster for the pasts 6months without finding one in good working condition at a decent price(also it needed to be from a 2001-2002 car), but last month I won a S3 cluster with dead pixels on ebay at a good price. The S3 clusters are made by VDO and are more reliable than those made by Jaeger/MM... excepting the failing display, common fault on all VAG cars of that period. I prefer the looks of the A3 cluster over those of the S3 cluster (fonts illuminated white/red with red needles Vs. fonts illuminated orange/red with white needles), also not a fan of the S3 badge on the tacho. I will replace the display in the following weeks.
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So you replace a broken unit with another broken unit? - Can't compute. :? :D


Anyway, how common is this dying-display problem? My cluster is fine at the moment, but since my car is about the same age as yours, should I expect some problems soon?
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Well, the second unit only has only the display problem, it's not a clusterfuck(HA!) like the original one. The display it's replaceable, a new one can be found from 50eur up... so even after buying a new display total cost for my replacement will be under 100EUR while units for the A3/S3 without any issues are from 250EUR up. For the A4/A6 the clusters are cheaper because they are more common.

I know it's a really common issue, but yours looks like new(maybe was already replaced) and they don't fail suddenly so I wouldn't worry... first symptoms appear at extreme temperatures, then lines start disappearing permanently one by one.
 
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Malfunctioning pixel displays is a common problem that plagues cars from the 90's and early 00's. BMW E39 and Citro?n XM to name a few off of the top of my head.
 
The car is now driven by my brother's girlfriend. It got replaced by a younger and redder A3(2.0TDI 184hp)
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