w203 instrument cluster lcd display made in china

A Common fault with the Mercedes C Class  instrument cluster is a dimming of the orange LCD multi-function display.  This fading often gets worse when the car is hot or has been out in the sun all day.  The usual places to show the fault are the auto gear selection and W/S icons top right and the lower and upper edge, in some cases totally obscuring any information that may be displayed.  When the car is cold, the display often works better for a time and appears of reasonable contrast only to later fail as temperatures rise.

The LCD unit itself forms part of the instrument cluster and can be removed and replaced.  The negative is that the LCD unit is not available as a spare part (you have to buy the whole console!) The special LCD is manufactured by Motorola (Part number HLM7804) and is common part used in all variants of the C class dash with the arched speedometer and MFD.

So what to do… Buy a new speedometer (lots of cash) or a used one (incorrect odometer reading)?  Or swap out the display from the cheapest used one you can buy !

To give an idea of the cost of a used instrument cluster from a breakers they are usually about £65 to £95 GB pounds.  The online auction sites are a great source of cheap parts and if you are prepared to scour the listings you will find a bargain. You have the advantage of being able to choose any similar instrument cluster, not bothering about, model year, petrol or diesel types, engine size, 4 or 6 cylinder etc…  This gives you the edge!  Just buy the cheapest you can find.  I managed to pick one up for £30, advertised with a photograph showing the display clearly illuminated still fitted to the car!

UPDATE – It appears there is a company who specialises in the supply of display ribbon cable kits for various MB models here.  Also there is another company, probably in China who can supply the complete W203 display  with bonded cable here (Also other MB and car models it seems)  I have not used either company but I thought the links may prove useful.

First remove the instrument cluster from the dash, slide down a length of welding rod into the apertures each side of the binnacle, the rod will push onto a moulded latch mechanism, as it is inserted (about 10 cm in) it releases a retaining clasp. Once this is done, hook into the top of the slot a small hexagon key and pull the cluster gently out from the dash, each side at a time.  Set the steering wheel position adjustment – fully out and down to give you maximum working room.

Draw the pod forward enough to disconnect the multi-pole connector from the rear.  This has a grey lever that has to be unlatched and arced down ward to allow the ‘lever-lock’ removal of the connector. Once this is removed the pod can be slid out of either side of the gap between the steering wheel and instrument cowl.

Carefully release the 2 clips from bottom of the rear of the cluster, pull the cover slightly to just release it from its latches, now do the same with the 3 top clips. The central clip at the top has a warranty label over it that will have to be cut/torn to allow the two halves of the housing to be parted.

Once removed, the back panel can be placed out of the way. Revealed is the main control PCB and orange multi-function ribbon flex connector to the LCD display. This orange flexi-strip is removed from the connector by carefully pushing down the 2 black ears either side, about 1mm, down and away from the connector, this releases an internal clamping mechanism allowing you to withdraw the ribbon flex. Once the flex is released, turn over the instrument pod and remove the instrument chassis from the lens unit.

Grasp each side of the ‘D’ shaped frame that surrounds the display and un-clip it, each side in turn from the front face of the cluster. This will reveal the thin glass LCD display.

Now push up from the bottom edge the LCD glass towards the centre of the dial face, push it just enough to clear the white plastic retaining clips at the bottom, then lever the LCD up and out of the back light holder.

Strip your ‘donor’ instrument cluster and remove your new LCD unit as described above.  Fit it to your vehicle’s cluster and rebuild it in the exact same manner as you took it apart (again as outlined above) Refit to the vehicle and test.  You should now be able to enjoy a nice bright, high contrast MFD unit !

Just a couple of points to note during this task:  Always make sure that the white loom connector to the back of the cluster is as fully home as possible when re-connecting –  this plug will often engage half way and give the misleading impression that it is fully inserted and all is OK, the lever even moves down to its locked position!  However If it is not fully home the instrument cluster will appear totally ‘dead’ when you turn on the ignition.  Dont panic! just correctly insert the plug, latching it fully home and try again.  The slight downside is, what will have happened when you turned on the ignition with the cluster disconnected, the SRS system will have flagged a fault on its self test (SRS Indicator fault) and will have raised an SRS fault code.  This will have to be reset with a Mercedes OBD scan tool or with the dealer Mercedes Star diagnostic tool. Not the end of the world, but avoided if you make double sure the console plug is correctly inserted before turning on the ignition.

- If the bulbs are out behind the display, then all the rows and colunms do work on the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display, but the background light of the LCD display is uneven, or some cases the display is completely dark. This case no need to repair the pixels, you do not need a silver cable, nor a new LCD display of the instrument cluster. This case you just need to buy the lightbulbs that provide light behind the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display.

- If the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display has really pixel problems, then typically lines or colunms of the display are missing. Several cases the characters are broken, numbers and letters shown on the instrument cluster"s display are unreadable - the backlight is even. In case of a real pixel problem, when one or more pixels are missing from the display, you need to buy a silver ribbon cable or some cases a complete Audi/VW/Seat LCD display. It really depends on that if it is a BMW, a Mercede and Audi, Saab, VW or other make, and of course if it a MID display, a speedometer, a board computer or other LCD dipslay. Most cases, when you have a pixel failure, and you decide to repair it, it"s really worth to buy a set of bulbs too, as bulbs tend to go out during repair - this is due to the massive mechanical shocks experienced during the pixel repair procedure.

Well, most of the Audi/VW/Seat pixel repair KITs we sell are designed to be simple and easy to use. The word easy should now be the subject of further discussion. An average Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD pixel repair is far more difficult then replacing a lightbulb. You definitely have to have good mechnical skills, and some household tools, such as nippers, screewdrivers, household tape, and other goodies to fix things around the house.

If you have to ask one of these questions, then you definitly should NOT do an Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display pixel repair at home (we were asked these questions before, this is not a joke):

Well, Pixelfix is an internationally registered trademark. Pixelfix only sells the highest quality Audi/VW/Seat speedometer LCD display silver ribbon cables, that are capable of lifetime operation. We sell most of our repairs with lifetime warranty, and you will find the exact same displays, cables, and other spare parts that we use for professional repairs. The silver ribbon cables we use for Audi, VW, A6, TT, A3, A4, Passat LCD display pixel repair are real silver, which is a very expensive base material, that is why the price is much higher compared to carbon ribbon cables.

You may keep an eye on your package, if you ordered the Audi/VW/Seat speedometer LCD display silver ribbon cable with postal delivery on you may check the status on your local post office"s website, or if you ordered next day deliver then you need to see TNT / FedEx or DHL tracking site for status.

All Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD displays, silver ribbon cables, speedometer spare parts bought in the webshop will come with an invoice. All invoices are issued electronically, so you will receive an e-mail with the printable invoice in it. This invoce can be printed and filed to the accounts.

No worries, we do provide technical support, and help repairing of the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display. However there is an advice you ought to consider before starting the work. If you have not repaired Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display before, this is mandatory. PLEASE read the manual, and if available watch the video BEFORE starting the work. This will definitely save a lot of time and will help to do a hassle free work.

No worries, this symptom can be due to a bagatel problem which can be fixed easily. If there are no pixels on the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s display at all, that MUST be due to one of the followings:

- the contacts of the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display or the panel are not perfectly clean - this case there is no contact between the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display and the panel

- the alignment of the silver ribbon cable is no good, so the pads of the silver ribbon cable do not match the pads of the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display or panel.

Let"s talk about the worst case scenario, you started the repair, but you do not seem to deal with the repair of the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s display. This case we have a backup solution. We always stand behind our customers, so you may send the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display unit to us for repair, and no matter what the condition of the unit is, we can help. More precisely, up to this point we always succeeded, meaning none of our customers managed to do such a damage in the unit that we could not fix. The repair does not cost a fortune, in a lucky case it is 20-30 Euro plus return delivery cost only.

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