I have a 96 that was down (with battery removed) for about 2 years while "life" happened. Have just completed multiple repair/maintenance items and she is on the road again. Have done some running around town and a little over an hour highway driving.

Before she went down the climate control LCD display was working fine. Now it is just a green glow with no letters, numbers, etc.. It appeared to try to sputter to life a couple times (I see some letters/numbers trying to form) but looks like gibberish - nothing I can tell what it's trying to display. The system seems to be working because if I play with the buttons "in the blind" I can tell the fan speed is increasing, etc...

I found the Tanin Auto Electronix site where I can purchase a new LCD screen and install myself, send my unit to them to be repaired or purchase a refurb unit. Before doing that, however, I thought I'd check if there is something I need to do as a type of "reset" since it was working fine before she sat for such a long time. There was no possibility something burned out in that time as the battery was not in the car. The FSM spells out how to check for codes and what those codes mean but it assumes the display is working - which it's not. I did do the INDICATOR CHECK (hold AUTO and REC buttons while turning the ign to ON) and the indicators lit up and flashed 4 times - which is what the FSM says should happen before it starts displaying any codes.

I fully expected this would be a common issue due to age of the vehicle and that I would find several write ups on here somewhere but alas, it seems my search skills need some honing. Went through the FAQ and didn't find anything on it. Any help or nudge in the direction of some previous write ups on the topic would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Lynn

 

I sold Toshiba 7 segment LCD's to OEM's.

The quality was superb and they offered high temperature and wide temperature variants.

The polarizers are sandwiched between two plates of etched glass (which creates segments or icons) that is bonded with a glass frit seal.

Over time, vibration and /or temperature cycling will degrade this bond or circuit traces causing failure...especially if low quality polarizer and bonding.

Toshiba built a very durable part that were used in industrial process control or gas station fuel pump displays.

The LCD's used in earlier LS400 climate controls were not of best quality...same for the Pioneer radio display...

If possible, avoid Chinese made replacement displays.

Let us know what Tanin provides as Country of origin.

 

I myself try to fix old B/W LCDs just sitting/keeping them in a 100 degrees C oven for a few minutes. It's not 100% sure but mostly successful. Sometimes it needs to repeat the cycle a few more times or to increase the temperature. The reason to do this is to re-activate the sleeping liquid inside. If the problem is caused by the leaked liquid, there is no way to fix.

Some people fix the LCD applying the heat like this below. Sorry that it's in Japanese. The guy said that the heat-gun can supply up to 600 degrees C air.

 

Thanks for responses.

For the question about country of origin, the Tanin website says "This is a TAE manufactured car LCD screen for a 1995-1997 Lexus LS400 climate control. This LCD screen will fix the common black display and other fading issues. We recently started manufacturing these LS400 LHD LCD’s due to high demand and we are currently the only company that can offer them.". Since they are in WI I assume that means they are manuf in the US.

Thanks for the video. I got a good laugh when he dumped all the buttons out and bigger laugh when he realized he got the = sign back in the wrong way around! I'm going to try the trick with the heat gun first to see if that will bring it back to life. If that doesn't work I'm going to ship mine off to Tanin to refurb it. Site says it takes 2-3 weeks once they receive it (I'll speak with them on the phone first) which will be inconvenient but I don't want to drop $250 for them to send me a refurb one that might be scratched up, etc... and I don't have the skills to do all that soldering to replace just the LCD.

 

First:

"For the question about country of origin, the Tanin website says "This is a TAE manufactured car LCD screen for a 1995-1997 Lexus LS400 climate control."

I have visited their facilities, and can assure you they are not manufacturing LCDs there...so that suggests the part is manufactured to some specification...elsewhere.

I am unaware of ANY LCD manufacturing Stateside...
Motorola predicted that lack of investment of LCD (color monitors) manufacturing did not bode well.for future of U.S electronics manufacturing: TV and cell phones.
I will tell you about Zenith and so too Motorola.

Hamlin in Lake Mills, Wisconsin was my primary competitor on 7 segment LCD's, but have been out of it for some decades now..I believe acquired by Littelfuse.

So, simply ask Tanin vs reposting that lack of Country of Origin information from Tanin website.

Now about this business of heating the display to 600 F... to revitalize the polarizer???

Are you going to extract the 40 pin(?) display from the circuit board before applying extreme heat ..or torch the circuit board too?
Perhaps you will consider the melting temperature of solder...

Since you have a replacement part, why not just get on with it.

 

Don't temp me...