MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by efusco, Jun 19, 2007.

  1. StuartS

    StuartS New Member

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  2. drifty1955

    drifty1955 New Member

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    If its the solder joints failing I'd sure like to get a shot at one because I'm an Electronic's Engineer by trade and do micro soldering just about everyday. Most new equipment failure is either bad solder quality and or capacitors.
    Living here in Florida its easy to see the heat punishment that MFD must get too protruding from the dash like that. I keep mine covered in flight by a nice fitting hood I bought on eBay and a dashcover and make sure I use the excellent Heatshield Window Shade I bought here on the accessories section when parked. That window shade is excellent and is really heavy duty and fits perfect. Excellent deal at $30.
     
  3. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Drifty'sDad @ Sep 18 2007, 09:51 PM) [snapback]514616[/snapback]</div>
    Hobbit is trying to get his hands on one of these too to try to fix it. Maybe b/w the two of you you can find a fix.
     
  4. p626808

    p626808 New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 18 2007, 10:54 PM) [snapback]514620[/snapback]</div>

    Meeting up with Hobbit to give him my old one on Friday..

    So hopefully we will have an answer soon..

    Scott
     
  5. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    and if I can't find it, I can bring it south in December and maybe
    Drifty's and I can noodle over it together...
    .
    _H*
     
  6. Prinux

    Prinux New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(westofrome @ Sep 15 2007, 10:10 PM) [snapback]513172[/snapback]</div>
    For what it's worth, our now-defunct-thanks-to-an-accident-04 also had its MFD replaced. I don't recall what the mileage was at replacement, but it was under the 3 year/36k (it only had 45k miles on it at its demise).

    We were on the highway, switched on the A/C, and the radio would change stations. The screen was pretty much unresponsive, and we also had no data for mileage/consumption, just as described above. Car DROVE just fine, but it was a little disconcerting.

    Toyota was decent about the whole thing, but I think the warranty had a lot to do with it. It took a good 3-4 days to replace, though, as it wasn't a part they had handy. It did have our techs scratching their heads, as they hadn't seen it before.

    Didn't realize that so many people had an issue with it. Interesting.

    shoe
     
  7. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Hey shoe -- which shop?
    .
    _H*
     
  8. abq sfr

    abq sfr New Member

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    I'm wondering if the MFD failures are due to the same leaking capacitors that came out of Taiwan at around those years. Lots of computer companies and motherboard manufacturers were stung by this, Dell probably got tens of thousands of mobo's returned due to this. I bought my sister a dvd player from around that time period and it quit working around a year later. I took off the cover and looked at the power supply and guess what? Leaking caps. More info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
     
  9. jbiondo

    jbiondo New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(p626808 @ Aug 23 2007, 08:36 AM) [snapback]500979[/snapback]</div>

    I am VERY interested in finding the root cause behind this, as I'm pretty good with a soldering iron, and have a malfunctioning MFD on my 2004 Prius with about 87K miles on it. Got the stiff arm from my local Toyota dealer, and don't want to spend $2000 (their quote) on a refurbed unit. Anyone who has a used one, I'm interested.
     
  10. flocculus

    flocculus New Member

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    I'm afraid I've just joined the legions of failed-MFDers, at 60K miles. I have the Platinum Extra Care warranty in effect, but the dealer is saying it is not covered and quoting the usual prices. We'll see about that.

    But I, too, am interested in the cause of this issue for preventive reasons. Will this happen again on the ones we are all getting replaced? Would it be helpful to leave the MFD off most of the time? Is it helpful to protect the MFD from the sun? This inquiring mind wants to know! Kudos to those working on it!

    John
     
  11. jerosta

    jerosta New Member

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    I just experienced the malfunctioning MFD in my 2004 Prius. I also have a DICE. I unplugged the DICE and it does seem to have solved the problem. Interestingly, I have had the DICE for about a year without any such problem. The weather just changed, btw. Perhaps the dramatic drop in temperature did something?
     
  12. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Flocculus @ Oct 22 2007, 10:23 PM) [snapback]529142[/snapback]</div>
    You might call Toyota Financial and just 'innocently' enquire as to what items are covered or not covered by the Platinum warranty. " I'm considering buying a Prius and was trying to decide if I should get the extended warranty. But I've heard that sometimes the multi-display fails and is expensive to replace and wanted to be sure that would be covered under the extended warranty."
    When they answer in the affirmative ask them to send you something or get a name to confirm.
    Alternatively you can be less secretive about it and just call the Toyota Customer Cares service and make your concerns known.
    But, in the past, this question has come up and it was confirmed that the MFD was covered by the Platinum extended warranty.
     
  13. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    eep, I've still got the failed one from p626808 here but have had
    utterly *no* time to swap it in and test it yet... maybe I should at
    least get it open for a looksee.
    .
    _H*
     
  14. flocculus

    flocculus New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 23 2007, 08:58 AM) [snapback]529235[/snapback]</div>
    Thanks for the thoughts! They have actually agreed now that it is covered -- it had better be, since the Platinum contract says everything is covered except a few little items. BUT it's only the refurbished unit that they have agreed to. I guess that it is "functionally equivalent" -- especially if it quits in 60K miles like this one? :-P Has anyone had any success insisting on a new one? Not worth trying?

    John
     
  15. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Flocculus @ Oct 24 2007, 08:50 PM) [snapback]529992[/snapback]</div>
    Probably not worth trying. The replacements/refurbs seem to be holding up well and you'll be pleased to find that you can now use the INFO button on the steering wheel to toggle b/w the ENERGY and Consumption screens.
     
  16. PriusLove

    PriusLove New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 24 2007, 08:57 PM) [snapback]529996[/snapback]</div>
    :angry: Add our '04 Prius to the failed MFD list at 60 something thousand miles.

    John, if you had someone agree to replace it, can you tell me who, so I can give the info to our Toyota Dealer.

    Whether it is pertinent, or not I don't know, but approximately 3 weeks before this failure, my Voice Nav system locked up and kept repeating itself. I was coming upon an accident with Firetrucks and police vehicles, so I turned off the main street and the system unlocked. I thought maybe there was an EMF interference from all the radios that caused the problem.

    Now our MFD performs only sporadically and the CD player not at all.
    Yesterday, turning the display off and on again, revived it, but it is much worse today:

    The steering wheel info toggle doesn't work at all.

    If I try to access the map, I get a message that says "external system not connected."

    The arrows on the directional energy flow are blank. The MPG calculator doesn't work.

    The outside temperature reading doesn't read.
     
  17. PriusLove

    PriusLove New Member

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    Starting the process of dealing with Toyota now.

    First Call to Dealer:

    He won't know if it is covered until he runs the diagnostics and checks with the Platinum Care people. He's had it happen twice before. Once was caused by rats chewing wires, and once by someone hitting the display too hard. Neither of those was covered.

    Second Call to Platinum Care:
    It's covered if it's not rat-caused.
     
  18. p626808

    p626808 New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Oct 23 2007, 01:04 PM) [snapback]529337[/snapback]</div>
    Was wondering what happened to it?

    Let me know what you find...

    Scott
     
  19. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    I'm gonna resurrect this thread again and keep it going, although
    I expect the final resolution will become a "teardown" webpage. I'm
    getting pix but haven't waded through them yet. But I finally
    rigged my own MFD for easy unpluggability and started testing the
    bad one.
    .
    All the internal functions work, i.e. the seekrit diagnostics, the
    screen controls themselves, etc. The issue seems to be all network,
    i.e. it can't talk to or hear the car. But today when experimenting
    and wiggling things around I actually *did* get it to talk to the
    car for a while, and see the fact that I turned on the stereo and
    fooled with the volume, and read the MPG average from the meter ECU,
    and made beeps. But at the same time I was getting lots of false
    button presses, which is interesting because I didn't even have the
    little cable to the button assembly plugged in. [Maybe it doesn't
    like floating inputs..] But so far it really seems like a physical
    flakiness problem, particularly tickled by wiggling a little short
    cable that goes between two main circuit boards.
    .
    I've pulled all the boards off and cruised all over them with the 30x
    binocular microscope, and see nothing amiss in the soldering or board
    integrity. Pretty dense stuff in there. The only suspicious thing
    is a little bit of spot corrosion or wear or something on some of
    the connector pins, which I'll take DeOxIt or the like to and see
    if that improves things.
    .
    An interesting symptom is that with the stereo powered up and at very
    low volume, I hear a little bit of the periodic chirping that the
    AVCLAN emits, and don't hear it with the good MFD in place. This
    might imply that the network wires aren't terminated, or something,
    if in fact this type of network even needs it. Can someone remind
    me of the more commonplace "industrial" name for what the AVCLAN is,
    and describe [if you know] its bus characteristics? I2C comes to
    mind but I don't remember.
    .
    Have yet to take a scope to anything, but it should be pretty easy
    to backprobe the network leads of the plug and compare waveforms.
    .
    _H*
     
  20. tkil

    tkil New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Nov 13 2007, 05:30 PM) [snapback]539161[/snapback]</div>
    This page:
    http://www.softservice.com.pl/corolla/avc/avclan.php
    says that it's the "IEBus", and links to:
    http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_IEbus.html
    and Wikipedia agrees:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEBus

    (I think I have one of the "later" 2005 models, since my steering-wheel INFO button toggles consumption vs. energy screens...)