I had a few pixels out on the lower part of the dashboard display, where the phone book and warning messages show up. No big deal to me, as long as the odo/trip/temp display worked fine.
However, I let the car sit for a week and when I came back from vacation, I started the car and found that the right hand side of the odo/trip/temp display has suddenly faded to almost unreadable. The odo is fine, the left half of the trip is fine; but the right half of the trip fades quickly, and the temp is almost unreadable.
the display is connected to the underlying circuit board by a matrix of wire- some select individual pixels, others provide voltage or ground to large segmnets... as these wires break, you can see varying defects. Since the breaks are so small, you will see variations as thermal heating causes movement...in fact the failure is due to the thermal stresses in these fine conductors over time.
There is a DIY fix in the FAQ sticky that is interesting to view the pictures... besides this one person, I'm not aware of others being fully successful.
Just thought I would update this with the fact that the problem appears to have fixed itself, just after the car turned over 100k miles and the weather warmed up a bit. Works fine now.
I have the same thing (along with most owners I imagine?). It can effect any part of the display that's dot matrix. As ard says, the matrix wires fails over time. To start with it comes and goes, but over time it just deteriorates into a horrible mess. I'm having mine fixed in the next couple of weeks by Cluster Repairs UK - Instrument cluster/speedometer repair, correction, modification and spares.. A friend had his S6 done and it's been perfect since, so it is fixable, and cheap too...... I guess you just need to find a simlar company in the US - maybe these guys might know someone? Mightbe worth an email. They replace the matrix with a newer, more substantial one that doesn't break down over time.
I have the same thing (along with most owners I imagine?). It can effect any part of the display that's dot matrix. As ard says, the matrix wires fails over time. To start with it comes and goes, but over time it just deteriorates into a horrible mess. I'm having mine fixed in the next couple of weeks by Cluster Repairs UK - Instrument cluster/speedometer repair, correction, modification and spares.. A friend had his S6 done and it's been perfect since, so it is fixable, and cheap too...... I guess you just need to find a simlar company in the US - maybe these guys might know someone? Mightbe worth an email. They replace the matrix with a newer, more substantial one that doesn't break down over time.
They repaired mine and it was quick service, they sent a replacement cluster while mine was being repaired and it's been perfect since (two years now).
__________________ **** it, let's do it - Australian proverb
100, Envisage: I assume this repair maintains the original odometer reading?
I ask only because some MBs have a display problem similar to BMW, and instead of fixing the matrix, owners have bought the entire dash display box out of salvage cars, and their 100k mile cars are now showing low miles on the clock - the mileage run up by the donor. I saw a G500 box for sale recently that was advertised as showing 3000 miles...
there is also small bulbs which provide backlighting to the lcd display. these can burn out. they are easy to replace though. i repaired the pixels in the mid on my 540. it worked perfectly and they are back 100%. this is not for the faint of heart though as the ribbon cable needs to be removed from the circuit board. im going to switch the gauge face from an m5 cluster i have here with the one in my car as it has the gray faces. i just made a tool to safely remove the pointers and am in the process of sourcing replacement ribbon cables. once i perfect this 100% i'll start fixing clusters for you guys for a modest fee.
Last edited by nightkrawler; 24th January 2009 at 16:36.
100, Envisage: I assume this repair maintains the original odometer reading?
I ask only because some MBs have a display problem similar to BMW, and instead of fixing the matrix, owners have bought the entire dash display box out of salvage cars, and their 100k mile cars are now showing low miles on the clock - the mileage run up by the donor. I saw a G500 box for sale recently that was advertised as showing 3000 miles...
Steve
00 M5
No problem with mine. All the same as before it went in except I could suddenly read the things the car was trying to tell me............
__________________ **** it, let's do it - Australian proverb
there is also small bulbs which provide backlighting to the lcd display. these can burn out. they are easy to replace though. i repaired the pixels in the mid on my 540. it worked perfectly and they are back 100%. this is not for the faint of heart though as the ribbon cable needs to be removed from the circuit board. im going to switch the gauge face from an m5 cluster i have here with the one in my car as it has the gray faces. i just made a tool to safely remove the pointers and am in the process of sourcing replacement ribbon cables. once i perfect this 100% i'll start fixing clusters for you guys for a modest fee.
I recall a few members trying the DIY fix that Ard referred to and making a complete boll0cks of it because they damaged the pointers or couldn't relocate them properly.
I chickened out and had the repair done for about £180, fully guaranteed.
I think your offer will be taken up big-style.
__________________ **** it, let's do it - Australian proverb
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