So far, 3 out of the 4 MFDs I've checked in my cars don't work properly - two are so clouded over as to be useless, a third can kinda still be seen, but with a big blank spot and a couple of smaller ones, and crazy thing, the car with the most miles has a display that looks brand new, as bright and clear as the day it drove off the lot. What's with that? I see some for sale on Ebay, but with the failure rates I'm seeing, what's the chances they are good? I'm guessing the dealer wants a thousand bucks for a new one. Is there any way to test a used one short of buying it, installing it, and finding out it's got dead spots or cloudiness?
I believe these actually are ~4-5k new from Toyota. (msrp) but can be had in the $600 range refurbed from the big companies like Dorman, etc. Even Rock Auto sells them.
Well, darn, that's too much to pay. Wish there was a way to confirm the ones on Ebay work. Couple did not accept returns and only describe the unit as "used." I smilee units on LKQ with a 6mo warranty, and they're a reputable dealer, but how can you tell a good one from a bad one? It doesn't appear to be mileage related - my oldest one looks best. Maybe the PO never turned it on? Maybe it has to do with sunlight? What makes these things go bad? Then the issue of replacing it without breaking the dash.
Mine is still factory. It's pretty hard to read in the daytime, but I know where the radio preset buttons are. At night, it's OK. I think there's a couple of things going on. I'm pretty sure the backlight is a cold cathode fluorescent tube. These naturally get dimmer as they get older. I think I've seen enthusiast directions for replacing them with either generic CCFLs (the people with $5,000 gaming PCs used to use CCFLs to light up the insides) or LEDs, but I can't give you a link offhand. The LCD "sandwich" itself also seems to delaminate or something, over time. I think that's the cloudiness you get. When mine did it, it started as a small darker spot in the center of the screen, and gradually spread to most of the screen except the extreme edges. While it was spreading, it seemed to make a difference whether it was warm or cold out, but now that it's all spread, the weather doesn't matter. If I put it in test mode, not all of the horizontal and vertical touch screen lines respond right away, or at all. I kind of think the screens were deliberately designed with most of the buttons big enough to cover more than one vertical and horizontal touch screen line, so losing a few isn't immediately fatal. One thing that has gotten touchy over time is the round "display" hardware pushbutton. Sometimes it bounces, so when I push it once, the screen changes from audio to consumption and then right back to audio. Sometimes it doesn't make contact at all; pushing it at the right angle helps. That switch probably needs a shot of tuner cleaner (shut up, Grandpa), Cramolin, Deoxit, or equal, but I haven't done that yet.
