Dreaded MFD Issues - Reputable shop to diagnose it?

[JZelnick]

Does anyone know if that guy who was engineering a replacement set up for those with indash nav/ac controls to move to double din? I remember checking out his project website but it seems like it stalled out.

If someone could engineer something like that even around 1k I'd put out the cash for it.

 

[agaisin]

If someone could engineer something like that even around 1k I'd put out the cash for it.

I'd be all over that too!

 

[JZelnick]

http://cruiserops.com/

Theres the website for the project if you're interested.

 

[agaisin]

So on this issue if your LX would of been left alone and kept as it came from the factory you would of never had a problem. Sounds like when it comes to trouble shooting your Lexus dealer should hire you. Congrats on finding and correcting their mistake.

1) If LX was left alone, I would have still had the Nav ECU replaced, it died at ~5 years old and to my knowledge was never touched/tampered until it started giving problems. I think 5 years is a little soon but can live with it - parts especially electronic can die and can be replaced.
2) wiring issues on back of MFD were most definitely a result of an aftermarket installation before I owned the car - that could have been from previous owner, dealership or other shop. All I know is I bought used from a dealership, that dealership removed a previous aftermarket radio/satellite and installed vaistech for me. Not sure if they were dealing with a crappy situation or caused it.
3) Overhead DVD issue - my understanding is those are dealership installed not factory installed, and it's only speculation but I believe that caused my battery drain issues (currently avoided by keeping overhead lights off mode and using priority start as backup protection).

 

[SWUtah]

Interesting my LX470 had the overhead DVD install at the dealership which caused the same battery drain and was disconnected before I bought it for that reason. Your nav dying at 5 years is really unusual. But you sound like you have great skills and handled it.

 

[brussum]

I just pulled my '08 200 series out of storage for the past eight months and experienced this issue when driving it today for the first time. Symptoms include no climate control functionality, no outside temp displayed, and I get the "check air conditioning connections" error when I click on the climate button. I did the diagnostics per an earlier posting and had some older error codes (2014-15). I cleared the codes and rechecked the system; everything says okay but I still have the same problem with the climate system. I do have the newer VAIStech system (installed about a year ago), so I guess I'll tear apart the dash and check the connections.

 

[kbvirgilio]

Excellent info agaisin.

I just picked up an 04 LC and 5 days into ownership (this morning actually) I got the 'External system not connected, check AC, Audio Off' messages.

The MFD was still presenting some data but my Climate display was dead (below MFD screen) and most of the buttons on the right of the screen were nonresponsive. At one point everything went dead but I could still turn the radio on and off via the knob. But then about 5 minutes later some info loaded to the Display screen, so it was reading things like current MPG, Range etc. When that happened Nav would still not work but the Climate info came back and I did have control of that. I have yet been able to get Nav to work again though. Makes me wonder if this is related to pin60 and a bad solder. I could see that causing intermittent issues.

So can I inspect my pin 60 easily? Assuming it's on the back of the MFD somewhere?Also, per the TSB for the 04's I'll check the TX +/- pins and make sure they are all seated correctly.

Also, I was going to give Mr. Whizard or possibly Gus Mancy (you have his contact info you could PM me?) a call and see what they said.

N55luvr were you ever able to work out your problem without major equipment replacement? I have a much loved 2004 LC and the info bar below the nav screen (with the time and temp) is out and the buttons along side of the screen (that control climate and defrost) are out but nav screen and radio work perfectly. My mechanic took it apart and Toyita took it apart and both told me I needed all new MFD.

 

[n55luvr]

Hello, as of now my MFD has been repaired. No issues. No replacement needed.

I used a shop called Auto Be Yours (Prius hybrids sales and service Scottsburg Indiana) to do the repair. It's actually the second time they have touched this MFD, Their first repair job failed after maybe a year and I was told by the owner Steve that they are now fixing via an alternate method. The first repair was around $300 and the second was $90.

With that being said, your symptoms are a bit different than mine. I'd still give Steve a call and discuss with him. They deal with Prius mostly but our MFDs are the same.

 

[AstRomroMan]

Well - my trusty mechanic had my car this week to do diagnostics. He found that power wasn't reaching the nav ECU due to a crappy satellite or ipod adapter install (they extended some wires by twisting them together and some had come apart). We believe that just happened while taking the unit out. After he verified that all devices were ok (continuity and voltage), his conclusion was that there must be a problem with the MFD and I needed to replace it.

I got my car back yesterday. Assuming that the MFD malfunction was the same as the 04 models, I found a couple sites (for prius) that show the defect in the circuit board for the 04 models, and how to solder it. I got some solder supplies expecting to be able to fix it but when I opened up the MFD, I looked under magnification at the notorious "pin 60" (I believe it's where the AVC-LAN communicates through the MFD) and couldn't find any sign of a bad solder job - it looked clean and in tact. So I called Mr. Whizard who is known to fix these issues and he directed me to try and flex the connections/board to see if I could get intermittent connectivity, to no avail. He said he'd pass b/c he didn't think he could fix my issue if it wasn't pin 60 and without my car to do further diagnostics.

So now I go back to trying to figure out what else (other than the MFD) could cause this issue, and found a few possibilities. Many talk about this issue after having an aftermarket device like VAISTech installed. Mine's been working fine for 3 months. I saw some complain about faulty wire harnesses, etc, so I decided to try putting things back together again minus the vaistech.

This time I did 2 things, not sure 100% which did the trick:

1. cleared the service check mode error codes
2. rather than just connecting the MFD, I connected the MFD and the radio head unit and the ABS (?) connections on the back of the MFD. This was b/c I remember the indication from the service manual (quoted in previous post) "The navigation system has the structure that makes it impossible to communicate without navigation ECU, multi display or radio receiver assembly."

This time, the MFD responded by trying to load the nav dvd, gave me back my climate control, etc.
I still don't have xm or ipod working (need to be reprogrammed I think?), and I have a new problem with the NAV ECU saying System Loading but it keeps saying that and never stops loading....

Just wanted to update ppl in case they have similar issues now or in the future. Looks very unlikely that the MFD in an 05+ would be failling. If you get told that, I'd question it and look into it more if you can. If I followed the advice of my dealership and mechanic thus far, I'd have shelled out for a new nav ecu and for a new mfd and it still wouldn't have worked

My mechanic definitely did solid diagnostics though and I owe him big time b/c he also didn't charge me even though he worked on it all week! He identified that bad wire connections that i never would have found.

I have the same issue with my 2004 LC-- but I do not understand what you did in items #1 and #2 above. Can you help me understand what I should try? Also, I am in Maryland-- can you tell me the name of the shop that you used? Thanks

 

[AstRomroMan]

Well - my trusty mechanic had my car this week to do diagnostics. He found that power wasn't reaching the nav ECU due to a crappy satellite or ipod adapter install (they extended some wires by twisting them together and some had come apart). We believe that just happened while taking the unit out. After he verified that all devices were ok (continuity and voltage), his conclusion was that there must be a problem with the MFD and I needed to replace it.

I got my car back yesterday. Assuming that the MFD malfunction was the same as the 04 models, I found a couple sites (for prius) that show the defect in the circuit board for the 04 models, and how to solder it. I got some solder supplies expecting to be able to fix it but when I opened up the MFD, I looked under magnification at the notorious "pin 60" (I believe it's where the AVC-LAN communicates through the MFD) and couldn't find any sign of a bad solder job - it looked clean and in tact. So I called Mr. Whizard who is known to fix these issues and he directed me to try and flex the connections/board to see if I could get intermittent connectivity, to no avail. He said he'd pass b/c he didn't think he could fix my issue if it wasn't pin 60 and without my car to do further diagnostics.

So now I go back to trying to figure out what else (other than the MFD) could cause this issue, and found a few possibilities. Many talk about this issue after having an aftermarket device like VAISTech installed. Mine's been working fine for 3 months. I saw some complain about faulty wire harnesses, etc, so I decided to try putting things back together again minus the vaistech.

This time I did 2 things, not sure 100% which did the trick:

1. cleared the service check mode error codes
2. rather than just connecting the MFD, I connected the MFD and the radio head unit and the ABS (?) connections on the back of the MFD. This was b/c I remember the indication from the service manual (quoted in previous post) "The navigation system has the structure that makes it impossible to communicate without navigation ECU, multi display or radio receiver assembly."

This time, the MFD responded by trying to load the nav dvd, gave me back my climate control, etc.
I still don't have xm or ipod working (need to be reprogrammed I think?), and I have a new problem with the NAV ECU saying System Loading but it keeps saying that and never stops loading....

Just wanted to update ppl in case they have similar issues now or in the future. Looks very unlikely that the MFD in an 05+ would be failling. If you get told that, I'd question it and look into it more if you can. If I followed the advice of my dealership and mechanic thus far, I'd have shelled out for a new nav ecu and for a new mfd and it still wouldn't have worked

My mechanic definitely did solid diagnostics though and I owe him big time b/c he also didn't charge me even though he worked on it all week! He identified that bad wire connections that i never would have found.

Well - my trusty mechanic had my car this week to do diagnostics. He found that power wasn't reaching the nav ECU due to a crappy satellite or ipod adapter install (they extended some wires by twisting them together and some had come apart). We believe that just happened while taking the unit out. After he verified that all devices were ok (continuity and voltage), his conclusion was that there must be a problem with the MFD and I needed to replace it.

I got my car back yesterday. Assuming that the MFD malfunction was the same as the 04 models, I found a couple sites (for prius) that show the defect in the circuit board for the 04 models, and how to solder it. I got some solder supplies expecting to be able to fix it but when I opened up the MFD, I looked under magnification at the notorious "pin 60" (I believe it's where the AVC-LAN communicates through the MFD) and couldn't find any sign of a bad solder job - it looked clean and in tact. So I called Mr. Whizard who is known to fix these issues and he directed me to try and flex the connections/board to see if I could get intermittent connectivity, to no avail. He said he'd pass b/c he didn't think he could fix my issue if it wasn't pin 60 and without my car to do further diagnostics.

So now I go back to trying to figure out what else (other than the MFD) could cause this issue, and found a few possibilities. Many talk about this issue after having an aftermarket device like VAISTech installed. Mine's been working fine for 3 months. I saw some complain about faulty wire harnesses, etc, so I decided to try putting things back together again minus the vaistech.

This time I did 2 things, not sure 100% which did the trick:

1. cleared the service check mode error codes
2. rather than just connecting the MFD, I connected the MFD and the radio head unit and the ABS (?) connections on the back of the MFD. This was b/c I remember the indication from the service manual (quoted in previous post) "The navigation system has the structure that makes it impossible to communicate without navigation ECU, multi display or radio receiver assembly."

This time, the MFD responded by trying to load the nav dvd, gave me back my climate control, etc.
I still don't have xm or ipod working (need to be reprogrammed I think?), and I have a new problem with the NAV ECU saying System Loading but it keeps saying that and never stops loading....

Just wanted to update ppl in case they have similar issues now or in the future. Looks very unlikely that the MFD in an 05+ would be failling. If you get told that, I'd question it and look into it more if you can. If I followed the advice of my dealership and mechanic thus far, I'd have shelled out for a new nav ecu and for a new mfd and it still wouldn't have worked

My mechanic definitely did solid diagnostics though and I owe him big time b/c he also didn't charge me even though he worked on it all week! He identified that bad wire connections that i never would have found.

This time I did 2 things, not sure 100% which did the trick:

1. cleared the service check mode error codes
2. rather than just connecting the MFD, I connected the MFD and the radio head unit and the ABS (?) connections on the back of the MFD. This was b/c I remember the indication from the service manual (quoted in previous post) "The navigation system has the structure that makes it impossible to communicate without navigation ECU, multi display or radio receiver assembly."

Can you please tell me exactly what you did in number 1 and 2 above? I really want to try this, but am not sure how to do either of these steps. I have the dreaded "check the connection of the air conditioner" error msg-- and I have no AC or HEAT controls, and my outside temp does not display. Thanks

 

[Gohmanopolis]

When mine did the same thing last year the Lexus dealer said to send it here:

Mr. Whizard Technical Services - Instrument Cluster Repair, Speedometer Repair, Odometer Repair and Digital Dash Repair

Turnaround was less than a week, and it was only a few hundred bucks. Everything has worked fine since the repair ~18 months ago.
I highly recommend them.

Good luck

Block

I know this is a 10 yr old thread but for anyone who is reading through this in the beautiful year of 2024 and beyond, I called Mr. Whizard and he is a terrific guy out of Canada but is unfortunately semi-retired and not really taking MFDs right now unless you're local. Did help me troubleshoot a little bit on the phone though!

 

[imperium]

I know this is a 10 yr old thread but for anyone who is reading through this in the beautiful year of 2024 and beyond, I called Mr. Whizard and he is a terrific guy out of Canada but is unfortunately semi-retired and not really taking MFDs right now unless you're local. Did help me troubleshoot a little bit on the phone though!

That's a huge bummer because I was planning on giving him a call tomorrow. Hopefully he knows somewhere else to send the MFD for repair.

Did you end up needing to send yours in for repair?