MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[Bob Cowart]

That sounds great. At the I wrote that there were no clues on the Web about the cause or a fix. Are there instructions other than those on Hobbit's site? Can you point me to them? I have the skills if I have instructions.

Thanks!
Bob

[patsparks]

I used Hobbits instructions, it is all you need. Go easy pulling plugs inside MFD, they are tight.
Sorry, no link, way past bed time.

[johnp]

Well folks, include my Prius in the list of those with the bad MFD. Symptoms are exactly as described in the TSB. It is a 2004 purchased January 2004 so pretty early. The car has 44,770 miles and 53 months of use. No extended warranty.

Many thanks to Hobbit for his work in isolating the problem and creating the excellent write up. I've purchased a unit from a wrecked car that has the 081 part number. I decided to roll the dice again. I do intend to get the original repaired or at least make a good attempt.

Shame on Toyota for not issuing a warranty extension to cover this. It is clearly a manufacturing problem. On the plus side this the first and ONLY issue we have ever had with the car.

John

[MiMi]

Does anyone know where I might be able to find someone in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that can repair my MFD using Hobbit's instructions? My husband is concerned that we will void any warranty if we have the MFD repaired per Hobbit's instructions vs. paying the $1000 I was quoted by a local Toyota dealer to replace it. We do not have the extended warranty. I'd rather find someone to repair it than spend the $1000 to replace it with a refurbished display. I too am angry with Toyota that they have known about this problem, issued a service bulletin but won't do anything to repair/replace these units at a minimal cost to the owners.

[MiMi]

Does anyone know where I might be able to find someone in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that can repair my MFD using Hobbit's instructions? My husband is concerned that we will void any warranty if we have the MFD repaired per Hobbit's instructions vs. paying the $1000 I was quoted by a local Toyota dealer to replace it. We do not have the extended warranty. I'd rather find someone to repair it than spend the $1000 to replace it with a refurbished display. I too am angry with Toyota that they have known about this problem, issued a service bulletin but won't do anything to repair/replace these units at a minimal cost to the owners. Has anyone taken this problem to a TV station that investigates consumer's complaints?

[patsparks]

If you can't remove the unit yourself have an auto electrician remove it then ask a local computer repair shop if they can do the soldering or recommend someone who can. Print and take a copy of Hobbit's instructions to the repairer.
If you have a warranty to protect have it repaired under that, if it isn't covered then there is nothing to risk.

You can drive the car with the display out, just re-connect the switches.

[jjksutton]

Add me to the list. Thanks to hobbit at least I know what's wrong and can approach the dealer Monday armed with good information. I bought the car a month and half ago and have driven 3,200 miles...which is just over the 90 day/3000 mile used car warranty the car came with.

So maybe the dealer decides to be decent and help me out, or maybe they stick to the letter of the law. Either way, I know I can get an MFD on ebay for $400. A lot better than $4K. If I have to go that way I think I'll try and get the old one fixed and if I can I'll probably try and sell it off for $100 or something.

Thanks again for all the great info, the linked site with pics, and incredible details. I knew the 04's had display issues and figured I'd cross that bridge when I got there...didn't expect to get there so fast.

[patsparks]

I think reading about it made it happen for me. I think I read about it one evening then the next day mine was playing up. It gradually got worse till it died.
I wouldn't bother with the Ebay one, fix yours and save $300. You can drive the car with the screen out, you just need to put the surround back to have access to the switches. The solder repair took my guy about 10 minutes once I had dismantled the screen. If your not confident to dismantle it should only take a competent tech an hour to get in and get out of the MFD using Hobbits great instruction once it is out of the car. An hour without the screen is hardly worth $300.
Once the screen is fixed if you have a little mechanical aptitude you could put the screen in yourself with a phillips screw driver and a 10mm socket in the car park of the repairer in 30 minutes easy.

As a side note, I have driven mine over 15,000km since the repair including about 260km of very rough dirt roads and no problems with my MFD since repairing it. 100km of that I was later told was a 4WD only road!

[jjksutton]

I'll have to see if I can find a shop around here that will tackle it. If the dealer doesn't come through, and the a finf a guy to "fix it" and it doesn't work, I'm no worse off than buying a $400 piece off ebay. Not too bad really. At least I know I can drive it with no ill effects, even if that means having a hole there for a little while.

[jjksutton]

my patience wasn't strong enough to wait...so I ripped apart the dash, pulled the MFD (which was waaaaay easy to do) and started to follow hobbit's research.

After a spent $10 at Radio Shack for a new soldering iron, I put everything back together and VOILA!!! It all works again. Unbelievable that Toyota would have ever charged anyone $4K for that.

Hopefully it will work from now on, but if not, I'm no worse than I started out, right?

BTW, I'm not gifted with the ability to tear things down and put them back together, but I went slowly and carefully and it was really pretty easy and, in a weird way, kind of fun...

Thanks again for the spectacular info