Cold weather dash lights flicker-!

It was very cold this morning in Madison, WI. It maintained a temp of -3 for my 30 min commute. After about a minute of being on the highway and cruising at 73 mph all the lights on the inside of the car flickered for about 3 secs and went dark for about 5 secs. Then everything turned back on. However, I could no longer put on the cruise control and my turn signals did not work. Also, there was an exclamation point where the odometer/cruise control is represented on the display. When I got to work I turned the car back on and everything checked out (obviously I could not check the cruise control).

Sounds like you briefly lost power and the system (ECU and/or instrument cluster) lost connection or somehow lost signal. But, this is speculation and others may chime in with more definitive ideas.

I do know that on the older A3/B4 models if the battery power dropped slightly then the instrument cluster started to do bizarre things. But, this is typically noted during the cranking of the starter when the power is sapped from the rest of the system and voltage drops.

Good luck.

wild stab in the dark, bad ground?

Sadly you'll probably only see it at the cold temps, but a quick check doesn't take to long.

Thanks.

Any links or suggestions on how to check the ground?