Vautrin

I figure it wifi cost at least $ $25.00 to ship. I however , have no idea of weight. What do you consider to be a fair price? Could you also direct me to the hidden screw that holds this unit in place. Thanks again.

Retroplay

I was thinking more around $50 or $60. But you probably could maybe get the $125 with free shipping on eBay. Don't feel any obligation, I just wanted to see if it was possible to repair this problem because it is a common problem (and perhaps have a spare.) It seems a waste to toss these out for just missing digits. It's not something I need. See if you can get what you want for it on eBay.

There is no hidden screws. You can literally just pull it straight out. If it has never been removed, it might be a little tight. If you don't have trim tools, take a butter knife, insert it in the gap between the top leather strip and either side of the nav display, and pry. It should just pop right out. Then there are 3 connectors on the back. You should seem a piece in the center of each of them that you push down on and then pull the connectors out. You can do the entire swap in less than 5 minutes.

Vautrin

when I reluctantly took my SC to Lexus dealer for air bag recall he broke my nav door which unfortantly didn't discover for weeks afterwards. Dealer claimed no responsibility and wanted $4,000 for replacement . Yes that's right 4 grand. Since then My LED has malfunction and discs in radio have jammed. Nightmare! Think problem with CControl is loose wires that need resoldering from rough treatment from Lexus. Told me originally dash had to be removed them denied it afterwards.

Retroplay

If you search through the threads here, you will find that others have fixed these things. I have personally fixed two stereos that had CD issues. Others have fixed their nav doors.

The only one I don't think anybody has successfully fixed yet is the A/C display missing digits. I would agree that it sounds like it just needs resoldered. If you are handy with an iron, it is not hard to get to the pins you need to resolder.

I will say that $425 is just way too much to pay for a replacement unless it were brand new. Just be patient and keep looking. They pop up on eBay for around $200 all the time. Those are all working. Oddly, as common as this problem is, I have never found one being sold with missing digits, so I have no idea what someone would get for it. Probably not much because if someone is looking for a replacement, it's probably because they have missing digits too.

I actually cracked my display attempting to modify the backlight and that was why I got a replacement. I paid $225 for it with free shipping.

bobster99

I don't think anybody has successfully fixed yet is the A/C display missing digits. I would agree that it sounds like it just needs resoldered. If you are handy with an iron, it is not hard to get to the pins you need to resolder

So... Retroplay, have you been able to repair your LCD or did you just replace the unit? I read in one of your posts that said the ribbon cable was just "glued" to the LCD. I didn't realize that they "Glued" any electrical connectors. Can you elaborate about this process?

It appears that the missing segments have something to do with the climate that the cars are located in. I am down in Miami (after escaping from Bay City Michigan) and I know of two 2002 SC430's that are now losing their sections mine being one of them. One thought is that the average temperature down here is what is causing these connections to fail.

If heat is the cause of the failure I fear that other units that are from warm climates may suffer this problem relativity soon so I hate to buy a used one. Maybe if I could find one from up north I would have better luck.

One thought that just came to mind is a while back I used my oven to re flow the solder on a printer circuit board. Might it be possible to re flow the solder on an LCD?

If you can give me some direction as to how to chase this down I would really appreciate it.

Retroplay

I replaced mine. It wasn't missing digits, I actually cracked the glass while carelessly doing a mod (I was trying to reverse the LCD - black background, white text).

Regarding the ribbon comments, that's embarrassing because I was thinking of a different part when I said that. In the climate control, the LCD is attached with really long leads that go to the circuit board. If it is solder fractures, it would either happen along the circuit board, or the welds could break near the glass.

This is why I would like to get one in my hands with missing digits. I simply could not tell you what the cause is without looking at one, it could be several things including the digits actually wearing out, the LCD controller might not be soldered down well enough or blew an output....

It is such a common failure that I would love to analyze one and find a fix I could share with everyone. But, alas, until I get an example on the bench, I can't offer too much advice.

If someone has a unit with missing digits and wants to take a chance to see if I can repair it, I will offer to attempt it for free (only the first daredevil.) But it would also have to come with the expectation that it may not be possible and you might have to find a replacement. If someone is comfortable with that gamble, you can shoot me a PM.

bobster99

I am really tempted to take you up as the guinea pig and risk taking one for the team if it doesn't work out. The problem is that mine still works and since I have been too cheap to buy one off eBay if this goes badly... well... did I tell you that I was cheap... :-P

I have just enough knowledge of electronics to be dangerous. Might it be worthwhile to take a magnifying glass and look for a cracked solder joint or would I be looking for a needle in a haystack?

Retroplay

I'd say that you have a moderately high probability of fixing it if you resoldered all of the LCD connections and checked all of the LCD controller pins closely.

It is actually quite rare for LCD elements to actually 'go out' in a display like this. Rare enough that I would be very surprised.

Retroplay

Vautrin ended up selling me his climate control with the missing digits. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but I did open it up and did find a solder fracture on the LCD leads. I reflowed the entire connector and all the pins on the LCD controller IC. The two segments are still not working, but now at least one of them are 'faint.'

Here's what it looked like when first plugged in:


Two missing segments. After reflow, the horizontal segment on the temperature can be seen, but it is very faint. That is probably a bad sign that either the segment has 'given up' or there is a problem with the bias voltage going to the segment (blown controller IC.)

I'll be digging a little deeper to find the root cause over the weekend, hopefully.

P.S. That black dust inside is from the foam gasket around the LCD deteriorating.

Bgw70

Retro, 45 degrees! Are you guys having a heatwave up there or did you locate a warm garage?

Retroplay

This winter has been nuts up here. It was 45 on Monday and today it is 16 heading into the negatives by the weekend. It's been going up and down all winter. Not much snow, but it melts or it rains, and then temps drop again and it turns to ice. I've been able to get the SC out more often than I thought I would, though.

Retroplay

Thought people might find this interesting. This is what the A/C control looks like powered up on the bench. I need to emulate some sensor inputs to really dig into it, but this shows what elements are built directly into the unit.

Interestingly, I now have:
A/C control unit
Nav display
Radio
Network Gateway ECU

I am planning to take those parts and build up a mock system on the bench. The wiring is going to take a great deal of work, but this will help me tremendously with my reverse engineering efforts.

TaninAuto

Does this happen with all SC430's? What price would you all pay for a brand new, replacement LCD screen?

We can make these screens, but don't want to just end up selling a handful of them.

Retroplay

Not all, I don't think. It seems to affect units in more humid and hot climates, I think. Coupled with most users probably not having the skill to replace them, I am not sure how many you would sell.

I'd say there might be sales from refurbishers but I have yet to see a source of broken units. I have no idea what people are doing with them.

Now, if you made a reverse LCD version...

bobster99

So I am resurrecting an old thread...

Retroplay, what have you been up to? Any new information on the repairing the LCD front?
I was able to find a really cheap controller on eBay that actually is in near perfect condition, in fact it was cheap enough that I was concerned that there would be a problem with the part or the sale.

All is good and I have all of the segments working now. There has to be a connection with these failing and heat/humidity because my friend has the same problem with hers and her 2002.
Do you think that you have a solution that would fix this or should I toss my old one on eBay for parts and take what I can get.

Bob