Sign of weakened battery or Bad climate control

[jimmylau]

Hi everyone,
I've had something thats been bugging me for weeks now. The LCD read out on the left side of the climate control panel (the side that shows the temp) is acting strange.

There are always some dashes missing from the numerical readouts (for example, a 7 looks like a 1 because its missing a dash). However, on given days, there are times when certain numbers and readouts (75, 65, OFF) retains all their dashes......what is going on?

Is this a battery thing, a headlight thing, or a bad climate control console?

Hope to clear up this confusion.

Jimmy

[RandallNeighbour]

You can rule out a battery problem. Everything would be dim and not working if it was your battery. I think it's your climate control unit's display that's going out, and not a bulb. There's only one bulb behind the temperature display numbers if I'm not mistaken, so for part of it to be going out, it would be the LED segment.

You can probably find a used one for about $200, new ones are a lot more. Installation could be expensive, but if I were you, I'd buy that Bentley repair manual and figure out how to pull the old one and put in a new/newer one yourself.

I'm right there with you though on the annoyance factor. Little stuff like this drives me so bonkers I don't even want to drive the car. The first digit of my LED speedo was out when I bought the car (it died about an hour after I drove the car away. Grrr) and I was on a witch hunt to get the whole cluster replaced from day one. Cost me a bundle but I am very glad I did it as it was driving me nuts. Good luck on your LED problem!

[donv]

There is a loose connection somewhere. In some temperature conditions the connection is OK, in others not. Most likely this loose connection is going to be a fatigued solder joint or something similar internal to the electronics of the control unit. However, I'm not familiar with the actual internal design of the climate control... this is just an educated guess based on similar stuff I've seen on our products at work, that it would not be able to be fixed without replacing the assembly. A talented electronics tech might be able to fix it but it would likely cost you more than a new/used part.

Originally Posted by jimmylau

Hi everyone,
However, on given days, there are times when certain numbers and readouts (75, 65, OFF) retains all their dashes......what is going on?

[jiggysubman]

sometimes cold can mess with those screens too. Once, mine was tapped on by a friend while it was cold, and it left a few marks "burnt" into screen. After about a month or so, it just sort of faded. Looks fine now.