MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[jayman]

Originally Posted by hobbit

Yeah, I'm going to treasure all the 60/40 I have left until they
pry it out of my cold dead fingers.

Sooooooooooooooooo looks like somebody was wise enough to rathole a bunch of that evil 60/40. Hmmmm

I know who I'll be visiting with next time in "Bahstan"

[KenP]

Reporting in that my 2004 Prius with 55289 miles has the MFD issue that has been described in this thread. First occurance 15MAY2009. I live in Florida.

Car out of warranty and I didn't buy the extended warranty. I have never had any service problems with the car. I Have done all the routine maintenance and factory recalls.

Toyota should pay for this repair out of warranty since it was a known defect back in 2005, but from what I read they are not doing it unless the claim is escalated and then maybe not full coverage.

I'm going the eBay route to get a refurbished unit and then send mine back to the eBay seller.

[Sandy]

I have a 04 early model and hope i dont have the same issues at almost 60K now

[hybridmel]

Just out of curiosity, is this a detectable issue?

We are hoping to be able to take the Prius I am looking at to a mechanic to have it looked at for an inspection.

Would a faulty MFD be something a qualified mechanic could pick up on, even if it is not in the severe stages?

I cannot afford a $1,000 repair right off the bat, and the MFD was one thing that was definitely concerning to me, especially if the 05's were prone to it.

P.S. How do I know if it was an early or late 05 model?

[oxnardprof]

I just had the problem on my 2004 Prius. The fault was obvious, if you drove around a little bit. In my case, it often acted up on starting the car.

The problem showed up at 86,000 miles or so. Fortunately for me I have the extended warranty.

I took the car to Ventura Toyota (where I purchased the car) on May 13th. They inspected the car, verified the MFD problem, and filed a claim on the warranty. Two days later they already had the part. I brought the car in today (May 20th) and the car was fixed in about an hour and a half. The service person helped me reestablish the bluetooth connection to my phone.

The cost of the repair (refurbished MFD) would have been $768, but of course I paid nothing.

So, the experience of replacing the unit was as painless as it could be, at lest at Ventura Toyota. Of course, the extended warranty helped, even though I am still 'down' since I think the warranty cost more than the repair.

Edit: The MFD retained memory of current tank fuel consumption and my navigational data.

[patsparks]

Why not read the thread, print out the instructions for the fix and take the car to a radio installer who may be able to affect the repair for the cost of about 1 or 2 hours labour?

I took my MFD out myself in about half an hour, dismantled it using Hobbit's instructions then had an electronics tech do the soldering at a total out of pocket cost of $25.00 because that was his minimum charge, then put it back together myself.

Not had an issue since.
Be brave, have a go.

[KenP]

Originally Posted by KenP

Reporting in that my 2004 Prius with 55289 miles has the MFD issue that has been described in this thread. First occurance 15MAY2009. I live in Florida.

Car out of warranty and I didn't buy the extended warranty. I have never had any service problems with the car. I Have done all the routine maintenance and factory recalls.

Toyota should pay for this repair out of warranty since it was a known defect back in 2005, but from what I read they are not doing it unless the claim is escalated and then maybe not full coverage.

I'm going the eBay route to get a refurbished unit and then send mine back to the eBay seller.

I installed the refurbished unit from autobeyours.com via eBay today 30MAY2009 without incident. It took me about 1 hour. Someone experienced in taking about the dash could probably of done it in 15 minutes.

So it cost me $299 + $25 shipping + $10 to ship old unit back = $334
Plus my hour of labor $0.02 :-)

...KenP

[patsparks]

Originally Posted by KenP

I installed the refurbished unit from autobeyours.com via eBay today 30MAY2009 without incident. It took me about 1 hour. Someone experienced in taking about the dash could probably of done it in 15 minutes.

So it cost me $299 + $25 shipping + $10 to ship old unit back = $334
Plus my hour of labor $0.02 :-)

...KenP

How does that compare to my cost of $25 to have the solder joints re-flowed plus just a little more time to pull the MFD display apart and assemble it.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by hybridmel

P.S. How do I know if it was an early or late 05 model?

Look in the driver's side door jamb and find the build date for your Prius. It will specify the month and year of your build date.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by patsparks

Why not read the thread, print out the instructions for the fix and take the car to a radio installer who may be able to affect the repair for the cost of about 1 or 2 hours labour?

I took my MFD out myself in about half an hour, dismantled it using Hobbit's instructions then had an electronics tech do the soldering at a total out of pocket cost of $25.00 because that was his minimum charge, then put it back together myself.

Not had an issue since.
Be brave, have a go.

If any in the California Bay Area have this issue I'd be happy to look at the intructions on Hobbit's page. Our tech guy at the stereo shop is great with a soldering iron. I'd hate to see PC'ers get shafted for $1,000 when they could spend less than $100 to have the joints/tracers resoldered.