Sat Nav / MFD Display

[trufflehunt]

The display in my car seems to vary sometimes when I start the car up.
It's generally useable, but just wondered what other people's experiences
are.

Fixable, or is this just part of the typical problems mentioned here.?

[benczuk]

short answer, they all go eventually and have so far proved unrepairable. yours does seem to be affected more severely than most which just lose lines rather than 'fogging'

Good used ones are now fetching £100+ on ebay. If you want a cheap replacement you can swap it for a non-sat nav type which has a poorer resolution display for £10, but you also lose the sat nav.

[rwb]

The lines are caused by the tracks on the cable that connects the display to the control board cracking. There's a proof of concept repair on the coupe club forum but I think it didn't last long. Last I heard jonsowman had a plan.

The displays normally fade when they something gets hot.
I turned up to a coupe club meet on a hot day with unusable MFD. However, when we ran the dislpaly test in PP2000 (which displays a checkerboard grid) it displayed perfectly (except for the missing lines). This would suggest that it's not the screen being too hot that's the problem.

I'd say yours is doing quite well for lines, but quite badly for fading, and that this is somewhat unusual.

I found that the display was less unusable when set to orange text on black background rather than black text on orange background.

[PeterN]

I have had this problem with mine and after investigating all alternatives I managed to get one from Ebay for about £30, good ones are like hens teeth though, the one I bought has a line along the top but other than that the display is complete.

I think the problem is caused by heat because the display deteriorates as it gets hotter, I though at first it was because I have the heater on full most of the time but I found that even with it off the display gets very hot, as soon as it cools down it works OK again. I had thought of fitting a computer fan in the casing but have never got round to trying it.

Peter

[V6Exec]

There is a theory that it is the driver chip - try a heatsink rather than a fan

[Doggy]

In my experience, it can fade when either too hot or too cold and seemingly after several hours running at a 'comfortable' temperature, (at which it will normally perform faultlessly).

[pug406nz]

I have always wondered since the 406 MFD's cost quite a bit. What happens if you score a cheap 607 one? They look identical except for the surround and all. But the screen and ribbon cable should be compatible?

[trufflehunt]

Thanks guys.

I think what I'll do is take more notes of how the display behaves according to ...

1. Ambient Temperature
2. General warmth in the car, and how long running.

Today, spring cool morning, 9am, switched on.., display very good, like 4th photo on original post.

[benczuk]

If the lines are caused by cracks in the connector cable, why do they also come and go? I would expect them to be semi permanent but my display can go from unreadable (due to lines) to perfect over the course of a long journey.

While heat definitely plays a part in the fading (in the summer the top RH corner of mine always fades) I suspect moisture is a key issue with the lines. If my car has sat unused for a while or if my family have been in it wearing wet coats steaming the windows the lines are always worse.

[Doggy]

I have always wondered since the 406 MFD's cost quite a bit. What happens if you score a cheap 607 one? They look identical except for the surround and all. But the screen and ribbon cable should be compatible?

Suspect a 607 display will be just as old and equally likely to fail, but I wonder if you couldn't go for something much newer. Jasper but a new display form the dealer in his 407 last year, (though admitedly not without some difficulty configuring it). A french 508 I was in last summer had a very similar looking display too.

[rwb]

Service box shows no part numbers in common for the display between the 406 and 407.
However, one of them is clearly the same system...

[jonsowman]

The 407 and 308/508 displays are different, I did look into this

[markw]

This, from the French Coupe forum shows how someone there fitted heatsinks to the chips on the display pcb.
http://www.coupe406.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=22607

[PeterN]

Brilliant job, I see they have added some extra ventilation as well, are they just stuck on with heat sink compound, - does it work? Cant read French.

Peter

[Doggy]

Formidable mark, mon brave!

I was wondering how he dealt with the problem of hot air going to the vents in winter.....

One of the other posters has linked a 20 mm flexible pipe into the duct leading to the centre air vents, then added some form of valve to shut off the flow of air into the MFD when the heater's on.

ingenious.