kevinw4

Hopefully I seem to have found a DIY way to get those pesky failed pixel display problems in the instrument cluster working again; - at least mine are back working OK so far!.

I used the forum as I am another sufferer who has had the pixels fail/disappear in the instrument cluster on my 2000 MY E240. Namely, although my centre main display was Ok, the temperature, clock and gear indicator had all dissappeared / become scrambled. So i thought I would share this in the hope it may help others. I believe it may well work on other models also with a similar style cluster.

My apologies if this is not the place to post but I'm a newy at this, and maybe I missed something, but after a lot of searching all I could find was

confirmation that this is a common problem, but I could not find any solutions

offered apart from expensive dealer replacement or specialist "send us the cluster & we'll fix it" slightly cheaper options.

My 'fix' costs you nothing, only takes an hour or so, and is pretty strightforward if you have patience, a steady hand and a pair of long thin tweezers or similar.

Note however that you will require to partially dismantle the cluster and poke

about in it; - so its not for the faint hearted and don't blame me if you mess it

up.

I have (hopefully with this posting game) a few pictures which will help

you along, but they will make most sense only when you have the cluster out & open in front of you.

From my research it seems that the general consensus is that the issue is not actually the LCD displays which fail, rather a deterioration in the ribbon

connector welded on to the circuit board which gives a breakdown in the

connection. So eventually, fed up with the loss of my displays I thought WTH, removed and partially dismantled the cluster and came up with a few ideas, one of which seems to work !.

Basically after a bit of trial and error, it seems that it will work again if you

can give the ribbon connector a bit of help by increasing the pressure on it, and it seems a couple of small slivers of plastic carefully inserted at the right places achieve this.

First, battery off and remove the cluster (plenty of details elsewhere on how to do this; - I used a combo of hand up the panel from behind and pulling with the bent wire). Next remove the main outer shroud from the cluster; - 5 clips round the edge, one or more may be covered by labels. Note that the two warning light window plastic prints will fall out at this stage, so take due care.
Now it gets a bit trickier and you have to start being carefull. On a suitable

clean workbench area, you need to remove the rear housing from the main cluster panel assembly; - 2 clips at each end (one in the white bit, one edge of the black mouding) plus one extra just under the clear plastic strip just left of centre. Now you should have the naked circuit board with the instruments on top and if you look carefully along the bottom edge you will see a ribbon in centre for the main display, and either side of it two black plastic rectangles which cover the lower edge of the temperature & time display units; - these are what we are interested in.
Looking underneath these you will see each has two white lugs coming through the bottom of the circuit board to help secure it. You need to carefully release these and gently ease up the display unit above by
about 1 mm (or 1/16 inches) - NO MORE or you will pull the cables and damage them more or the other instruments on the board.
You can now see that behind the ribbon is a small strip of rubber forming a foot on each display unit & which when normally secured down, presses onto the ribbon where it is welded to the board.
So all you now need is to carfeully insert a suitable thin strip of plastic under the foot, jiggle it around till you position it squarely under the foot (this is where the long thin tweezers come in )and squeeze the white lugs back down to secure the unit with a little more pressure from its new thicker foot. Then its simply a matter of putting it all back together (dont forget those tricky warning light windows) & with any luck it should work pretty well OK.

For suitable strip read something the size of the existing foot (about 30mm x 3mm) and thin like a strip cut from a yoghurt carton or drinks bottle; - it must not be too think else you will overstress the board & obviously it must be plastic or some other non-conducting material; -You should get the idea from the pictures, and be able to gauge the thickness when you have it in front of you.

I got back temperature and time 100%, gear display 98% (has 3 lost pixel dots but quite readable). A huge improvement for zero cost.

I don't know how well this will last, only time will tell.
I hope it is of interest and adds to the community info & I would really like to
know if it works for anyone else out there. Kevin

pvel

thanks. i have the same problem and need to do this soon. your instructions will help.
paul

ohlord

called the foam repair and is over on benzworld.org if you need more pics.Like the op pointed out if it is the ribbon it may work if it is truly dead pixels you can ship it out to the place listed on benzworld.org w210 section and get it fixed.
ohlord
I have all the dash tools for sale in a boxed set for $25 delivered

kevinw4

Don't you just hate it when that happens...!.
I spent days searching for help on this problem but did not find the "foam repair" article, which would have saved me a lot of effort. Still at least it shows we have independently reached pretty much the same conclusions about the problem and an approach which does seem likely to fix it.
This should all add more info and confidence to those who wish to give it a try.

ohlord

the wheel is not a bad thing.Look at the srs repair where one member removed the whole passenger seat and another member not seeing that diy did it with the seat in the car.

Blackbeard

I found a solution to this problem a couple of years back when I bought my E430 -- I forget which forum it was but the fix was along the same lines as yours. The ribbon cable separates from the board over time due to heat/age whatever .. very poor design by VDO. I used a sliver of a rubber eraser on each ribbon (time and temp sides) cut with a razor blade, reassembled and it's worked flawlessly for 2 years now.

Don't dare pay the dealer $700 plus to install and program a new cluster. If you want to practice or fool around with a 00-02 E or CL cluster you can usually find one for cheap on Ebay.

Good luck !

thebenzbar

I finally tried it this afternoon since I had like 3-4 dead pixels on my Temp display. The foam wedged on the ribbon worked! Just shimmy it in between the stock pink foam strip and the contact ribbon. Study everything first, and when you poke around, BE VERY VERY GENTLE! You should plug back in to test and retest if your shimmy'd foam worked... took me like 4-5 careful tries until voila! the pixels came back to life!! Take your time... if I can do it, ANYONE can do so too.

The hardest thing was to take the dang cluster out! It was driving me since I didn't have the MB tool, BUT I managed using my bare hands!! It took a long time since I was very careful...

The DIY for the LCS display is found in the forum... just search for it and download the pdf file! Excellent resource! I just save like $1000 from the stealership! While you have the cluster out, might as well put in new bulbs if you need to... Good luck!

Franasia

Hello kevinw4 and welcome to the forum.

It's funny but I had just posted my DIY ten days before yours:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...-pictures.html

It's been just over a year now and those pixels are rock solid. It's been a great satisfaction factor repair for me. I found that problem depressing - especially when having other people riding in your car you don't want them to see that!

Cheers

thebenzbar

Glad to hear this... Dead pixels are a real bummer especially when family/friends see it on such a nice sedan. It's all good now though...

ncd20

Damn I was so close but yet so far ... I got my Temp gauge back all except for 1 line and I got my Time/Gear indicator back except two pixels - 2nd attempt.. might try it one last time but now Im affraid to bust up the good work .. they were totally undecipherable before

One thing to make clear in howto's and guides is that even with the battary disconnected the SRS/BAS light will trigger when the cluster is removed.. and a bigger emphasis on the turn left and right reset procedure which deals with that.


tnx to every one every where for sharing this information ..

Franasia

Absolutely no need to disconnect battery to remove instrument cluster! Disconnecting the battery is what generates SRS/BAS notice!

Cheers

ohlord

to solve when the battery is hooked back up,just start the car and turn the wheels all the way left to right and back a few times to center the steering wheel angle sensor.Then resync your windows and sun roof and you are good to go
ohlord

ncd20

doh ohwell rather safe then sorry

harbor55

Thanks for all the information.

I have the same problem with my 2001 E320 and want to try this fix. However as I do not have the MB tools either I'd appreciate some direction on getting the instrument cluster out of the dash so I don't do any irreparable damage in the process.

Thanks:

thebenzbar

I didn't have the MB tool and I used my itsy bitsy fingers to eventually pull it out... so take your time. I started at the corners where there's a gap between the wood trim and the frame of the cluster. Side to side, slowly but surely, it's just held in there by friction... don't put too much muscle pulling on the plastic frame of the cluster. I think it took almost an hour of effort in finally getting the cluster out of the dash - I was VERY careful.

RobertG

Go to the dealer and buy the tool for 10 bucks, pull the cluster out ,stuff the piece of plastic in there and your done, thanks Kevin

Red66GT

So, is it better to use foam or to use plastic strips for this fix? The benzworld writeup uses foam. Seems it would be easier to install the thin piece of plastic rather than a thicker piece of foam? Thanks.

Franasia

It depends on how bad or good the ribbon cable connection is. The foam block is a lot easier if that's what works. I used both - foam on the temp display and mousepad on the clock/gear selector.

It's very important as on the writeup, to hookup the display once it's out of its shell, turn the ignition on and jiggle the ribbon cable(s) with a plastic or wooden drink stirer. That will give you an idea which way to go. You may need to do this a few times until you get it right.

Cheers

smalldog

I knew someone would figure this out sooner or later. I just did it tonight. 100% temp and clock. 98% shift selector. this saved me $250.00

mbeglari

Kevin, my 2001 E32 has the same issue (Gear & Clock are 80% faded) but all others are fine, unfortunatly your suggested resolution did not work for me, tried it twice and added two layer of thin plastic to the foot of cable, no luck. Thanks anyway.

joekluger

took the cluster apart but the ribbon on the temp side totally separated. can i replace the ribbon? and how??<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

judith@jhubert.

COULD ANY ONE GIVE ADVICE ON REMOVING THE CLUSTER FROM THE DASH PLEASE ,HAVE READ THAT THE STEERING WHEEL HAS TO BE REMOVED. THANKS

suicidal4life

Steering wheel did not have to be removed when I pulled my cluster. I just moved it to the lowest and furthest back position. Removing the cluster is pretty easy. Buy the cluster removal hook tools or remove the panel under the dash and reach up with your hand and push the cluster out.

judith@jhubert.

thanks for reply but my e240 w reg steering wheel seems to have no adjustment , not what i can see anyway, by the way i failed to mention this is a elegance model. thanks john

suicidal4life

If for some reason you do need to remove the steering wheel it is not that hard. I swapped my steering wheel for a burlwood version using the DIY over on benzword and it took less then 15 minutes.