MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[jerosta]

I just experienced the malfunctioning MFD in my 2004 Prius. I also have a DICE. I unplugged the DICE and it does seem to have solved the problem. Interestingly, I have had the DICE for about a year without any such problem. The weather just changed, btw. Perhaps the dramatic drop in temperature did something?

[efusco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Flocculus @ Oct 22 2007, 10:23 PM) [snapback]529142[/snapback]</div>

I'm afraid I've just joined the legions of failed-MFDers, at 60K miles. I have the Platinum Extra Care warranty in effect, but the dealer is saying it is not covered and quoting the usual prices. We'll see about that.

But I, too, am interested in the cause of this issue for preventive reasons. Will this happen again on the ones we are all getting replaced? Would it be helpful to leave the MFD off most of the time? Is it helpful to protect the MFD from the sun? This inquiring mind wants to know! Kudos to those working on it!

John [/b]

You might call Toyota Financial and just 'innocently' enquire as to what items are covered or not covered by the Platinum warranty. "Hi, I'm considering buying a Prius and was trying to decide if I should get the extended warranty. But I've heard that sometimes the multi-display fails and is expensive to replace and wanted to be sure that would be covered under the extended warranty."
When they answer in the affirmative ask them to send you something or get a name to confirm.
Alternatively you can be less secretive about it and just call the Toyota Customer Cares service and make your concerns known.
But, in the past, this question has come up and it was confirmed that the MFD was covered by the Platinum extended warranty.

[hobbit]

eep, I've still got the failed one from p626808 here but have had
utterly *no* time to swap it in and test it yet... maybe I should at
least get it open for a looksee.
.
_H*

[flocculus]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 23 2007, 08:58 AM) [snapback]529235[/snapback]</div>

You might call Toyota Financial and just 'innocently' enquire as to what items are covered or not covered by the Platinum warranty. "Hi, I'm considering buying a Prius and was trying to decide if I should get the extended warranty. But I've heard that sometimes the multi-display fails and is expensive to replace and wanted to be sure that would be covered under the extended warranty."
When they answer in the affirmative ask them to send you something or get a name to confirm.
Alternatively you can be less secretive about it and just call the Toyota Customer Cares service and make your concerns known.
But, in the past, this question has come up and it was confirmed that the MFD was covered by the Platinum extended warranty.
[/b]

Thanks for the thoughts! They have actually agreed now that it is covered -- it had better be, since the Platinum contract says everything is covered except a few little items. BUT it's only the refurbished unit that they have agreed to. I guess that it is "functionally equivalent" -- especially if it quits in 60K miles like this one? :-P Has anyone had any success insisting on a new one? Not worth trying?

John

[efusco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Flocculus @ Oct 24 2007, 08:50 PM) [snapback]529992[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the thoughts! They have actually agreed now that it is covered -- it had better be, since the Platinum contract says everything is covered except a few little items. BUT it's only the refurbished unit that they have agreed to. I guess that it is "functionally equivalent" -- especially if it quits in 60K miles like this one? :-P Has anyone had any success insisting on a new one? Not worth trying?

John [/b]

Probably not worth trying. The replacements/refurbs seem to be holding up well and you'll be pleased to find that you can now use the INFO button on the steering wheel to toggle b/w the ENERGY and Consumption screens.

[PriusLove]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 24 2007, 08:57 PM) [snapback]529996[/snapback]</div>

Probably not worth trying. The replacements/refurbs seem to be holding up well and you'll be pleased to find that you can now use the INFO button on the steering wheel to toggle b/w the ENERGY and Consumption screens.
[/b]

Add our '04 Prius to the failed MFD list at 60 something thousand miles.

John, if you had someone agree to replace it, can you tell me who, so I can give the info to our Toyota Dealer.

Whether it is pertinent, or not I don't know, but approximately 3 weeks before this failure, my Voice Nav system locked up and kept repeating itself. I was coming upon an accident with Firetrucks and police vehicles, so I turned off the main street and the system unlocked. I thought maybe there was an EMF interference from all the radios that caused the problem.

Now our MFD performs only sporadically and the CD player not at all.
Yesterday, turning the display off and on again, revived it, but it is much worse today:

The steering wheel info toggle doesn't work at all.

If I try to access the map, I get a message that says "external system not connected."

The arrows on the directional energy flow are blank. The MPG calculator doesn't work.

The outside temperature reading doesn't read.

[PriusLove]

Starting the process of dealing with Toyota now.

First Call to Dealer:

He won't know if it is covered until he runs the diagnostics and checks with the Platinum Care people. He's had it happen twice before. Once was caused by rats chewing wires, and once by someone hitting the display too hard. Neither of those was covered.

Second Call to Platinum Care:
It's covered if it's not rat-caused.

[p626808]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Oct 23 2007, 01:04 PM) [snapback]529337[/snapback]</div>

eep, I've still got the failed one from p626808 here but have had
utterly *no* time to swap it in and test it yet... maybe I should at
least get it open for a looksee.
.
_H*
[/b]

Was wondering what happened to it?

Let me know what you find...

Scott

[hobbit]

I'm gonna resurrect this thread again and keep it going, although
I expect the final resolution will become a "teardown" webpage. I'm
getting pix but haven't waded through them yet. But I finally
rigged my own MFD for easy unpluggability and started testing the
bad one.
.
All the internal functions work, i.e. the seekrit diagnostics, the
screen controls themselves, etc. The issue seems to be all network,
i.e. it can't talk to or hear the car. But today when experimenting
and wiggling things around I actually *did* get it to talk to the
car for a while, and see the fact that I turned on the stereo and
fooled with the volume, and read the MPG average from the meter ECU,
and made beeps. But at the same time I was getting lots of false
button presses, which is interesting because I didn't even have the
little cable to the button assembly plugged in. [Maybe it doesn't
like floating inputs..] But so far it really seems like a physical
flakiness problem, particularly tickled by wiggling a little short
cable that goes between two main circuit boards.
.
I've pulled all the boards off and cruised all over them with the 30x
binocular microscope, and see nothing amiss in the soldering or board
integrity. Pretty dense stuff in there. The only suspicious thing
is a little bit of spot corrosion or wear or something on some of
the connector pins, which I'll take DeOxIt or the like to and see
if that improves things.
.
An interesting symptom is that with the stereo powered up and at very
low volume, I hear a little bit of the periodic chirping that the
AVCLAN emits, and don't hear it with the good MFD in place. This
might imply that the network wires aren't terminated, or something,
if in fact this type of network even needs it. Can someone remind
me of the more commonplace "industrial" name for what the AVCLAN is,
and describe [if you know] its bus characteristics? I2C comes to
mind but I don't remember.
.
Have yet to take a scope to anything, but it should be pretty easy
to backprobe the network leads of the plug and compare waveforms.
.
_H*

[tkil]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Nov 13 2007, 05:30 PM) [snapback]539161[/snapback]</div>

Can someone remind
me of the more commonplace "industrial" name for what the AVCLAN is,
and describe [if you know] its bus characteristics? I2C comes to
mind but I don't remember.[/b]

This page:
http://www.softservice.com.pl/corolla/avc/avclan.php
says that it's the "IEBus", and links to:
http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_IEbus.html
and Wikipedia agrees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEBus

(I think I have one of the "later" 2005 models, since my steering-wheel INFO button toggles consumption vs. energy screens...)