MFSW & VAG-COM problem solved

[Dippy]

For ages (could be over a year now) my MFSW controls have intermittently stopped working. This got worse and worse until for the last few months they only very intermittently work. This was coupled with a comms problem in that VAG-COM would rarely connect. I thought that these two problems were related, however not directly as the MFSW does not communicate over CAN, rather via another serial link.

A year ago my battery failed suddenly and Reading Audi did a power check for me. They said that the instrument cluster was drawing too much current and could have contributed to the sudden failure. I was dubious so decided not to spend 500 quid on a replacement.

Earlier this year the MFSW problem was getting worse so I decided to try to diagnose the problem myself. After doing this for about an hour, my battery warning light came on and the car would not start. This convinced me that the cluster had to be replaced so I booked it to be done during my service in July. Unfortunately Basingstoke Audi gave me bad information and they couldn't get a new cluster and had to order one.

Finally the cluster arrived and I booked the car in for last Thursday. Good job that I got a loaner car because at the end of Thursday they told me that they couldn't communicate with the cluster to recode it. Same on Friday. Yesterday I was expecting the worst that they couldn't do the job, but they managed to do it by disconnecting ALL units on the bus and then recoding them one-by-one. In the process of doing this they found a short on the K-wire which was causing the comms problem.

To my amazement they have done a great job and have fixed the MFSW controls (whether this was due to the new cluster or the K-wire short is unknown). The best thing is the final service from the dealer - see this post: http://www.rs246.com/index.php?name=PNp ... c&p=207319

Now that I have my MFSW controls back, it makes me realise how bloody important they are when you have a Phatbox. Trying to select a specific track or album using the SatNav+ controls and drive at the same time was almost impossible (and dangerous) for me!