MFD has gone dark (its not the bulbs!)

[nutski]

The other day i started my car and the MFD would not light up, i knew i only had one bulb in there so wandered down to Wilco to get some replacements, put them in.... and still nothing, 'borrowed' a few bulbs from the local scrappy at the weekend, still nothing, tried turning the bulbs round as supposedly they only work one way round, nadda.

The other curious thing, my head unit now does not start playing when i start the car, powers up etc but i have to manually select which source i want it to play (its an aftermarket Sony with a Connect2 adapter),presuming this is connected because the MFD controls the headunit, and it happened at the same time
Also when i start the car the MFD is always defaulting on the date, not which ever trip computer setting i previously had it on.

Has a wire come loose or has my MFD borked?

[mjb]

you ain't got your sidelights on during the day with the dash illumination turned to minimum have you?

[nutski]

Nope, all lights off, and i tried changing the brightness

[Welly]

Maybe your mfd has gone down. it's rare but has been on here before.

Rob one from a breakers to try?

[nutski]

Might have to, i think i need to find some jeans with really big pockets as might get some funny looks how the weather is going into the scrappy with my deep pocketed jacket

My local scrappy charges about £25 for them, i can get them cheaper delivered off ebay, always a little reluctant as ideally i want one which originally had a cd changer attached as i'm going to be selling the car early next year hopefully and don't want to be bent over by the stealers for £40 to recode it.

[mjb]

Might have to, i think i need to find some jeans with really big pockets as might get some funny looks how the weather is going into the scrappy with my deep pocketed jacket

Camo shorts with the big external pockets

[nutski]

Ok, its not the MFD, got one from the scrappy today, same probs still
Time to crack out the wiring schematics......

[Doggy]

Hbol is no real help - shows 18-way connector, but only details van bus & audio remote connections. It must have a permanent +12V, E, & a +12V switched with the ignition from it's behaviour.

If you can't find info elsewhere, let me know & I'll try to work out which connections work the bulbs on mine.

[steve_earwig]

But the stereo loosing its settings is more like it's not got a permanent feed Does that tie-in with the MFD defaulting to date? What if the panel lights are actually a -ve feed? I dunno, how much of this stuff is BSI-related and how much is done in the traditional manner? Here be dragons!

Stab in the dark: Do your interior lights work?

[mjb]

Have you checked your fuses are good?

[Doggy]

FWIW, I recently disconnected my MFD - it looses the date & time & the trip computer display reverts to showing the date. Headunit settings are not affected.....

[nutski]

Fuses all seem good, had my head under there yesterday to check them and all are intact, although the layout in my handbook doesn't look exactly the same as the actual fuse board
If i can figure out which wire is which i'll get the multimeter out on it

[wiggybum]

Check the continuity of the connections with a multimeter between the main circuit board and the small circuit board which holds the bulbs. i.e. the 1" long piece of 2 core wire on the left hand side of the MFD. You need to extract the inner unit from the black plastic shell to gain access.

They are brittle (I learnt today....), can seem perfectly intact but may need to be soldered back on, as mine did.

[nutski]

Ok, its working again now, nice and bright with all three bulbs, i've decided as its working i'll leave it for now and look into it if it plays up again

[BruceT]

Ok, its working again now, nice and bright with all three bulbs, i've decided as its working i'll leave it for now and look into it if it plays up again

How did you get it fixed?