| Author |
Message |
Michael King
Newbie
South Australia
JZZ30 TT
Posts: 2
Reg: 07-2005
|
Please help can anyone suggest a good place to get this fixed ....Blinky dash !! ( Newbie & very non mechanical )I also need to get the gas struts in the boot replaced or regassed if there is such a thing. Can I get some advice for this.
Insurance I have just had a quote from Lumley general for my 92 TT agreed value $15K for $590.00pa with $350 excess , need to get kill switch fitted & have it garaged. |
Jeff Smith
TryHard
NSW
TT Limited :-) equiped toyota torsen diff
Posts: 363
Reg: 07-2005
|
Talk to Mark Paddick or Neil Griffith.They are both on the forum. |
Jeff Smith
TryHard
NSW
TT Limited :-) equiped toyota torsen diff
Posts: 364
Reg: 07-2005
|
http://soarercentral.com/sc-forum/messages/282/76392.html?1151241600 |
Michael King
Newbie
South Australia
JZZ30 TT
Posts: 3
Reg: 07-2005
|
Thanks Jeff , I will try to make contact with Mark or Neil. I was looking for some one in Adelaide SA , to help me . Cheers |
Peter Nitschke
JunkFilterer
South Australia
GT4.0 V8
Posts: 5049
Reg: 11-2004
|
Michael, any competent technician should be able to do the dash repair. Take a print out of the tutorial with you to show them how to do it.
I had my struts regassed, can't recall who did it, but I found them in Yellow Pages and they come to you usually. It's a 2 visit process, collect, take away and regass, return and refit. |
Clayton Webb
TryHard
South Australia
'31 V8
Posts: 334
Reg: 09-2005
|
The tutorial makes it look more daunting than it really is, I think. I have done mine and a friends with no trouble at all, but both have been V8's. |
Jeff Smith
TryHard
NSW
TT Limited :-) equiped toyota torsen diff
Posts: 365
Reg: 07-2005
|
The TT is a little fiddly. |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2617
Reg: 07-2005
|
Wait 'til you strike one that the normal fix doesn't fix and then tell me they're not fiddly.
The record for me is three weeks to nut out what the hell was going on!!!
I daresay that record will be extended in the future  |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 1166
Reg: 10-2005
|
How often does that happen? |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2619
Reg: 07-2005
|
About one in five dash's that I see. 100% of dash's will end up this way if not sorted beforehand. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 1172
Reg: 10-2005
|
Hmm, at 10 years old I hope mine holds out for a bit longer! |
Gary Morriss
TryHard
SA
TT
Posts: 423
Reg: 07-2005
|
Mark..am i right in assuming that from 94 onwards they changed something in the dash to stop old blinky to some degree ? |
Jeff Smith
TryHard
NSW
TT Limited :-) equiped toyota torsen diff
Posts: 366
Reg: 07-2005
|
That would be interesting due to mine needing repair(94 model).I started the car up this morning mark and no errors now.All fixed. |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2628
Reg: 07-2005
|
No real differences that I can see Gary. The later models are better soldered so will be better in that regard as will the capacitors (as they are newer) but they all still leak eventually.
I reckon Jeffs' dash had been replaced with a new one too, probably under warranty as it was the genuine article with Toyota part No, sticker inside and no goo sealing the odo EEPROM (had NOT been tampered with though, soldering on the EEPROM is original). Whether or not it had been set to correct odo reading is a guess so the car may have a few more k's than it admits to; I would guess that it was reset and odo is correct (because if I'm right it was done by a Toyota dealer under warranty).
This is the fourth or fifth car I've seen with concrete evidence that the dash has been changed in the first few months of its' life and they are all in the '91 to '94 vintage. If I'm right then this would mean that it was fairly common and Toyota may have gotten a bit annoyed with having to do it. The later dash's better soldering is probably the result but the capacitors remain the same and they are the root cause of the problems we see now with corroded boards. The dry solder joint thing gives intermittent operation of the dash which is what most would call 'blinky dash' and as such the 'fix' detailed in the dash fix pdf does not fix them except that the most common dry joints are on the transistor and replacing it fixes the dry joints (I have never seen the transistor faulty but they are only a $ or two so I change them anyway).
Later dash's will go longer before the capacitors fail (as they weremade later) and improvements in capacitor manufacture over the years help too.
Even now the manufacturers of premium quality electrolytic capacitors only specify an operating life of 7 to 8 years maximum so 15 years for not-so-premium-grade caps is damned good.
The only places where premium grade caps are used in the car are the ECU, suspension computer, ABS and TRAC computers, probably the SRS system too (if fitted). All else is commercial grade (cheap sh1t).
This is not a Toyota unique problem but applies to ALL electronics. Operating conditions will alter capacitor life dramatically with harsh environments hastening their demise. A car is by definition a harsh operating environment with its' extremes of temperature and vibration.
The dry joints are caused by automatic wave soldering machines. This is worse in the Toyota because they have good quality thickish multilayer circuit boards and the solder bath temperature has to be higher than it would normally be with crappy (Nissan...etc) boards. This exacerbates the already existing problem with these machines in that the flux evaporates from the solder and the resulting joint is somewhat crystalline and it eventually crumbles resulting in no or intermittent contact.
All manufacturers are aware of this but as the process of joint disintegration takes a few years (unless there is a particularly bad batch) and the automatic process is orders of magnitude cheaper, they don't care. It'll make it through the warranty period in most cases.
The above applies to EVERY piece of electronics whether in the car or your home. The odd piece of high quality and expensive gear is hand soldered but not many. |
Peter Nitschke
JunkFilterer
South Australia
GT4.0 V8
Posts: 5054
Reg: 11-2004
|
Very good explanation! Thanks.  |
Gary Morriss
TryHard
SA
TT
Posts: 425
Reg: 07-2005
|
WAHOOO!! 
Good explanation Mark. |
Michael King
Newbie
South Australia
JZZ30 TT
Posts: 4
Reg: 07-2005
|
Thank you all for your feedback , this is a great help to all the non mechanical people like myself & makes you feel welcome as part of the club. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 1175
Reg: 10-2005
|
Great post Mark!  |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2643
Reg: 07-2005
|
I didn't think that one changed cap was worth the mention and i forgot about it anyway 
Oh, and boot struts are available from Supercheap. They list them as SC400 part and there is only one type. Whether they work on all cars with/without the spoiler etc I don't know. Supercheap normally have to order them in and cost is reasonable, in the $40 to $50 area. |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2644
Reg: 07-2005
|
BTW, I really expect some serious trouble from EMVs in the future. So far they're only playing at it! There is a truckload of electrolytics in them and they are mostly the notoriously unreliable small low value/low voltage types.
I don't even get close to changing them all (I did do one, Anthony's car in Brissy has ALL new caps but that's the only one I've done so far and that didn't fix the problem, it was the first one that I confirmed the screen fault on).
Changing all them will be expensive and time consuming (labour being the biggest cost). At least, so far, they don't seem to cause problems.
The dash's do have a lot of larger electros in the power supply area, under the heasink on the main board (fun to get at and change).
Their location, near a heat source, would suggest that they will fail eventually but so far they are holding up well. These will also be a bit of a drama to change and presently I just leave 'em alone. They are higher quality types so may be OK for a long while yet (despite the manufacturers pessimistic specs).
The surface mount types seem to be most prone to failure and it seems the designers knew that and didn't use them in critical positions. Next most common failures are the low value/low voltage types like the two detailed in the original 'blinky dash' doco. |
Peter Nitschke
JunkFilterer
South Australia
GT4.0 V8
Posts: 5061
Reg: 11-2004
|
Glad I have a UZZ30 then  |
Don Bagnall
Moderator
New Zealand
I have LESS Soarers than Hayden :-(
Posts: 3959
Reg: 05-2005
|
Me too  |
Mark Paddick
Goo Roo
ACT
UZZ31 V8 Soarer , JZZ30 TT Soarer
Posts: 2655
Reg: 07-2005
|
The Aircon units in UZZ30/JZZ30 are starting to give trouble with the computer, dry joints, caps and driver transistors for the fan speed control  and stereo and ECU are too.
So far the EMV doesn't seem to mind about caps going dry, they are real small and don't actually leak much electrolyte so no collateral damage.
 |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 1181
Reg: 10-2005
|
Moral of the story, buy the latest model car you can find - which is still no guarantee. |
Previous
