This is what I found in the manual:

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This is what I found in the manual:

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There is nothing wrong with the display.. except for the LIGHT BULB behind it. The flickering happened to me.. and then it went dead... so I took that whole unit out and right behind there... are TWO bulbs.. one on each side of the LCD display. use a flathead screwdriver and turn the bulbs 15degrees. It'll pop out, so replace it with a new one. Takes 15 mins. MAX.

I used this link to help me take it out:
http://www.castulucci.com/projects/carpc/oemnaviaccess/

Hi,
Is it possible to post pictures of where the light bulbs are and/or the kind of bulbs? I want to fix this, it makes me nuts to see the panel flcikering specially at night. Thanks so much for your info...

once you take out that center console piece.. you'll see nothing but beige lightbulb screws. there is no way you can miss it as most of it is covered in smooth plastic.

When I took mine off, I saw some covers that looked like an "x" where you can put your flat screwdriver and kind of move them clockwise or the other way around. I think there were two of them. Is that's what you are referrring to?So, if it is all you have to do is turn them counterclockwise? That would be great!Where did you get the replacement bulbs?

yes... flathead screwdriver and turn. I got the replacement bulbs from toyota. they come with that plastic base.

A couple of more questions, I promise not to bother anymore!where they a special order or the dealer had them in stock? Do you have a part number I can use to refer to?

They had to special order them in.. took 2 days but you never know, your dealership might have stock.

YOu know what.. I don't know the part number... the parts manager just went through the system and found the bulb. I guess it would be on my invoice... but that's in the car. sorry. Just let them know its the bulb right behind LCD display on the console.... they can find it. (small bulb)

Well shoot, if bulb-replacing is a possibility, I wonder about LEDs...I'll have to experiment a lil bit...If something cool happens, I'll holla, if not, I won't. 10-4?

Good thread...Thanks.

I have only seen it happen twice and of course it wasn't doing it when I visited my dealer last week. The service writer said it was "normal" and I just laughed at the guy and shook my head..

Since posting this I have the problem several more times. I have been taking pictures of it with my camera phone and today printed the pic below out and gave it to the service writer. He said that they will show the photos to the regional Toyota guy tomorrow to see IF (?) they can get approval to replace it. As I said above, last time they were trying to say it was normal, but during the daytime it isn't nearly as easy to gauge the severity of the issue.

If anyone else has this problem, feel free to print this out and use it yourself. I had to take a lot of pics to be able to catch the flicker at its worst and then "optimized" the image to suit my purpose at the dealership. My 06 limited has 34k on the odo, but since I have the platinum 100k warranty I will keep buggin them with this until they are forced to fix it!

Took a couple pics with a green LED installed on one side. Looks great compared to the crappy orange color...I'd like to find a couple blue LEDs tho.

Quick and painless as mentioned in a previous thread. Back out the one screw in the little "cubby" and sort of pop out (I started from the bottom, where the screw was) the A/C panel. I labeled where the two sockets are for the issue at hand.

Might need to figure out how to get a resistor inline with the anode (longer leg of the LED, positive leg) to keep the heat/intensity down. I took that pic with pretty decent daylight and look at the brightness. During nighttime driving, it would prolly be a lil annoying.

Note: the bulbs can be found at radioshack I believe, but so can the LEDs.

Note2: you can replace most, if not all the bulbs on the back of this panel...I'm thinking about installing all blue LEDs.


I'll post more pics if I decide to proceed with LEDs.

Until next time...

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So based on that, is it just a loose connection that causes it to flicker and one to be dimmer than the other? Looks to me like the panel itself doesn't need replacing if it's just a bulb/connection issue? If it's just a matter of a bad connection, maybe it can just be cleaned and some dielectric grease added to the contacts and the flickering/dim bulb issue will be gone forever?

Ricky

Upon disassembly, I could see how the thin wires (two coming from the base of each bulb) may just be the issue in the "dimming bulb" issue. The way the wire wraps around the base could actually prevent the wire from even touching the copper contacts on the circuit board (because of the base's indentions). I'd recommend "unwrapping" the bad bulb, or both, and rebending the wire (so that it is raised off the surface of the bulb's base) forcing it to contact the copper surface of the circuit board. At the same time, you may want to take a pencil eraser and give the copper contacts a little scrub.

If the bulb is bad, it won't light, so the dimming problem probably has something to do with the mating surface.

Sidenote: you could pop out this panel inside of a minute (being generous) and do this little 'maneuver' with the wiring in another 5 minutes, by the way.


LED UPDATE: I found some blue LEDs and swung by Radio Shaft today to pick up some resistors for that little experiment/project. I'll post pics later, assuming it works...AND looks good.

Have a nice day ladies and gents.