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Prius info screen died

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by TheloniusDrunk, Mar 25, 2022.

  1. TheloniusDrunk

    TheloniusDrunk New Member

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    Driving my gen 2 '04 Prius today and mid drive the info screen (climate, audio, MPG readout screen) died. Is this something that is relatively straightforward to fix? I've done a little bit of work to add an aux port that involved removing the glove compartment section to get access behind the screen before
     
    #1 TheloniusDrunk, Mar 25, 2022
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Is the plastic coating coming off the MFD screen from the front does it look like it's peeling look like plastics coming off or does it look like it's in generally good condition these things do fail so I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it people have bought screens off eBay and Amazon just the screen part I think it's a Panasonic part and they've had good luck making them work and you can buy complete units off eBay for relatively cheap although now all of a sudden old Prius parts of suddenly turn to Gold when certain people touch them so beware it just fits a Prius nothing else so they're not worth anything because not many people can keep these cars running they're all stripping them and selling the few parts that they can get because well they can't keep theirs running
     
    #2 Tombukt2, Mar 26, 2022
  3. PriusHead05

    PriusHead05 Member

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    They sell the screen just by itself for around $35 on Amazon. Not sure on the reliability though. I haven't needed to replace mine yet.
     
    #3 PriusHead05, Mar 26, 2022
  4. TheloniusDrunk

    TheloniusDrunk New Member

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    The plastic coating is fine, it seems to be just a dead backlight. When I press "climate" and hit where the defroster buttons were, I hear a beep and the defrosters do come on. Might just do a whole new display because backlight repairs can be annoying too from what I know from computer monitors. I'm assuming this is the same.
     
    #4 TheloniusDrunk, Mar 27, 2022
  5. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

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    Unless you can see a faint active image when the "dead" display is illuminated at an angle (like with a flashlight), which sometimes you can, and sometimes you can't, it is really hard to distinguish between "no backlight" and "blown up some other way". I mean, just unhooking the 12V or ground leads going to a display (analogous to a broken solder joint) will turn it off, even if there is nothing wrong with the unit's illumination. That the unit responds to button presses is a good sign, and that probably means the issue is with the display part of the unit, but still, unless it is just a swollen, burst, or otherwise obviously failed capacitor in the power section of the display, fixing it will likely be a bear. It isn't like you have circuit diagrams for whatever logic boards are inside it, and replacing those tiny fluorescent tubes on the sides of a LCD display is not a lot of fun either.
     
    #5 pasadena_commut, Mar 28, 2022
  6. TheloniusDrunk

    TheloniusDrunk New Member

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    You raise a good point about the feasibility of fixing it. So I'm looking at either a new LCD screen or a whole new MFD correct? It doesn't seem the digitizer is the issue; my understanding is the digitizer recognizes touch based on capacitance so since my screen still registers touch that would mean the digitizer is working, correct?

    It doesn't look like anyone sells the MFD anymore, so my options would be to source a new LCD or to find a used MFD on ebay or a junkyard, are those the only choices?
     
    #6 TheloniusDrunk, Mar 30, 2022
  7. prius16

    prius16 Active Member

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    #7 prius16, Mar 30, 2022
  8. TheloniusDrunk

    TheloniusDrunk New Member

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    I would prefer to repair than to replace but I'd also prefer to repair myself. Looking around at other digitizer repair guides I can find they seem to have a screen that displays but doesn't register touch, which isn't the case here. I can't find any parts for the LCD screen itself yet so I'm wondering if it's replace whole or send it to someone that can handle LCD repair.

    Course to send it off I'd have to get it out of the car which would already be enough skin in it for me to want to do it all.
     
    #8 TheloniusDrunk, Mar 31, 2022
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