Minor victory with the A1

Further to the front end rebuild of younger daughter's A1 earlier this year, a few weeks back in the dark at night, she hit a huge pothole that sent a large shudder through the car and broke the pop-up screen in the centre of the dashboard - she usually has it in the down position and it sprung up and wouldn't latch down.  Unlike the A3, instead of popping up through a slot, it folds up and down via a very nicely damped movement.  I manage to buy a replacement display unit from a scrapyard for just over £20, most are well into 3 figures, and worked out what was most likely to have broken - a guide pin in the mechanism.  The screen on this secondhand unit was somewhat scratched. Watching a few videos on YouTube, replacement seemed fairly easy - tools required top remove the head unit from the dash, reach up and free off the panel with the hazard waring light switch and airbag deactivation light, go in through the hole this leaves and undo the single screw holding the display panel in the ash then prize the entire display unit out of the dash, disconnect two cables and re-fit using the replacement screen in the reverse order (as Haynes Manuals would have it).

Prizing the complete unit out was the hardest bit, you need the right trim tools (which I have) and you need to insert them and apply pressure in just the right place to free off the strong clips that retain it.  A bit of confidence, and out it came - and I then managed to partly dismantle old and new, swapping over the broken part, re-assemble and refit.  Good as new, with proper action to fold and unfold.  Was pleasingly satisfied to have managed this without having to involve a body shop