MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[richard schumacher]

Originally Posted by F8L

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.

He probably meant, what constitutes early/late for this problem. The TSB explicilty lists the range of affected VINs; as I recall it went into April of 2005.

[KenP]

Originally Posted by patsparks

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.

patsparks, You're very fortunate to have an electronic repair person custom repair something for $25.

Most of the electronic repair people that I've been associated with just want to swap out boards rather than actually go in fix the problem part.

[patsparks]

Originally Posted by KenP

patsparks, You're very fortunate to have an electronic repair person custom repair something for $25.

Most of the electronic repair people that I've been associated with just want to swap out boards rather than actually go in fix the problem part.

Ask around.
Ask your local computer shop if they know someone who fixes stuff by repairing damaged boards etc. I got sent from one shop to another then another and that shop put me onto Harry the tech with an actual soldering iron and a microscope. He also has a video microscope so I could see his work, beautiful!!
Remember, Hobbit has done all the hard work doing the diagnostics and you can tell the tech you won't put any responsibility on them if the repair doesn't work.

$25 was Harry's minimum price for a repair. He was an interesting guy to talk to as well. Does a lot of work for the mining industry in remote locations, he has his own plane to get to work.

[hobbit]

Well, I just completed and shipped off my first for-pay repair.
A totally "textbook" [?!] pin-60 crack:
_ http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/car...524rs-ck01.jpg
_ http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/car...526rs-ck02.jpg
There were also some suspicious-looking areas on some of the
other connections so I wound up reflowing several more of them
and a couple on the other side of the connector too.
.
Remember that these pins are only about the width of two or
three human hairs...
.
On this one I noticed that due to the way the MFD frame parts
are stamped, it is possible that the upper board winds up being
slightly stressed toward one corner -- coincidentally, *away*
from the pin 60 corner of the connector which would have a
tendency to try and pull that corner up. By "biasing" the
play around various screws before tightening them down I was able
to neutralize this shift and have the upper board sit squarely
over the lower one, which will hopefully keep the problem from
recurring long-term. In extreme cases it might even make sense to
ream out the non-threaded parts of some holes to give the whole
thing a little more play. This is a new factor I didn't notice
in the original analysis, but may be relevant for others doing
their own fixes as more and more '04 etc units succumb to the
pounding of economic-downturn-driven road maintenance degradation.
.
_H*

[jayman]

I gotta admit, an Uber Geek like you makes me feel pretty unworthy

Agree with your assessments, but a couple of questions:

What are you using for reflow? I've got a handle on a slightly used hot air reflow station - thank you downturn in the economy

You really do need a stereo microscope to work on a lot of these teeny parts, or maybe my eyes are getting worse. do you use the headband-style magnifier or a genuine stereo microscope?

[hobbit]

I've got a genuine 20x and 30x stereo microscope, which is also
how the "vignetted" pictures were shot, *and* a head-mounted "old
man" style flip-down magnifier for the more generic stuff. I
forget where I got the scope, but it's fairly old and I had to
add a top-light to it to make it actually useful. There's a
picture of it in the original MFD page. I'd love a pair of those
flexible fiber illuminators that sometimes go along with them.
.
Reflow is maybe the wrong word; it's straightforward touch-up
with a small weller tip "extended" with a bit of something like 22 ga
copper wire wound around it. That and the thinnest solder I have.
It's a little dicey but I wait for a while until after the coffee
wears off and I can be reasonably steady in there.
.
_H*

[jayman]

Geez, you ARE a techno-stud

I'm trying to determine if I can write-off a Nikon stereo scope, the model I'm considering is around $4,300. No way in hell I'd buy something like that if I can't write it off

Do you think a air reflow might be better for that sort of work? My track record for pencil solder rework/touchup is iffy. I was able to play with a Madell air reflow station, and was VERY impressed with it.

I was also very impressed with the estimated $9 G's price tag too

As far as coffee shakes, try heavy drinking. That seemed to work for me

[HiHoStevo]

Originally Posted by patsparks

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.

The part that is really difficult is finding someone with the skill and tools and willingness to do the work once you have disassembled it.

Now in my case, I am such a terrific mechanic that I have found over the years that I can reassemble devices (mechanical and electronic) and not need nearly as many parts as was originally used to put the device together .

[patsparks]

Originally Posted by HiHoStevo

The part that is really difficult is finding someone with the skill and tools and willingness to do the work once you have disassembled it.

Now in my case, I am such a terrific mechanic that I have found over the years that I can reassemble devices (mechanical and electronic) and not need nearly as many parts as was originally used to put the device together .

Well that wasn't easy for me either, I was refered from computer shop to computer shop until I found my man who did the repair while I went to the bank to get the cash to pay him, he didn't take cards.

I was once such a great mechanic, I overhauled a Ford 3 speed gearbox, had a thrust washer left over. The gearbox lasted until the first downshift. It was my own gearbox! Ouch!

[jayman]

Originally Posted by patsparks

I overhauled a Ford 3 speed gearbox, had a thrust washer left over. The gearbox lasted until the first downshift. It was my own gearbox! Ouch!

Oh, you've done that too?

Around 5 years ago when I put the PowerTrax LockRight

POWERTRAX® TRACTION SYSTEM

in the Ford work truck rear axle at my hobby farm, I buttoned everything up and then found this tiny spring. To properly position the engagement and disengagement, each half has four recesses with four springs.

Actually, a large spring with a smaller spring inside. For some reason, one of the smaller springs managed to escape on me. Having accidently destroyed stuff in my youth due to not checking things over (An oil pump relief spring on a Chevy motor, a cone washer on a transmission, the list goes on) I knew better, and tore everything apart again