"Blinking" LCD display

[mwtryan]

Has anyone experienced this problem - the LCD display on my 2 month old T350 "blinks" on and off intermittently when the engine gets warm - I say when the engine gets warm as it never happens when the engine is cold or running cool.
Also it does not happen when the car is stationary, only when in motion. My local dealer (In South Africa) is stumped. Any ideas?

[rebelstar]

Every so often, when driving at night, all the lights flick off for a fraction of a second and there's a "click" noise. From what others have said on this forum, it happens when a solenoid/relay closes, giving power to the cooling fans. It could be the same thing for you.

[TSS]

Mine did the same when it was very hot in France last week. It seems to be fine now. Just yet another heat related problem that should have been picked up and cured during TVR’s fabled high temperature testing

I also get the lights flicking off problem mentioned by rebelstar, but my Tuscan did that too and it never caused a problem so I think “they all do that sir”.

[hatchn]

Mine has been doing this sort of thing on and off for a month or so. But it works ok for a few days then goes dead for a few days. You can still see the display and it’s functioning correctly but it is very faint. Almost as thought the backlight has gone. But then a day or a minute or a week later it works fine for a while. I presume it’s a loose cable or an overheating cut out issue. If I knew how to get the dash pod out I’d strip it down and give it a clean and reconnect everything. Any ideas ?

Cheers,
Nick

[hobo]

TSS said:

Mine did the same when it was very hot in France last week.

Ditto.

[mwtryan]

Hmmm - haven't experienced any fading problems as mentioned above but the "blinking" happens too quickly to be a relay/solenoid I think. At high speed / hot running it does blink off every 5 seconds or so - I do note that there seems to be some kind of fan behind the instrument pod - I hear it "whirring" when the ignition is switched on - if it is a fan perhaps this is related to the problem. anybody got any more ideas / info?

Cheers.

[guymarks]

on a similar note.... my dash display sometimes has lines through it? it remove all writing in that horizontal line.... they appear and disappear radomly?

Anyone else had this?

[mwtryan]

Looks like I've opened up a new can of worms..........

[VYT]

hatchn said:

Mine has been doing this sort of thing on and off for a month or so. But it works ok for a few days then goes dead for a few days. You can still see the display and it’s functioning correctly but it is very faint. Almost as thought the backlight has gone. But then a day or a minute or a week later it works fine for a while. I presume it’s a loose cable or an overheating cut out issue. If I knew how to get the dash pod out I’d strip it down and give it a clean and reconnect everything. Any ideas ? Cheers, Nick

I find to fix the display if it has faded, tweak the brightness and contrast settings, switch off then restart, fixes mine every time, for a while!

I reckon the blinking is cause by a voltage regulator overheating. I expect the display electronics run @5v so have to be regulated down from 12V to 5V. Those devices can run pretty hot and they have a thermal cutout. It is quite notmal for those to cycle at 5 second intervals or so. It would be easily fixed by adding a heat sink to the regulator if the display can be taken out. Might be doing that soon becuase I have error code 247 FRAM failure appearing on startup.

[fairclp]

Blimey, error code 247... one to add to the list!

Paul

VYT said:

hatchn said: Mine has been doing this sort of thing on and off for a month or so. But it works ok for a few days then goes dead for a few days. You can still see the display and it’s functioning correctly but it is very faint. Almost as thought the backlight has gone. But then a day or a minute or a week later it works fine for a while. I presume it’s a loose cable or an overheating cut out issue. If I knew how to get the dash pod out I’d strip it down and give it a clean and reconnect everything. Any ideas ? Cheers, Nick I find to fix the display if it has faded, tweak the brightness and contrast settings, switch off then restart, fixes mine every time, for a while! I reckon the blinking is cause by a voltage regulator overheating. I expect the display electronics run @5v so have to be regulated down from 12V to 5V. Those devices can run pretty hot and they have a thermal cutout. It is quite notmal for those to cycle at 5 second intervals or so. It would be easily fixed by adding a heat sink to the regulator if the display can be taken out. Might be doing that soon becuase I have error code 247 FRAM failure appearing on startup.

[hwassall]

rebelstar said:

Every so often, when driving at night, all the lights flick off for a fraction of a second and there's a "click" noise. From what others have said on this forum, it happens when a solenoid/relay closes, giving power to the cooling fans. It could be the same thing for you.

Yep, I get this as well but only when the car is fully warmed up. So far, my dealer has changed the battery and main fuse to no avail. Tomorrow we are trying a new ECU to see if this cures it but it is clearly temperature related. In my case, it seems to be a complete power outage as the engine cuts out very briefly at the same time. Not someting I am keen on happening whilst pressing on round a corner!



>> Edited by hwassall on Thursday 30th June 10:49

[hatchn]

I've just remembered something very strange that happens when my dash goes dim. It might help someone put 2 and 2 together.....

As I said before the dash goes completely dim and the only way you can see it is still functioning is my shining a bright light onto it. When doing this you can see it is actually functioning completely properly. The very strange thing is that when the dash is dim the clock stops. When the dash then lights up again the clock start to work again and it has lost the amount of time that that the dash was dim for.

For example if the dash went dim at 10:00am and stayed dim for 30 minutes, when the dash lights up again the clock still reads 10:00 and not 10:30, it then carries on ok.

All very strange, the wonders of TVR...............................

[VYT]

fairclp said:

Blimey, error code 247... one to add to the list! Paul VYT said: hatchn said: Mine has been doing this sort of thing on and off for a month or so. But it works ok for a few days then goes dead for a few days. You can still see the display and it’s functioning correctly but it is very faint. Almost as thought the backlight has gone. But then a day or a minute or a week later it works fine for a while. I presume it’s a loose cable or an overheating cut out issue. If I knew how to get the dash pod out I’d strip it down and give it a clean and reconnect everything. Any ideas ? Cheers, Nick I find to fix the display if it has faded, tweak the brightness and contrast settings, switch off then restart, fixes mine every time, for a while! I reckon the blinking is cause by a voltage regulator overheating. I expect the display electronics run @5v so have to be regulated down from 12V to 5V. Those devices can run pretty hot and they have a thermal cutout. It is quite notmal for those to cycle at 5 second intervals or so. It would be easily fixed by adding a heat sink to the regulator if the display can be taken out. Might be doing that soon becuase I have error code 247 FRAM failure appearing on startup.

I reckon there will be an error code 255 out there somewhere

[mwtryan]

I think fairclp might be right - the voltage regulator thing has more than a ring of credibility to it - next time I take the car in I'm going to print this thread out and hand it to the TVR mechanic - with a large grin on my face!

Seriously though it seems all of these T350's seem to have LCD problems - I wonder if Tam owners experience this?