Sat Nav Problems Due To Broken Ribbon Cable

[rpearson]

Dear All,

I have had my Lexus IS200SE now for three years and done over 90,000 miles in it. About 6 months ago the Sat Nav screen started playing up (picture kept going blue). Then about 1 month ago picture totally went. As it is a company car I was told to take it to the Lexus garage and they will fix it for me. I was shocked when my Local Lexus dealer told me that it would need replacing at a cost of £2500!!!!! I was given some story about a special micro switch that was broken and could not be replaced unless the whole unit was swapped out.

Not fully believing what I was being told (as has happened before at my local dealer) I started to investigate what it could be. After taking it apart it was evident that there are no "special" switches. The monitor knows it is up by a variable resistor on the left hand side of the unit. The fault has turned out to be the ribbon cable that connects the screen to the back part to the sat nav unit. About 60% of the wires inside the ribbon cable have snapped. Hence all I really needed was a replacement cable. I am sure I am not the only one to have such a problem!!

What bugs me is that I paid for a days labour for them to find out what the problem was. It supposedly took then five hours for them to establish what was wrong? It took me under half an hour to find the fault. I am guessing that they did not even look, as the answer I was given just does not make sense.

Does anyone know where I can get hold of another one of these ribbon cables or a part number so I can order one.

Most Grateful for any replies or advice.

Kindest Regards,

Richard Pearson

[Monster-Mat]

hmmmm, sorry cannot help on the ribbon cable, but there are a few guys on here who may well be able to help..........geoff for 1

richard, can you post your experiances with this dealer in the dealer review section please.....every little helps

[james2210]

Try SEME (www.seme.co.uk). I know it's a bit different, but they have supplied me with ribbon cables for various stereo's that go between the removable faceplate and the main circuit board. It's helpful if you can fax them a picture of the part and where it goes or else it's sometimes a bit like the Krypton Factor trying to describe the screw that moves the spring that turns the wheel to move the thing that makes the thingamebob.

I think people must be mad. You take your car to a garage to have some work done and the dealer will give you a price that has been worked out by somebody somewhere who perhaps doesn't even know how long that job does take and probably allows for worst case scenario conditions....

Change oil

Warm engine 10 mins

Undo sump plug 40 mins cos it's been rounded off and is done up really tight

Take old filter off 30 mins cos it's in a difficult to reach area

Wait for oil to drain 10 mins

Put new sump plug in 5 mins

Fit new filter 5 mins

Fill with oil to correct level 10 mins don't want to rush cos you might spill some (more expensive than liquid platinum from a dealer)

Total time taken 1h 50mins

Time it might take if everything works according to plan 30mins

This means that if the mechanic working on your car does the job in less than the allotted time, you only get charged for the time he/she actually took? Yeah right

I had a major service with cambelt change on my old Honda and paid nearly £500. This should have taken nearly 5.5 hours to do according to the job sheet. 3.5 hours later, I got a phone call saying my car was ready to collect. Not very happy, especially when I scrutinised the job sheet and found the mechanic had checked the kickdown switch (it was a manual) and also the rear wash/wipe (there wasn't one). He/she had obviously just ticked all the boxes without even bothering to read them. I made them do the whole service again and provide me with another job sheet (which they also managed to ***** up too)!

[Geoffers]

That's scandalous. Do as Mat suggested - name and shame.

Is yours an actual ribbon cable or is it a mylar strip (Like a plastic with the copper lines etched in)?

If it's a ribbon cable I can probably make one up for you depending on the connector. How many lines does it have? There are a few versions of the screen. As James says, can you take a photo of it for us?

If it is a maylar strip, one thing you can try immediately is pcb repair paint. The old stuff was quite naff for this sort of thing but the newer is very flexible and goes on these quite well. You can get some from CPC (here), Farnell or Maplins. Take the strip off, rub down some of the protective coating just above and below the break and then paint on the lines with a very small brush. Works a treat.

[rafique_187]

could somene please help me

I have the same probelm my screen has gone blank, however i have opened the sat nav and se only two wires. one thin wire thats goes into a metal bolt and some other eire whish has various colours of wires atatched, however this can be disconnected from the navigation unit but how do i take it apart from the actual car? if you what i mean

serisouly confused kid over here

help anyone?