Hello, any help appreciated. My 2004 C320 (sedan, w203) Dashboard LCD, like all others was very difficult to read so i ordered the part from Tanin Electronics, watched all the "how to" videos, popped out the cluster, opened it and carefully swapped in the new LCD, re-assembled, attached the wire harness...BEAUTIFUL...all the pixels were lit, numbers bright and clear, then when i pushed the cluster back into place the screen went blank. local shop pulled a cluster from another Benz and it worked. i shipped my dash cluster out to the supplier of the LCD ( with both the original lcd and the new unit) both those Displayed worked in other clusters but not mine so now its being sent back to me.
What could i have done and now what? Do i buy a used cluster on Ebay? Does a Dealership program it?

 

Check the connections then reinstall. Sounds like the ribbon cable may have been installed incorrectly.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I did all that swapped the original back in, same. brought it to a local European repair shop, they had another Benz there so they swapped clusters and it worked in my car, so that ruled out my Harness. Then i shipped the cluster out to where i purchased the lcd from and thay said both lcds worked in there test but not while attached to my cluster.
Im going to order a used cluster and have them clone the info from my old cluster

 

The rear cable connection can be dodgy! I had to pull mine out 2 or 3 times to disconnect and re-connect the cable that locks into the rear of the cluster, as it would either not display at all, or partially work!, but eventually it did plug in correctly and has been working fine for a few months now.. just keep doing it till it works!

 

Just curious, where did you obtain the replacement LCD, and would you recommend the product?

 

Was that question to me Slammer?.. It was a cheapy from Ali Express! lol.. but i am happy with it, its turned out quite well, having been through last summer with no issues so far..
I can see if the company is still around, if interested?..

 

Question was for the OP, but I will gladly accept your answer as well. Yes please.

Been putting off this repair because most of the products out there (the ones I heard of at least) were of poor quality. How does the one you have look compared to the original? Any fading issues during the summer?

 

The replacement was 100% better than the original! I could barely see anything on the original on a hot day!.
The new one is easily readable, on the hottest of days, with no fading evident..

 

Any chance you can locate the seller? Also any idea if the polarization is oriented properly? (not a big deal but might as well ask ) Thanks in advance.

 

What do you mean by polarisation?
Does the screen produce polarised light?.

 

Every LCD has a polarization filter built into the screen. The orientation of the filter matters if the driver is also wearing polarized sunglasses. Depending on the orientation of the LCD filter, the driver will either see the display properly, or a blank screen.

Not a big deal, but I remember some people mentioning that they couldn't see their displays with sunglasses on.

 

You are correct! I don't normally wear my polaroids any more, but when i look straight on, the screen goes quite dark, soon as i tilt my head off-axis, it starts to light up again..
Not a big issue for me, but maybe for others..
The seller i bought off no longer lists them, but this one is still selling, and seems to have good feedback..

https://crngiarautoparts.aliexpress....​​

 

Unfortunately. I sent it out to "Atlanta Speedometer" today or I would have tried your suggestion and messed with that plug. I purchased the LCD from Tanin Electronics (sold through their website and Amazon). When I called them about the problem they said to send it in, what they did not say is they could not troubleshoot to find the cause of the problem but charged me $125 anyhow.
If Atlanta Speedometer is able to correct the problem (maybe soldier that connection) it would be great. I've been beating myself up over this as it is my sons (19) ride and he's off to college in several days, 2 hrs drive and that LCD has all the info about temp, oil etc'

Thanks for reading and responding to my post

 

I purchased it through Amazon. LCD was from TANIN AUTO ELECTRONICS. Hard to say yes or no about recommending them. Customer Service was great, spoke a few times on the phone, text and email. There reviews were high and low. I guess if no one has them in stock or a huge price difference, i would order from them again.

 

New LCD display installed!

 

Very nice. How does it look with the brightness turned down? Is there a nice contrast between the light and dark areas?

Also I notice that a column of LCDs is out on your display. This is actually very easy to repair with some basic soldering equipment. There is a break in the trace somewhere. In fact, mine had a break at the exact spot shown at 3:30 and I imagine that's where it is for you as well.

The video uses the fancy screen but I was able to find the break by popping the circuit board film out and gently bending the suspected areas. The breaks can be seen with the naked eye, and most of the failures seem to happen at the same part of each track (where the trace goes from thin to thick, towards the bottom of the display).

 

Thanks for the info!
TBH, i prefer not to touch it!
The LCD shadow doesn't really bother me, and it was such a pain to get the whole cluster to install correctly, i had to remove the rear cable connection and re-install it a few times to get the whole thing to work properly; not sure why it would not seat correctly, and cause spurious errors on the screen!?..

Also, the pic i took was at near lowest brightness, as i didn't want the pic to flare up..
added some pics..

MIN display

MAX display brightness

 

UPDATE
sent my cluster out to Atlanta Speedometer in Georgia, they called the day after receiving it and said several areas of the board were scratched and shorted out, just where the locking tabs are for the ribbon. They will locate and purchase a used unit and clone my info over.