Instrument cluster went out

While driving home last week the instrument cluster that displays the gas tank and speed went black. It just completely went out. I drove to the local Toyota dealer and they told me that there was a bad batch of boards and would order a new board. The following Monday (last Monday) they replaced the board and the screen/cluster is working again. However, it is now not as bright as before during the daytime if I have the lights on.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

Did you turn the little dimmer wheel all the way up until it clicks. It stops then it has one additional setting. Give it a little push until it clicks.

I guess the reason I posted this was to see if anyone else experienced the cluster going completely out. They replaced the board and it really was no inconvenience other than being without my car for half a day and they did give me a loaner. I did rotate the control wheel and it helped but still different than it used to be.

I remember someone posting an exact scenario on the day he purchased his car. From down South, if I recall correctly. Bought it in one state and it went out as he approached his home state. Other than that, I don't think anyone else on PC has noted this.

If they know that there is a bad batch of boards...I'm surprised there isn't a recall. Odd.

Bad batch doesn't mean every board is bad. Gotta wait until they fail to find the bad ones in the batch.

Could be that the "problem" with the board was that it was letting it burn to bright, and like a shooting star, poof. Lights out.

I Wonder if this is the correction for the blurry (double image) speedometer/gas gauge.

I turned a corner the other day and the eco light over the eco gauge went out. It would not come on again although the eco bar continued to work fine. I got home turned the car off. The next morning and since the lights have worked fine.

Don't know what happened. I am just waiting to see if it happens again.

Anyone have any Data on when these boards were installed or a manufacture date for their vehicles? Were these early deliveries or deliveries as late as August 2009? Did Toyota have any comment on dates or VIN's affected?

Thanks

Hmm, I wonder if it'll be another poorly designed connector
that will plague the 2010s and give rise to thousands of forum
postings and a few reverse-engineering projects...
.
_H*

The same thing happened to me as I was driving my friend's 2010 Prius. How much did it cost for them to replace the board?

Thanks.

I keep getting the intermittent buzzing sound when the panel is not on full brightness. If I turn the lights off and back on, or turn the panel lights all the way up, it stops. It's on my list to have the dealer review at my first visit.

Robbin

I'm going to make a wild leap in the dark here and say that it was covered 100% by the warranty.

Your friend should take it to the dealer to have it fixed.

The same (or something similar) happened to me yesterday. I wodered if it had been doing this all along, and I just noticed it for the first time. Any others experiencing this? Any resolution?
Thx,
Tim

Don't go getting wild and crazy on us now. ound:

The "rheostat" for the dash lights isn't actually one in the
classic sense, but a little PWM circuit -- see this pic of the one
in an '04. It chops at around 200 Hz, if I remember right, which
would definitely produce audible noise if it was passing current to
anything that can physically flex in response to electrical power.
You'd be surprised what kind of components can go "microphonic"
sometimes; I would easily believe it causing other parts to become
noise sources.
.
_H*

I had the same problem. I took it back in for a new board. Apparently there have been several cases of this happening. Hopefully not a trend.

This sounds like you may have done one of two things:

1. Switched to PWR mode.

2. Accidentally bumped the shifter and changed it from "D" to "B". Another side-effect for "B" is that the cruise control will not engage.

I believe the ECO light goes out while you're in either "B" or PWR mode.

Have you checked to be sure something hasn't slipped down the dash and is covering the speedo/gauge projector lens. Remember, you're actually looking at an image projected on a mirror from below. I freaked out a few weeks after I got my 06 when a car wash receipt drifted down over the projector lens and it was lights out for a few days until my service manager made me feel like a fool.