MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[takanali]

I'm new to the forum, but within 10 minutes, I was relieved to find that I'm not the only person with this problem. Although I'm having trouble with the terminology everyone's tossing around (DICE?). I'm assuming MFD refers to the touch display, in which case, I am also having issues. I have an early 2004 model. I started having trouble with the display in August, after a blazing hot spell, interior of the car well above 100 deg. F for extended periods of time. The display would kick off, no AC, no radio, no data. Pressing buttons yielded either no response, or some "AC is disconnected" message, I can't recall the precise text. 6 months later, all this is still happening. I took it to the dealer, who gave it back to me saying they couldn't diagnose it unless it happened while their equipment was attached (naturally, it didn't do it while I was at the dealer). They also mentioned that they'd never heard of this happening before - a common story from what I see on the boards here. Based on this message string, I'm gathering I should push back a little harder, and the sooner the better, I'm at 80,000 miles and a few months out of warrenty (at least). Good luck everyone!

[patsparks]

Bugga!!
It happened to me tonight!
On my way to work a song "Please don't stop the music" by Rihanna was playing on the radio and half way through the word music near the end of the song as I rounded a slight bend my radio fell silent. I laughed thinking someon at the radio station was having a laugh ...
... There was silence for too many seconds to be the station so I went to change stations and as I was reaching to hit the button on the steering wheel the sound came back on.

A short time later I glances at the power screen and notices the battery was blank and no power lines, switched to consumption and it was frozen at 5.2L/100km. I stopped on the side of the road and rebooted the car, screen back to normal and away I went. When I arrived at work I sat listening to the radio for a few seconds and noticed it seemed to crackle a bit.

After work I set off home, again there was no display of consumption. I stopped after the screen went blank. I rebooted, the screen booted up but went right off, reboot again and managed to go to diagnostic screen before it went off, it stayed on. All inputs worked it seems, tail light, dimmer, speed, park brake etc all showed up. I had Audio off even though it was on and check connection with A/C come across the screen.

Hobbit you did great work, thanks for your efforts mate. It must have taken hours just taking the photos!!!

[seeh2o]

I, too, joined the MFD club today. This morning I noticed that it took a few seconds for the outside temp portion of the screen to come on. It came on and the MFD worked within a few seconds.

Fast forward to me leaving work, splash screen comes on, screen goes blank, then the mpg screen comes on....no temp, no avg mpg, nada. Audio screen says the audio is turned off (hmm, well the radio was still playing and I could change it from the steering wheel), the air conditioner screen says that the a/c is disconnected (double hmmm, the heater is on, just like I wanted).

I have 140 miles to go until my 75,000 mile Toyota Platinum Extra Care warranty ends. It's at 74,840. I drive (8:30pm on V-Day night) to the dealership. I'm supposed to be going out of town for the weekend starting tomorrow morning...a 300 mile trip across the desert...and out of warranty. The Maint. sup. talks to a poor Prius tech in the maint. bay who says it probably needs a new MFD. The Maint sup. tells me to come back EARLY tomorrow morning, they'll write it up, diagnose it and probably send me on my trip to return when they get the "new" MFD in and can replace it. It will be covered under warranty so long as it doesn't take me 140 miles to get to the dealership tomorrow! Dealership is about 6 miles away.

Thanks to Evan and Hobbit for such tenacity and starting this thread!

My warranty is a 75,000 mile Platinum, so I'm assuming from what I've read here it will be covered. Does anyone know for sure? If I'm right, I feel like a cat that's down to 8 lives.

Evan, is there a place at Toyota that I should write or contact to add to the pile of MFD probs? I want to contribute to the cause.

My Prius is an early 2004. I took ownership on 2.20.04. No DICE.

Thanks again guys...you are the best!

[Godiva]

I've had no problems so far. But I've read three MFD failures tonight and I'm grateful I've got the 7 year 75,000 extended warranty. My 2005 doesn't have 30,000 miles on it yet, so I'm sure I'll hit 7years before I hit 75,000 miles. If this is such a known issue, Toyota shouldn't be balking at fixing them.

[patsparks]

I'll be printing everything I can find about the failure and going to my local Toyota dealer Monday to see what they can do for me. As a known issue I think Toyota should have extended warranty on the MFD, if not I might write to DOTARS and see what they have to say about it. The MFD is incorperated in the heater system in that it displays the heater settings, the heater, demister is required under Australian Design Rules so I may try that for a start. No success that way I'll try consumer affairs. If that fails there is always the small claims court.

It is a little disapointing that Toyota have not replaced all MFDs in pre 06 Prius and made a claim against their supplier for shoddy design.

[hobbit]

What if someone with an ailing MFD were to take the car to the
dealer, pull the MFD *out* of the car and walk up to the
service desk with it, say "please repair this" and point to
the webpage for the instructions on how to go at it, and have
the toyota techs do the fix? Auto techs generally know how to
solder, they need to do it every so often...
.
Or is that first step of pulling the MFD a major roadblock
for most owners? It does involve pulling some dash panels..
.
_H*

[seeh2o]

Originally Posted by hobbit

What if someone with an ailing MFD were to take the car to the
dealer, pull the MFD *out* of the car and walk up to the
service desk with it, say "please repair this" and point to
the webpage for the instructions on how to go at it, and have
the toyota techs do the fix? Auto techs generally know how to
solder, they need to do it every so often...
.
Or is that first step of pulling the MFD a major roadblock
for most owners? It does involve pulling some dash panels..
.
_H*

I think you hit the nail on the head, when I saw your detailed instructions with the pictures I was incredibly overwhelmed at the thought of taking it out. I have to admit, I did think about asking them to solder it rather than replacing it.

I took it in, they looked at it, said they'd order a new MFD for me and call me when they get it in. I warned them that my 75,000 mile extended warranty would be gone by the time the MFD came in. They told me not to worry, that they were going to leave the ticket open and the warranty would cover it. I hope they are right!

[seeh2o]

Originally Posted by efusco

I just sent the following message to Toyota Customer Service via their online reporting system.

I'm a moderator at Priuschat.com, the largest online Prius community in the US. We are noting growing frustration and numbers of complaints about failing MFDs on '04 and early '05 model year cars. Increasingly Toyota seems resistant to replacing these even when the car is just barely out of warranty.

I think this is a big mistake on the part of TMS. Considering that the Prius is cutting edge technology and those of us who purchased an '04 MY Prius were taking a bit of a chance and putting our faith and confidence in Toyota to put out a reliable product it seems like a bit of a slap in the face to now not acknowledge that the MFD's in those early models were faulty and replace them at no cost whenever they fail...at least for the first 60-100k miles. If/when large numbers of people start reporting these failures and are frustrated when dealers charge them $3000 to replace them (which is happening as dealers are not telling people they can get remanufactured displays for $400) dissatisfaction will grow, word will spread, and Toyota's reputation for building reliable durable cars will be tested.

I strongly encourage Toyota, at the highest levels, to reconsider their policy on the Prius MFD in the models mentioned and replace all of them for free, under warranty, both to acknowledge those who helped get the Prius off to the amazing start it is enjoying and to bolster Toyota's reputation as the manufacturer of the most reliable cars.
Sincerely,
Evan Fusco
P.S. Mine failed while under the 3/36k warranty and was replaced, so this is NOT a personal issue for me.

Evan,

I must confess, I plagiarized your letter - though I did take the initiative to tailor it to state my situation which was slightly different than yous - and sent it to Toyota's online reporting system you included as a link in your original post.

Ah, confession is good for the soul!

Connie

[richard schumacher]

Originally Posted by hobbit

Or is that first step of pulling the MFD a major roadblock
for most owners? It does involve pulling some dash panels..

Bingo! Dis- and re-assembling the dash would give me the willies. But if it would result in lower cost to me I'd be completely open to having a dealer tech pull the thing, handing it to me for repair, and then have them re-install it.

[galaxee]

we never had a taker on our mfd deal when we could offer it either. i think the dash disassembly is a big hang-up for folks. for us, it was probably also the driving around with a hole in your dash for the time it takes to get everything shipped.