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I contacted the seller who asked me to exchange left and right. Same error stayed with the position. Reinstalling the old units proved it is not the units, since the same error/fault appeared and could not be removed Something went bad in the system, ...I think. It looks like I am breaking new ground, a position that is likely to be expensive at the MB dealership.
Last edited by rrueckwald; Oct 20, 2021 at 05:56 AM.
Okay, here is the final solution! Hallelujah!!!! I am once more a happy man and still full of thanks to dubsl55 for this find.
I took the cluster to a very good speedometer repair shop (DNA Speedometers in Tampa, FL). Andrew, there, thought the root cause just might be my plugging the ribbon wire into the strip socket improperly. Heck, I'm and engineer; it couldn't be that! ...But it was. My 81 year old shaky hands just weren't up to the job. He fixed it and they look great. You can even read them with polarized sunglasses.
I also learned from Andrew that on the R230, if you trash your instrument cluster, you can't use another used instrument cluster and still read the odometer. It will only read dashes, and they cannot reprogram it. There are two computers, one in the cluster, and one outside the cluster. If they disagree, no read. He thought you might be able to buy a new one at some $2,200 and it might work, but did not know for sure. Andrew also said that the displays degrade not from heat, but from humidity, the worse area being Florida.
Interesting that if you remove your instrument display/cluster and drive the car without it, when replacing your instrument display in the dash, it will update the dash display to the number in the car computer, but not with a different unit. Ohhhh these Germans are so incredibly clever at complicating things.
The points are (1) that you may want to treat the instrument cluster with much, much more care that you thought normal, and (2) if you are not handy with tiny electrical stuff, find a speedometer shop or electronics guy who can do it for you. That strip has a shim that goes in behind that has to be just right, and the justification of the ribbon has to be absolutely correct, too. If I couldn't do it, I'd guess there are a few more of us that would have a similar issue.
Result: (1) I highly recommend the MiniTools displays. Great improvement in readability. Their technical support was quick, too. What we don't know is how long they will last.
(2) In the Tampa Bay area, DNA Speedometers is a very knowledgeable shop, and fairly priced. Highly recommended.
Before, but the flash made it look worse.
After, with MiniTool displays.
Last edited by rrueckwald; Oct 23, 2021 at 08:57 AM.
Happy for you! Yes it's fiddly - but works...it's been years and a painful process to get these screens!!! Minitools came through after a series of disappointments with other companies,
and a scam by German Audio Tech. Still don't have my money back a year later...
Thanks to you and any others who pushed to get this done. It was the most frequent irritating thing about the car. Really nice to have gotten rid of that issue. Thanks again.
After driving this in the sun and with sun glasses, I gotta say that if you don't like your factory displays, get these. What a difference. It's like a new car. What a nice solution to an irritating problem.
Yesterday I had the car in the MB dealership for something else and showed them the LCD panels. They were so impressed they took a picture of them and said some SL's come in with the displays so bad they cannot read the odometer. Apparently they won't or can't sell them, but will probably tell people about them. Cheaper to buy direct.
BTW, it does have the red background. I thought that these were full modules with backlights, but they are just panels, so the colors are not affected. I also tried replacing panels that look okay, but are just dim. I thought that might be a backlight or dimming issue, but new panels fixed it.
cross-posting from another LCD thread.. wondering if anyone has had a similar issue I am facing?
I ordered the minitools LCDs as well and was able to take apart the cluster relatively easily. Unfortunately, when I plug the cluster back in after having replaced the panels, I don't get any texts/words on either panel. I can see the backlight coming on for both panels and everything else on the gauges works just fine..
Also tried switching the new panels back to the old panels and those are also not showing anything. I'm thinking I need to keep playing with the ribbon (perhaps it's not perfectly lined up with the pins) but otherwise, I'm at a loss..
They can be tricky to get installed correctly. I recommend doing it like the minitools video and removing the needles and gauge faces. It is more work, but it gives you better access to properly seat the ribbon cables. Also, if you mess up one, it will usually prevent the other one from working as well. Make sure that the wedge is installed properly. I like to place the wedge, loosely start the clamp, and then insert the cable. This gives it a guide so that you can insert it straight. Once it is fully seated, push the clamp in keeping it even side to side. Also make sure that it is fully seated in the center. I recommend installing one, then testing it with one old one and one new one. That way you know when the first one is properly installed and you can work on the second. Obviously, too late for that in your case, but when you try to correct just mess with one at a time.
Also, if you mess up one, it will usually prevent the other one from working as well. Make sure that the wedge is installed properly. I like to place the wedge, loosely start the clamp, and then insert the cable. This gives it a guide so that you can insert it straight. Once it is fully seated, push the clamp in keeping it even side to side. Also make sure that it is fully seated in the center. I recommend installing one, then testing it with one old one and one new one. That way you know when the first one is properly installed and you can work on the second. Obviously, too late for that in your case, but when you try to correct just mess with one at a time.
There are very good suggestions, thank you - will try that out. Btw, when I did look at the Minitools website, their instructions also included checking voltages at the power supply pins of the cluster and possibly altering a chip's configurations (by removing a chip and resoldering it back!) - this is what I was afraid of. That said, hopefully this isn't the case..
Hey guys! I'm considering ordering a set of LCD's from mini tools for the R230.I thought the need to adjust the voltage would depend on the model year of the car, since there is a different seller on eBay that has 2 different LCD's for the SL R230 depending on if the car is MY05 onwards or an earlier model instead. I however enquired mini tools regarding the EEprom reprogramming and they said almost 100% of these dashboards need to have their voltage adjusted and it does not depend on the MY.
What was your experience with the mini tools LCD's? Did you have to reprogram the eeprom for correct voltage or was it just plug and play?
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