Local dealer screwed up my MFD, can I fix it myself?

[paulisme]

I just got back from my local Toyota dealer and am pretty ticked off. I took my 2004 Prius in for an oil change and tire rotation. After they finished and I turned the car on, I noticed the multi-function display was all screwed up. The screen stayed black for about 5 seconds, then the main "Energy" screen came up, but the outside temp, current MPG and battery charge were blank. I hit the Climate button and it said something to the effect of "the air conditioning unit is not connected." I showed the service guy what was going on, they took the car back and looked at it for about 45 minutes, and then the service guy came back out and told me I needed to bring it back in on Monday for their master technician to take a look at it. I'm guessing they knocked something loose while working on the car and didn't know how to get it working again (he said no one working there today was a certified Prius technician). Has anyone else experienced this and know how to fix it? I really don't want to have to drive back to the dealer before work on Monday, get a loaner car, then go back after work to pick up my car, especially if it's just a loose wire somewhere that I could just plug back in myself. I installed an iPod interface myself a couple years ago, so I'm not averse to pulling the dash apart if I need to.

[Patrick Wong]

It's not very likely that whoever worked on your car did anything to affect the MFD since the service was limited to an oil change and tire rotation. If the dashboard had been taken apart, then maybe you could make that connection.

The MFD is a known problem area in 2004 and 2005 models, at minimum. The error message that you saw regarding the air conditioner is indicative that the MFD is failing. The root cause is an intermittent solder connection within the MFD that Hobbit was the first to research and document on his website.
http://www.techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/mfd/

The dealer tech will get around to diagnosing a bad MFD and will quote you a price well into four digits to replace it. When this happens, ask if the parts dept can obtain a remanufactured unit which should cost in the high hundreds. Or if you can solder very small components, look for Hobbit's good work and see if you can duplicate it.

[Boo]

+ 1

Like Patrick said.

And if you'd like to read the thread about the problem (it's interesting), look here:

MFD issues on '04/'05 Prius

[paulisme]

That just sounds like a pretty strange coincidence...I drive it to the dealer, no problems with the MFD. They service the it. I get in and turn it on, the MFD is screwed up.

[paulisme]

Crisis averted! After finding this post, I decided to check my DICE iPod interface connection, and sure enough, it was barely hanging in there. I pulled it out, turned the car on, and the MFD was back to normal. Then I turned the car off, plugged the unit back in, turned the car back on, and everything was still normal. It must have gotten knocked loose while the car was being serviced.

Have I ever mentioned how much this site rocks?