How to Replace a Defective Touchscreen (Digitizer) on a 2010 (Gen 3) Toyota Prius

No offense SteveMo, but one of the keys to working with electronics is to be GENTLE! So when you say:

then it isn't surprising to me that you broke your system. Again, I don't mean to give offense - but I strongly disagree with your advice to others to not do this DIY repair just because you broke your system.

I also strongly question your claim that you are "mechanically inclined" (perhaps this is different than "electronically inclined"?) when you suggest that some kind of "lubricant or spray" is required to re-install the ribbon cable. This isn't an engine and oil isn't required! This thread has mentioned a number of times that you should NOT just yank out or push connectors into place - they have locking mechanisms that must be unlatched to let go of the cable and re-latched to re-attach the new cable! If you broke the locking mechanism, then the cable will no longer re-attach correctly - even if you use a great deal of force!

Personally, I found the repair to be straightforward and simple, and I do not claim to be "mechanically inclined". The key is to not force anything and be gentle. If some part of the disassembly / reassembly seems like it needs force - you are almost certainly something wrong - STOP - and figure out what is going wrong!

I would never pay the dealership or anyone else to do this fix. It is an easy DIY fix for almost any person.

 

I have the same exact problem as you. Were you ever able to come up with a solution? I’m considering soldering that part back on. Can anyone help me from here?

 

Haven't been on in a while. Just an update of how I fixed the face plate issue.

I had bought a used JBL whole head unit assembly off ebay for $249 with a six month warranty from the seller.

As you can see in my previous post the seller had stated that it might have to be taken to dealer to have it programmed.

In the end I found a solution to make the face plate retract to its correct position and everything works tip top.

I took the poisitve lead off the 12v "starting battery" and then took the orange kill switch plug off the "traction battery".

When I put the orange plug back in and reconnected the 12v lead, everything started to work perfectly.

Honestly I wish I had just went the $249 route off eBay to begin with. While replacing the digitizer may be right for some, it was just too cramped of a space to try to get it done in for me.

Anyway finally have all functionality of my display (lower 1/2 of touchscreen was totally unresponsive when I bought the car) and I'm happy that I can finally use my maps, set contacts for phone, change CD's etc..

Paul

 

Just finished replacing my touchscreen and offer these comments if I were to do it again.:

To have additional space to work remove the Navigation Disk. Also after the two MFD mounting screws are removed and the unit is separated from the mounting frame press power to retract the frame. Frame can be expanded later when needed by holding the close button. you now have more space to work on the main ribbon.

The lock on the first, main ribbon slides toward the rear of the vehicle. Have an assistant hold the MFD and a flashlight while you work the lock. i used a pick on both ends of the lock to move it.

Good luck

 

I spoke to soon, although installation was fine my Bluetooth no longer works? The Bluetooth button under Phone Settings is dim and unresponsive, any ideas appreciated. I did notice the new screen had fewer electrical points of contact compared to the original. any ideas are appreciated, i did send a response to the seller and awaiting a response.

 

Ughhh the replacement took 40 min minutes and all was fine until I realized none of the buttons work. Ribbon was a bitch so I tried reattaching it multiple times but no bueno. I even opened the u it again to check if there is something out there and no luck. What did I do wrong?!?!

 

I wish I had a good answer for you.

I've spent 25 years building my own computers and even have stripped down and rebuilt my laptops from the motherboard up... so I am used to dealing with ribbon cables.

That being said personally I will never tried to repair another touchscreen MFD.

If you can find a good replacement unit with warranty for 2xxish bucks like I did in the end, I'd go that route all day over trying to ever replace the digitizer.

 

Apparently there are a gazillion different touch screens out there that look exactly the same if you don't compare it 1:1. I've been going back and forth with the guy that is linked here at ebay and first I got a screen that was too big and had a connector that was not going to fit, then he suggested me a screen that was too small even though I gave him the exact dimensions of the screen. Every time he was like "yes this is going to fit, no the small difference does not matter". A half inch difference does matter and it will not fit.
So after about half a year without getting the correct replacement screen I am just putting my defective screen back, hope it will all function again (that is: backup camera will display and music will play) and I've been very content using google maps in the mean time so I don't think I'm going to shell out the $400 my dealer want from me to install a new one.
And android replacements are just a little cheaper.

 

Will the dealer sell you just the screen? So you can install it yourself?
Or is the $400 the cost of the screen, without the installation cost?

 

That sucks. You must have ordered from someone other than the seller linked here though (AUTONAVIFIX on eBay). The one sold by that USA-based seller is definitely an exact replacement. I've used that seller for three replacements now (one for me, two for friends/family). This is the seller I'm talking about:

2010-11 Toyota Prius JBL E7022 Navigation Touchscreen Digitizer Stopped Working? | eBay

I noticed you are located in the Netherlands - the US-based seller does not ship outside USA - I know because I have a family member in Canada that also had a defective touchscreen and the AUTONAVIFIX eBay seller would not ship to Canada, so I had to place the order and then ship it to Canada. Did you order from a Chinese seller? I initially did that (years ago now) and it was a total gong show - took over a month to arrive and was smashed because of poor packaging - then the seller almost refused to send a replacement but finally did, but it was sent in the same poor packaging (but undamaged this time), only for me to discover that it didn't work. Another forum user (Trip Kirby) pointed me toward the US-based seller and that fixed my problem (and a school friend that I helped, and most recently, a family member in Canada).

If you want to order from the US-based seller, send me a PM and maybe I can help you out by having him ship to me first and then I can forward it to you in Europe.

 

The dealer wanted to replace the whole unit. Not sure if the price was including or excluding the installation, I didn't get an exact quote.

 

No, it was a US-based seller. But a different one than you link here.
The thing is, apparently there are a number of different screens and I'm now a bit hesitant to deal with people who apparently do not appreciate the small differences and will go "yes this will fit" when dimensions are different from what I measure. The unit that you link to is different from mine, I have a B9016. If you look at it you'll notice that the bottom edge of the screen is higher up than with the E7022.

I also find it interesting that they move the functions of the buttons around so much.

 

Interesting! I did not know that there were different variants of the navigation system. Of course, I've only ever seen the JBL E7022 units here in North America. Maybe this is why the seller only ships to the USA - because outside of USA there are different models that use different parts.

 

This could well be. It's a bit strange that Toyota make so many different variants. They all look more or less the same, why not make them exactly the same.

But on another positive note: I had a very unexpected and pleasant surprise when I reassembled my headunit. I figured better to have the headunit complete in the car, at least the display, music and reverse camera will work. Fortunately I cleaned all display surfaces properly because when I turned the car on and the head unit showed its navigation display, the touch screen worked flawlessly! Previous problem was that all touches seemed to be registered around the middle portion of the screen (so touching bottom would result in a touch registered in the middle). Now every touch was registered at the correct point!
IDK, maybe cleaning the surface of the touchscreen properly was all it took? I can't imagine this was caused by a faulty connection anywhere.
Anyway, problem solved.

 

Cleaning the contacts can and does make a difference many times.
But, it could also be a broken wired in the flat harness to the screen.
And getting moved around, just right, allowed the 2 broken ends to touch again.

Hopefully, this will last you a very long time!

 

I followed the instructions here and successfully swapped out my touch screen digitizer for my 2011 Prius. Used the link to ebay and the unit arrived quickly. I kind of chuckled that they have sold over 630 of these replacement touch screens so far.

I had someone helping me but neither of us had ever done anything like this before so the directions were very helpful. No phone screens or anything! It was a fun experience just learning how things things function.

So far it all looks perfect. It took the two of us about 90 minutes in total. The last step of inserting the connector of the MFD was a real pain so i held it in while they pushed the connector in gently with a screwdriver.

Really you are only doing two items in this process - One is to remove the MFD from the car and two is to remove and replace the touch screen portion from the MFD. It's very finicky inside the MFD so having two people is very helpful. The rest is opening and closing compartments.

Diagnosis: At first i thought the touch screen was completely broken but when on my "Map" view i could see that it really was just registering all of my touches in the same arbitrary location no mater what.

• Held down the open/close button for appx 10 seconds to force the screen to push out as part of the first step.
• I had to use my drill to remove the screw every time because they were stuck. Almost stripped one but got it in the end. I used a lot of different fittings for screws, luckily i had a bunch.
• I didn't loosen the connector's when removing the unit and that luckily didn't cause a total fail. When reinstalling i broke one half of the connector to the mfd so be gentle, it only pops out a tiny bit for both connectors.
• In the end, i looked at my old digitizer and it was extremely dirty. I have a feeling that had i just cleaned it and reinstalled the that it might have ended up working. I already put replacement in and it was working so i wasn't going to push my luck but you might consider just cleaning it if you are a cheap person.

 

Problem back again
I was driving some distance yesterday and I wanted to zoom in on the map and it registered a tap on the map style button above it. The lower row is not accessible anymore, same problems as before.

 

I am having the same problem here. Touch screen works great, but some of the buttons are not working at all. I can't change the settings or turn on the radio from the MFD buttons, but the radio still works when I turn it on from the steering wheel. It goes without saying, but the buttons were working fine before I started the repair.

Is this the fix for the buttons not working?

Do I reset the charging batteries to fix the buttons issue?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

This is a great but pretty old thread however I am hoping some are still around who can help me.

I followed Duck’s extremely helpful instructions and all was going swimmingly (no pun intended) until I got to the very last ribbon cable. I know how these usually work as I’ve repaired digitizers on loads of Apple devices so I had the tools and am very comfortable working on electronics guts.

I noticed as I was reading through the posts & others’ issues that the ribbon cable at the end was the coup de gras for several members. I also noticed the pictures I’ve seen & the instructions don’t exactly match mine once I pulled the MFD out. Screws were in different locations, you know, little things but the main idea was the same so I soldiered on, confident that I could not go wrong with all my experience, patience & light touch. Right? Wrong.

Everything went great with the digitizer replacement but when I got to the main ribbon in the final steps of the re-install, one of those ‘differences’ I noticed in the instructions/advice became a big problem. My connection is not a locking one. There is no flip up latch. It SHOULD flip towards me (if it were there) and then push back to latch once cable is slid in. There’s also no tabs on the side of the ribbon or plastic connector on the end to strengthen or stabilize or anything to assist getting it in there. Just a flimsy ribbon with teeth. I wonder if it’s either been repaired with aftermarket parts before I bought it or if some versions of the 2010 are just set up differently? If I had continued pulling up on the connector (trying to “unlock” it) or flipping it up with a tool, I could see how someone would easily pop it off the board trying to follow directions. I wondered if maybe this was the same hill some others died on for similar reasons.

I am going to read some more before I tackle it again in the morning before church but thought someone might have some more thoughts on this. Thanks for all your insight!

 

My plan in the morning was to use a dental tool that my daughter finagled out of my bathroom (she’s asleep) and providence led me to joniowa’s video from the original thread showing this dastardly clip in super zoom using the SAME TOOL I have! Great minds…anyway. I thought I should link it here, too for anyone else who stumbles in and reads all directions first because this is a major sticking point for many & this latch actually slides forward. It doesn’t flip at all!

If you are nimble and have an assistant, several people have changed out the touchscreen/digitizer in the car WITHOUT even unplugging this beastly ribbon cable but I personally haven’t tried it.