MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[bruceha_2000]

Originally Posted by bigbearballs

How many 04 owners have not had a problem with this?

SO FAR, my 2004 has NOT had this problem. (Is there a 'fingers crossed' smilie?)

Dr. Fusco said you have a potentially 'bad' MFD (080 from Hobbit's diagnostics) if your display NEVER bounced between energy and consumption using the Info button on the steering wheel. If this is a valid statement, I have the 081 version because mine has always bounced between the two screens with that button.

My car is one of the last 2004's made, I received it at the end of Sept, 2004. Since it has always worked as Dr. Fusco described, perhaps there was a mixed batch of 'old' and 'new' MFDs at the 2004/2005 model change over such that some 2005's got an '080' MFD and some 2004s got an '081' MFD. The only way for me to know about mine for sure would be to pull it out of the dash.

Given that several self described 'not all that mechanically inclined' people were able to get the MFD out of the dash and disassembled such that they or someone else could re-flow the solder per Hobbit's instructions ($25 AUS if the board is already out!!), it would seem to me that Toyota could be replacing every one that fails for a lot less than they are charging now. I understand Toyota doesn't want to replace all the 080 units since some may never fail.

Maybe Toyota could hire Hobbit as an independent contractor to fix them, the skill is already proven . Given a stock of a couple dozen repaired units in Hobbit's garage, one should be able to go to their local dealer once the ordered part is received and have their bad one pulled, replaced with a Hobbit repaired unit and drive home in an hour or less. The dealer would then send the bad unit to Hobbit for repair. A short term contract to be sure, but hey, who doesn't need a little extra money?

Even better, those so inclined could take out their bad MFD and swap it with a repaired one from the dealer saving the labor cost and saving Hobbit from having to deal with a lot of people.

[DPoole]

Hobbit, you're my hero! You did as good or better a job of troubleshooting and documenting a clear design and manufacturing defect as any I saw in a 35-year career in electronic product engineering and management.

My '04 Prius' MFD (an early VIN) became intermittent at 62,500 miles. I called my dealer and set a service appointment for the following week, but decided to check PriusChat "just in case," only to find this thread, Toyota's TSB, and your elegant instructions.

Figuring I had at least $700+ to save, I pulled the dash with instructions I also found on this board and removed and disassembled the MFD. Sure enough, under a loupe, there was the pin 60 crack, clear as day. I repaired it with an exaggerated solder fillet, (thanks also for the copper wire soldering tip trick,) cleaned off the flux, and added a small drop of polyurethane to keep moisture out.

It's back in the dash and working again, but the other 58 connections are indeed worrisome. If it's still good the day before the service appointment, I'll cancel the appointment.

This is my first disappointment with the Prius. By fixing it, I lost my standing to give Toyota you-know-what about its failure to warrant a design defect, but if the other solder connections take it down again, I now have the TSB and postings to show at the dealer. Owning both '03 and '04 Pria, serviced regularly and never serviced anywhere else, it would be a good test of "customer loyalty" at least at the dealer level.

Again, thanks for your great work on isolating the root cause.

[lpleiss]

Add me to the list of bad MFD's too. I have an early '04 (purchased in November 2003) with about 75K miles. While driving today my radio turned itself off just as I was arriving at the grocery store. When I came back out and turned on the car the MFD screen went black, then came back to the Info screen with no graph, no outside temp, no MPG etc. Same symptoms as everyone else. (And FWIW, the Info toggle thing never worked for me....didn't even know it was supposed to do that until I started reading this thread)

I do have a 7yr/ 100K mile extended warranty, so I'm hoping it's covered. I'll be taking it to the dealership on Monday.

Silly question, but for the last couple months my AM radio reception has suddenly been horrible. Any idea if it might be related? At the very least I will ask the service tech to check the antenna connections while he's replacing the MFD.

Luta

[Birdman1]

Add me to the list of bad MFD's. I drive an 04 with 95000+ miles. My dealer offered no help, said they did not have access to refurbished but could get new for $3990 <haha>. He did say they would install for $100 if I found a unit, used or refurbished. Any thoughts on finding one would be appreciated! For now I have just turned the screen off, not quite as annoying that way!

[maseace]

I was able to fix mine by reflowing the solder on pins 59 and 60 per Hobbit's guide, even though I could see no evidence of cracking or lifting with a 10x magnifier. It felt great to fix this myself for free.

You can find replacement screens on eBay for about $300 (make sure you get the right one for your option package). One of the sellers requires that you send your bad one in afterwards to get a deposit back. They must be resoldering them as well.

[jaa]

We bought the Prius in May 2004. On June 28, 2008 we were getting ready to leave on vacation. My husband was trying to set up the hands free cell phone functions to link his cell phone to the car. The hands free cell phone law in California was going into effect on July 1, 2008 so he thought he should do it now. After finishing the installation the MFD started acting up as described in the service bulletin. We hardly ever used the navigation except when we went on vacation so I was really bothered by the timing. The air conditioning still worked and the navigation did too sometimes but not all the time. My husband researched the problem by coming to this site so we knew what was going on. After vacation I had surgery and have been recovering for several months now and haven't had time to deal with the problem. However, winter is coming and there are no controls on the steering column for heat, although leaving it on AC and pushing the up controlls arrow seems to provide some heat. However, we can not adjust the vents and not all the vents seem to be working. So now I have contacted the dealer. They pulled the unit out to check the wires and the number of the unit before they could order it and that cost $125. They reinstalled the unit and today I called them about the reburbished unit. The cost would be $850.00 installed. However, I am now upset that I'm being charged twice for removing the unit, let along having to replace a known defective part that should have been recalled. I think the car had 58,000 on it when the MFD started going out. We are going to contact Toyota and see if that gets us any help on covering the replacement. We also own a 2001 double cab Prerunner and haven't had any problems with it. We thought the reliability of Toyota was great until now and are extremely upset that they would not cover this. We are in the market for a new truck or suv and we will have to think twice now whether it will be a Toyota or not. We love the prius and haven't had any other problems so far with it and until now I would have bought a new Prius without a second thought. In researching this problem I came upon the website Consumeraffairs.com which listed the Prius the 4th worst used car. Is that the reputation that Toyota wants? jaa

[JimboK]

Originally Posted by jaa

In researching this problem I came upon the website Consumeraffairs.com which listed the Prius the 4th worst used car. Is that the reputation that Toyota wants? jaa

I don't think Toyota is very concerned about the biased reporting from Consumeraffairs.com. Nor should they be. Real world across-the-board data from an objective source with more representative sampling, such as that coming from Consumer Reports or TrueDelta, is more meaningful.

I'm not denying the problem with the MFD, but a statement that the Prius is "the 4th worst car" is quite vague and extends well beyond this issue.

[kza]

Thanks for the posts re this MFD problem.I have an 04 prius in my shop right now with an MFD problem - menu items are on but functions (charging display etc/ac etc) do not work-79,000 out of extra care and factory warranty. Here's one more addition to the growing MFD failures out there. i will talk to my parts dealer tommorrow for a reman unit.

[patsparks]

Why not just get an electronics repairer to fix it? It is a dead easy fix which I had a tech do for $25 after I removed and dismantled the unit with instructions from this thread.

[maseace]

I would be willing to fix the MFD display at no charge for anyone in the Seattle, WA area who can bring their car over for a little while. The disassembly and soldering required only takes about 1/2 hour.