[loc]

Greetings all,

This is my first time posting so i wanted to introduce myself a bit.

I'm fortunate enough to have a manual Ibiz White 08' S5 with all the fixin's.

Even more fortunate for me right now is I live in the midwest and my winter tires were delivered this week in time a giant snow storm and some drifting fun (27 inches of snow were just removed from my driveway)

My main question was has anyone else had some major issues with their MMI system?

When i first purchased the car (2,534 Miles on it) the MMI system was off one day when I got in the car. Despite everything I'd do (restart, Nuetral to drive and back, pressing all the MMI buttons) the MMI screen would stay black, I have no backup camera or backup sensors beeps, no radio, nothing. If i hit one of the CD player buttons I can get the MMI startup screen to flash - but then it goes dead.

My dealership installed an MMI update, after which this issue went away. I haven't had this problem for about 6 months now, but then this morning I start up my car and teh MMI screen is dead.

Once again, nothing works. No backup cam/sensors, no music, nothing. Like last time if I press some buttons I can get the MMI startup screen to flash then it dies.

Any suggestions? My apologize if this has already been answered, I did try to search through old posts.

Thanks in advance for your help and any ideas you may have.

The MMI (2G in your case) is a system of components sitting in a "ring", connected by MOST fiber-optical cabling (read this and this: http://a6retrofit.tripod.com/articles/a4a5realmmi.html and http://a6retrofit.tripod.com/articles/audimultimediasystems.html if you want to know more). Each component takes a fiber-optic cable in from another component, and out to the next component in the ring.

If any one of these components, spread throughout the car (behind glovebox, dash/center console, under seats, trunk/boot) fails, the whole MMI system will go blank because the fiber-optic ring will be broken. The fact that touching the CD changer makes the MMI image blink for a moment, would suggest the problem is perhaps not in the head unit (behind glove compartment) or the CD changer (next in the ring after the head unit) but maybe in radio or navigation in the trunk or some other component.

Getting/accessing VAG COM (http://a6retrofit.tripod.com/articles/a5vagcodes.html) would allow you to read the error codes from the car which would likely point to the culprit...

Of course it MIGHT be a software issue too, but I would guess a malfunctioning component in the MMI ring that may require replacing.

 

[loc]

Another, more sinister reason, could also be a broken fiber-optic cable. Maybe something is putting wear and tear on it somewhere. It is protected by durable plastic housing but just an idea.

Also, some module could have just "crashed" and re-flashing it with new (?) software at a dealer might help - if they can do that.

BTW: audiforum.us/mmi is a great place to ask MMI related technical questions from experts that know its ins and outs usually better than the car-mechs at dealers do.

 

[loc]

Yes, obviously if the car is under warranty it is best to let the dealer take care of it and swap whatever hardware etc. they deem necessary.

But you might want to ask them to print out the current error codes for you prior to fixing it. You might then want to post this information online, here or perhaps at audiforum.us/mmi too, to get perspective on what the problem would seem to be. Just in case the dealer again does something temporary that breaks again in six months, perhaps after warranty expiry...

Good luck!