Mouse turds and mangled wiring

["scott miller" <macatawa@hotmail.com>]

Probably not the cause of Audi disease in my dash lights, but rodents 
were obviously living in my car at some point.  The mangled wiring 
looked like the previous owner had shoved the instrument cluster back in 
and scraped the insulation off much of the bundle.  Vacuuming out the 
insulation nest and taping the bare wires didn’t fix the dash lights, so 
I went back in with generous amounts of Stabilant.  The problem seems to 
have been around the 26-point connector on the upper right of the back 
of the instrument cluster.  The problem didn’t recur last night or 
today, so hopefully I’ve fixed it.  Thanks to the listers who suggested 
Stabilant!

The frustrating thing wasn’t the pounds of nutshells and mouse turds I 
had to vacuum out of my dash and console, it was that the previous owner 
had been there and not bothered!  I found the center console held 
together by three-inch sheet metal screws randomly driven into the floor 
pan, and a mound of debris under the shifter that he couldn’t have 
missed.  Temporary fixes and broken fasteners all over this car, what a 
shameless hack.  I spend more time reconstructing than fixing.  Perhaps 
I’ll go about my next car purchase a little more carefully.....

Scott Miller
Holland/Selfridge ANGB, MI
‘90 200tqw


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