Multi function display fades out

[wjrez]

I recently picked up an '06 S and it is a great vehicle!! I have noticed when the I start the multi function display is bright and all is well, except after 10 minutes or so of driving the display washes out a little and I can hardly see the the little display in the lower left hand corner that tells me what gear I am in. Is it something I can adjust or a fault in the display??

Thanks.

[wjrez]

I recently picked up an '06 S and it is a great vehicle!! I have noticed when the I start the multi function display is bright and all is well, except after 10 minutes or so of driving the display washes out a little and I can hardly see the the little display in the lower left hand corner that tells me what gear I am in. Is it something I can adjust or a fault in the display??

Thanks.

:angry: C'mon!!! Nobodyhas any ideas? No one has had this problem?

[Loren]

You will likely need to put the Durametric software or a PIWIS tester on the car to determine if the problem is the light sensor or the cluster.

[odix]

You will likely need to put the Durametric software or a PIWIS tester on the car to determine if the problem is the light sensor or the cluster.

Thanks Loren. As per usual, spot on advice.

[wjrez]

You will likely need to put the Durametric software or a PIWIS tester on the car to determine if the problem is the light sensor or the cluster.

Thanks Loren. As per usual, spot on advice.

As a long overdue follow up. I took the CS to the dealer and he ran it though the diagnostic and there were no fault codes that showed up (not bad for 109,000 miles!), but he said the only way to fix the fading multi purose display is to replace the entire instrument cluster at a cost of ~$2K. He said the display pixes are worn out. As I stated earlier, this is strictly heat related and the colder it is tthe longer thedisplay stays full bright. On a hot summer day (above 85 or 90), the display is virtually invisible at the start. Has nyone had issues like that before with this and is there a possibility I can get Porsche to step up and accept some of the blame for a component that should last the life of the vehicle? Thanks.

[wjrez]

Update number 2 - I wrote to Porsche and advised them of the problem noting that the vehicle was only 5 years old and that something like the multi-purpose display was something I am certain Porsche designed for the life of the vehicle and I am also sure they did not think that life to be just 5 years. I appealed to thier judgement and thier willingness to prove Porsches ability to display good will under the circumstances. They immediately wrote back requesting my VIN, dealer service associate, etc. and they would certainly open a case file and review. Well, the eternal optimist that I am had a vision of someone calling me in a couple of weeks with a fabulous good will jesture due to the unfortunate failure of a component that never should have failed. Much to my surpirse, they cllled me back the very next day and after an exhaustive investigation of the matter that I am certain was investigated at the highest levels of Porsche, they informed me that my vehicle was out of warrenty and there was nothing they could do. They also told me there was no one nor anything I could do in terms of an appeal to a higher authority. Boy, I am impressed by thier quick service and attention to the matter!!!!:censored:

[Scarpoolla]

Update number 2 - I wrote to Porsche and advised them of the problem noting that the vehicle was only 5 years old and that something like the multi-purpose display was something I am certain Porsche designed for the life of the vehicle and I am also sure they did not think that life to be just 5 years. I appealed to thier judgement and thier willingness to prove Porsches ability to display good will under the circumstances. They immediately wrote back requesting my VIN, dealer service associate, etc. and they would certainly open a case file and review. Well, the eternal optimist that I am had a vision of someone calling me in a couple of weeks with a fabulous good will jesture due to the unfortunate failure of a component that never should have failed. Much to my surpirse, they cllled me back the very next day and after an exhaustive investigation of the matter that I am certain was investigated at the highest levels of Porsche, they informed me that my vehicle was out of warrenty and there was nothing they could do. They also told me there was no one nor anything I could do in terms of an appeal to a higher authority. Boy, I am impressed by thier quick service and attention to the matter!!!!:censored:

I have the same problem on my MY 06 CS as I live in Florida. I have been shopping around for instrument clusters, but the closest I have come to finding one is on oemporscheparts.com Links to different Cluster assembly It looks like the one I would need would cost $1872 and that doesn't even cover installation. No telling how many pieces of crappy plastic I would break trying to pry all the molding and crap off the dash.

[mudman2]

I love the comedians they employ in Atlanta

[cwingert]

Has anyone attempted to repair the cluster?

It looks like its a common problem and the part is available online.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/504502/210661534-375706000/Transformer-for-TOUAREG-PORSCHE-and-BENTLEY-instrument-cluster-illumination-repai.html

http://www.keyecu.com/gallery.php?id=1717

[wjrez]

Has anyone attempted to repair the cluster?

It looks like its a common problem and the part is available online.

http://www.aliexpres...tion-repai.html

http://www.keyecu.co...ery.php?id=1717

What are those things and where are these located in the vehicle?

[bigbuzuki]

Transformer situated in the instrument cluster.

[Scarpoolla]

Transformer situated in the instrument cluster.

Do you know if it is easy to disassebly the instrument cluster and replace the transformers?

Has anyone attempted this?

[seafeye]

If someone comes across a used unit that didn't work let me know and i will get our avionics gurus to sort out a fix. I am sure the display will/can be removed and the screen replaced with a better quality chinese product.

[SA321]

why not buy a used cluster on e-bay for $200-300 and swap it? (your miles reading will be different but you can always provide DME readout if anyone questions). opening cluster is easy, no different to a radio. takes under 1 hour to get cluster out of dashboard

[odix]

My 2004 Cayenne S multifunction display is now starting to fade a bit -- today was a hot day and it was obvious the display is fading. Gear selection is dim as in the miles-per-hour readout, bottom rows of pixels. Classic symptoms of the display fade.

Thanks to cwingert's above post I located the replacement lighting transformer part for $42.

http://www.keyecu.co...ods.php?id=1717

The site sates: "Mainly to repair this dashboard you need replace defective lighting transformer to a new one."

Makes sense to me -- I would rather spend $42 then do a lot more. If it works, excellent, if not it's only $42. (And the hassle of tearing the dashboard apart...)

Pulling the console may not be as brutally complex as I thought but...has anyone replaced the lighting transformer on a failing multifunction display?

Also, I found this -- same part, different seller:

http://www.codecard....r/prod_332.html

Edited April 8, 2012 by odix

[Scarpoolla]

Let me start by saying that I have been researching this problem for a long time and finally have some information to report. I do not have a fix, but my hope is that when this post is pooled with the collective knowledge of the rest of the Cayenne Community that the problem can be solved.

Personally I believe the fading problem is twofold. The multi-function Mono Chromatic LCD display screen (or driver information display) is going bad, and the LEDs behind the display that illuminate it are also going bad. If problem includes the LEDs, this repair might fall out of the domain of DIY due to the leds being soldered to the main board. If it only involves the screen, then we are going to save ourselves a lot of money when compared to replacing the whole cluster.

Daylight shot of my screen before it completely fades away with the heat.

Night shot of my screen with fading beginning to occur. Kind of blurry, but you get the gist

Since I did not want to experiment on the cluster in my 2006 Cayenne S, I purchased ($170) a used cluster off of eBay to tear apart and figure out how it works. The actually disassembly of the cluster is quite easy as it only involves torx bit screws. The LCD screen is NOT soldered in place and the ribbon connection is held to the main circuit board by a plastic piece that puts pressure on the ribbon to keep it in contact with the cluster circuit board. The screen is held in place by a metal bracket that clips into place.

Picture of the Cluster with front casing (glass dial covers) and back casing (just a white case with port holes) removed and LCD retaining bracket removed.

I removed the metal bracket by depressing the legs with a screw driver and pulled the plastic retaining pin on the back of the cluster out in order to free the ribbon connection. The ribbon from the screen is partially behind the black dial face and snakes over the top of the cluster to the back circuit board. Next I carefully lifted the LCD screen out of place. I noted that my screen had the following numbers printed on it with no quotes "5621-40 207". I have googled the numbers hoping it was a part number, but I did not find anything. It appears this defect occurs more often in warm climates. This cluster came from a cold climate and had around 35K miles on it. I held the LCD up to the light and all the pixels appeared consistent. This might be my last resort if I cannot find a replacement screen.

Connection for the LCD ribbon and the ribbon from the LCD screen that slides into in the circuit board on the back and is held in place by a plastic piece.

End of LCD ribbon and the plastic connection piece. The handwritten number was already there when I opened her up.

Ribbon plastic piece sitting on top of the circuit board connection, with the ribbon removed.

Full Shot of the LCD screen.

Height in inches

Width in inches

Back of the cluster. The white boxes contain the gears to turn the needles. Notice the white ribbon connection point above the blue terminal.

In regards to the picture above, I have come across the replacement transformers for the instrument cluster that repairs the failing LCD screen when searching for parts, but I have no idea where they would go or be placed. As there is nothing that "Fat" on the circuit board. It is very thin, and the biggest things attached to it are the gear houses for the needles.

To access the backlight LEDs there are two filters that you have to remove. The first one is colored orange and the second is white. Do not touch these with bare fingers as the oils on your hands stick to them and cannot be removed.

Orange filter that sits underneath the LCD display. There is a plastic bar that creates that nice separation you notice in the display. The filter fits into a cut out slot. The white filter is beneath the orange one.

White filter removed.

Notice how the box is separate into two distinct areas. Those little rectangles are all LEDs.

This picture shows where the leg of the metal LCD retaining bracket would clip into place.

The biggest problem I have with the repair is being able to source the LCD screen from a US supplier. Currently I have made contact with a instrument repair company from Germany. They have the screens in stock and will also make the repair. I contacted them asking to only purchase a screen, here is their reply in italics.

Thank you very much for your request! The display costs 250 Euro net. + shipping (registered letter for 15 Euro). However, we cannot give you any guarantee for the display because you will install it by yourself.

We cannot tell you what is the reason why your instrument still does not work, because we would have to inspect it first.

You can send it for inspection and repair. We will sublimit you a non-binding offer after inspection, but the repair will cost at least 399 Euro including VAT.

You can find the offer and description of the problem with picture on our website here (please click on the English flag for English version) http://www.tachopix....666/language.de

You can send us the instrument for repair anytime. If it is a standard problem then will repair it and send it back on the same day when we receive your parcel.

The shipping with DHL to the US costs about 60,- Euro net if you transfer the money in advance into our account, UPS is faster but costs about 100 Euro. If you decide to send us your instrument for repair, please fill out our form, print it, sign it and put it into the parcel.

You find this form here:http://tachopix.de/repair/nav.399/subnav.10541/pagetype.page/ In case of any questions contact us anytime and we will be happy to help you!

Best regards,

Kamila Pilarski

Digital Tuning Service GmbH

Nordring 9, 30163 Hannover

Tel.: +49 (0)511 6766970

Fax: +49 (0)511 67669727

info@tachopix.de

www.tachopix.de

The price is kind of steep, but it might be our best shot at actually getting a screen. MAYBE, we could work out a group buy if we have enough interest. I currently have an outstanding email with no replay that is asking questions in order to dig for more information in order to find out who supplies these **** things. They gotta have a **** supplier!

I discovered another company that is out of Italy who's sole purpose is supplying these kind of parts to fix instrument clusters for audi, VW, MB, BMW, and etc. I have not contacted them yet, but there website is

www.mte.net

They might be our best hope for finding this screens at a reasonable cost. They even sell remanufactured Cayenne Turbo color LCD screens. SO why the hell not Cayenne S!

Please feel free to contact me about any questions or suggestions. Hopefully this posts gets some attention and we as a community find a fix for this lousy problem.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Scarpoolla

[wvicary]

http://www.paspeedo.com/

Have you tried this company?

[Scarpoolla]

Yes I have, they do not source the LCD screen. I have basically emailed every VDO repair that I can find in the USA by doing a google search. I then started emailing the ones in other countries as well to get to the point I am at.

[odix]

Scarpoolla -- you are awesome -- excellent write-up, photos and research. Thank you for your efforts and contribution. I agree with you -- if we all pool our info and resources we may be able to find a solution. Even though our vehicles are getting old there must be, to your point, a screen supplier somewhere and/or a repair facility. Replacing the entire console seems ridiculous and a lot of hassle.

LEDs usually last -- I have no science behind this statement, just overall experience with LEDs in general. When I look at my screen the backlight seems uniform which leads me to believe it's the screen only, not the LEDs/backlighting. Are you are planning on replacing your original console screen with the one you purchased -- install it in your existing console? But as you say, if you go to the effort to remove your entire console why not place a Turbo console in there? (But I happen to like to keep things stock and having a non-functional boost gauge would be a bit odd to me.) Plus, if we can determine a screen source then it should be a lot cheaper to replace the screen-only.

I found a Canadian guy (small company) who fixes/replaces similar screens in VW Touaregs but he is not set up (yet) for Cayennes. The good news is these people exist and are thinking about Cayenne screen repairs.

The company is: www.pixelfix.info

My correspondence with Pixelfix:

From: Pixelfix Contact Us <contactus@pixelfix.info>

Date: April 07, 2012 7:48:37 PM

To: odix

Subject: RE: Message from Pixelfix.info

Hi,

At the moment we are not ready yet to process these clusters , due to lack

of equipment and software for live testing on the bench.

Apologize for any inconvenience.

Paul Wojcik

-----Original Message-----

From: odix

Sent: April-07-12 8:38 PM

To: contactus@pixelfix.info

Subject: Message from Pixelfix.info

Hi -- I have a 2004 Cayenne S (Porsche but very similar to VW Touareg). My

multifunction display is fading. I can pull the cluster and ship to you.

Do your do this repair? Please let me know. Thanks.

[odix]

I did not see 955's on the Palo Alto Speedo's supported vehicle list but I just called them and spoke to a guy -- he said it's a $1,200+ job for a 2004 Cayenne S. Basically a console swap. He said he's heard, many times, about people trying to repair the screen by itself but did not know the answer or if it worked or not. He was a nice guy but skeptical about a screen fix without replacing the entire console. From what I understood they have never done this repair -- most people simply pay the big money and replace the console and then have it recoded.

And for the Italian supplier, I just emailed them (if they respond I'll will update this post):

From: odix

Date: April 10, 2012 8:58:22 AM

To: info@mte.net

Subject: 2004 Cayenne S multifunction display, (possible part number: 5621-40 207)

Hello. Do you have LCD replacement screens for the 2004 Porsche Cayenne S multifunction display? It's an orange monochrome display, not color LCD. It is located in the center console between the speedometer and tachometer.

Here are some pictures of the part:

http://www.renntech....play-fades-out/

There are many people interested in purchasing this part.

Please let me know. Thank you.

http://www.paspeedo.com/

Have you tried this company?

Edited April 11, 2012 by odix

[odix]

Update: I heard back from the Italian company. No luck.

From:

Lisa Zotti <lisa@minitools.it>

Date:

April 10, 2012 11:49:48 PM

To:

odix

Subject:

R: 2004 Cayenne S multifunction display, (possible part number: 5621-40 207)

Dear Sir,

we don’t have the article required.

Thank you

Cordiali Saluti/Best Regards

Lisa Zotti

SAVI ELETTRONICA S.r.l.

Società unipersonale

C/da Popoleto, 14/B

70011 - ALBEROBELLO (BA) Italy

C.F./P. IVA/N.I. Reg. Imp. Bari: 05948750723

Cap. Soc. € 20.000,00 i.v.

vendite@savielettronica.it

Tel. +39 080 4324023

Fax. +39 080 4327154

Questo messaggio è da intendersi esclusivamente ad uso del destinatario e può contenere informazioni che sono di natura privilegiata, confidenziale o non divulgabile secondo le leggi vigenti. Se il lettore del presente messaggio non è il destinatario designato, o il dipendente/agente responsabile per la consegna del messaggio al destinatario designato, si informa che ogni disseminazione, distribuzione o copiatura di questa comunicazione è strettamente proibita anche ai sensi del decreto legislativo 196/03. Se avete ricevuto questo messaggio per errore, vi preghiamo di notificarcelo immediatamente a mezzo e-mail di risposta e successivamente di procedere alla cancellazione di questa e-mail e relativi allegati dal vostro sistema.

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Da:

odix

Inviato:

martedì 10 aprile 2012 17:58

A:

Lisa Zotti

Oggetto:

2004 Cayenne S multifunction display, (possible part number: 5621-40 207)

Hello. Do you have LCD replacement screens for the 2004 Porsche Cayenne S multifunction display? It's an orange monochrome display, not color LCD. It is located in the center console between the speedometer and tachometer.

Here are some pictures of the part:

http://www.renntech....play-fades-out/

There are many people interested in purchasing this part.

Please let me know. Thank you.

Edited April 11, 2012 by odix

[Scarpoolla]

Odix, That's a big let down from the Italian company. I thought that was our best lead for the community.

On another not, I just scored the luckiest find possible. One of the US based cluster repair companies that I contacted, got back with me last night and said the owner of the company had purchased a 1 brand new cayenne cluster to use for parts. He is going to sell me the brand new screen for $125. This one has the number 3d24-40 on it. Seems like the "-40" is the only common number on both of the screens.

Also, another cluster repair company I have spoken with that is based out of Canada is in contact with their chinese supplier. After I switch my screens out, I will send my old screen to him so he can ship it overseas to his supplier. Based on conversations he already has had with them, they are going to try reverse engineer it as they have done this for the audi monochrome displays. The displays are very similar except for the ribbon cable.

If that doesn't work, our last option to buy a brand new screen would be to buy it from the German Cluster Repair company for over $300

http://www.tachopix....1/pagetype.iav/ Click the british flag in the upper right hand corner to read it in english.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Scarpoolla

[odix]

New screen -- great find Scarpoolla. Please update us once you have it installed. (I'm wary of the dash disassembly task to get to the console but if patient and careful it looks doable.)

I was fantasizing that a good electrical engineer could map data signal output to a similar-sized color TFT/LCD. Everything is possible but the complexity would be significant -- in fact I'm sure the signal could be routed to an iPod...but I know who wants an iPod shoved in their console. So much for my "all stock" sentiment.

I'll just have to deal with my hot-day fade display until a solution surfaces.

PS -- I'll split the cost of the shipping your old screen to Canada with you. No problem. Just PM me the amount and I'll send it to you via PayPal. You're a huge help to the community.

And a crazy idea: do the 9PA/9PA1 Cayenne Turbo console LCDs use the same cables? If so, that LCD might be cleanly mountable in our Cayenne/S consoles... The Turbo LCD's are available for sale for cheap. The console frame could be adjusted. Turn signal indicators may be blocked...

Here are the consoles: 1. Cayenne/S, 2. Turbo/S, 3. an overlay of the two -- you can see what they look like on top of one another. It looks like the Turbo's screen would fit inside the turn signal indicator span in the non-Turbo console. If it's the same cable and the screen can be properly paced in there then wow, I'm on board. We'd still have our turn indicators visible and we would not loose the amperage gauge for a non-functional turbo boost gauge.

Edited April 11, 2012 by odix

[Scarpoolla]

Hey Odix,

I looked at my spare cluster again today, and there would be noway you could fit the Turbo LCD into the standard S cluster. There are to many things different, mainly that the guts are not the same shape to fit the screen and there is not a connection for the LCD screen anywhere on the S's circut board to plug into. Also the black face of the guages does not have the pass through for the turn signal led lights.

That turbo screen is pretty high quality though. I saw a post on the 6 speed cayenne forum where a guy was able to get his audio shop to route the DVD video to the cluster's screen it looked pretty decent. If I was about 12 years younger and had more money than I knew what to do with, I might have taken this mod on.

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/cayenne-955-957/36041-new-video-extras.html

[anubis]

Hi

My turbo multi function display screen started to fade out untimely more than one year ago and eventually became completely black 8-6 months ago.

I changed one of the two red transformers in the cluster (the upper one if I remember correctly) 5 months ago and it works like a charm.