Subaru dash clock problems - pictures...

[foTONICS]

did you clean and flux the joints before re-soldering, if not could this lead to failure in the future?

 

[Graphite]

did you clean and flux the joints before re-soldering, if not could this lead to failure in the future?

Nope - just melted solder in place and added a bit of lead-free silver solder...

Just noticed the other day when the temp dropped my car clock came back on for 2 short runs... off again now

 

[Graphite]

I had info that a resistor under the display was sometimes the culprit...

Lifted the display board...

Dodgey resistor had been found by others as R4 marked 511... Mine appaered not to have any solder on it's lower end - well it does now!!!

Praise God it's all behaving itself now

Thanks for everyones comments - much appreciated!

 

[johnnerjohnson]

Hi Graphite
I have had the same problem with my clock (MID) unit. Most frustrating. I have now cured it (touch wood). I removed the display from the circuit board, which is quite difficult. Then re-soldered all the components on the board. Having said this, I believe the offending one was the regulator in the middle of the board. This is a black square device with two small pins at one end & a large solder tag right across the other end. It's probably the largest component under the display. You can hold the display in place (without soldering it) and plug the unit back in to test it.
Hope this helps.

 

[(*steve*)]

Interesting that there are so many soldering faults...

jonnerjohnson, was your regulator not soldered correctly, or was it something else (e.g. it needed replacement). Sounds like the former. Curious as to why you single out this device (it may be a thing for other frustrated Subaru owners to take note of)

 

[johnnerjohnson]

Hi Steve
Having seen the picture just above my last post, the device is TR3, just under the two green diodes. I singled it out because there didn't look like there wasn't much solder on it.
So far the clock is behaving under various temperature conditions, so fingers crossed. Yes I agree, there must have been a serious quality issue going on with the manufacturers of these things. It seems a very common fault.

 

[Graphite]

Still working

 

[abrown1707]

My Subaru is mended!

Thanks very much for this thread.
My wife has not had a clock in her Legacy since it was 18 months old. Subaru did not know what the problem was and by the time they had a proper look it was out of warranty....
I have spent the evening resoldering resistor R4 (511) with the help of failing eyes and a patient daughter to help.
Now fully fixed. Give yourself a pat on the back!

 

[nepow]

You've most likely found your fault... the resistors solder points are clearly dry jointed. ideally they need to be carefully removed and their ends re-tinned, otherwise a liquid flux pen applied to the resistor leads on both sides of the circuit board and fresh solder will enhance reliability,

 

[Graphite]

Thanks very much for this thread.
My wife has not had a clock in her Legacy since it was 18 months old. Subaru did not know what the problem was and by the time they had a proper look it was out of warranty....
I have spent the evening resoldering resistor R4 (511) with the help of failing eyes and a patient daughter to help.
Now fully fixed. Give yourself a pat on the back!

Great glad it worked for you - thanks for posting It's useful to know when a solution like this is working for people.

Mine is still working too

 

[Graphite]

You've most likely found your fault... the resistors solder points are clearly dry jointed. ideally they need to be carefully removed and their ends re-tinned, otherwise a liquid flux pen applied to the resistor leads on both sides of the circuit board and fresh solder will enhance reliability,

The resistor quoted as a problem is surface mounted and seems to be only soldered at one end - This problem seems to be hitting vast numbers of Subaru Legacy owners

 

[Boot]

Wow, many thanks Graphite!

I today finally took some time to remove trip computer from my car (has been problematic on-off last 3 years since I bought the car secondhand but broke completely about 1 month ago).
Everything seemed to look quite ok (didn't remove the LCD). Then I started to search the internet for any clues and eventually found this thread. When you mentioned resistor R4 511, then I peeked under the LCD to see if there is anything suspicious with mine... and guess what, there was not any resistor in that place
So now I have to find somebody to solder this resistor back where it belongs but I guess that is the easy part

 

[Graphite]

Great - hope you get it sorted soon...

 

[cpj22]

Fix worked for me (so far)

I too took the car display apart and found the soldering was terrible! johnnerjohnson's post seemed to fix my car. Very thankful for this forum. Cheers guys!!

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Hi Graphite, Mine has exactly the same fault. As a retired electronics technician I thought I would be able to repair it.
After touching up all the main solder joints, a repair was no closer.
I found I could make it work and then change the brightness by applying a twisting action to the fluorescent display.
After flexing the right hand connections, I have concluded the faulty connection is actually inside the fluorescent display.
Sadly my attempt to fit a small plastic wedge permanently between the display and the printed circuit board seems to have caused a total display failure.

 

[Dave 69]

Hi guys,

A newbie here, been reading through all the posts regarding the Legacy dash clock/trip as I have exactly the same problem with mine.

I’ve been scanning through various forums, googling and even got in touch with Subaru themselves to try and find out what the problem was.

Eventually by following all the advice on here I managed to strip down the dash, remove the unit, strip that down to the PCB.
Got someone to heat up the solder and flip the display on the 4 point side.

All set to re-solder the offending R4 511 only to find there was an empty space!!
My question is, can anyone advise what’s supposed to be there? And if I wanted to purchase a replacement what exactly would I be asking for?

As I have no clue about resistors/capacitors I’m pretty much lost!

And help would be very much appreciated

 

[(*steve*)]

R4 is apparently marked 511. That means 51 * 10^1 = 510 ohms.

We know it's a surface mount resistor, but we can be longer see @Graphite's images so I can't tell you what size it is.

If you can post a photo showing the pads with something nearby for scale (say, mm marks on a rule) then we can tell you.

 

[Dave 69]

R4 is apparently marked 511. That means 51 * 10^1 = 510 ohms.

We know it's a surface mount resistor, but we can be longer see @Graphite's images so I can't tell you what size it is.

If you can post a photo showing the pads with something nearby for scale (say, mm marks on a rule) then we can tell you.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I can’t open any of the pictures on here to see what’s been posted!

I’ve managed to get a couple of pics of the offending area. Hopefully they attach

Please see the attached

 

[(*steve*)]

Interesting. It looks larger than 1206, and there's another one which appears to be the same size in the second picture (R18).

And it may be the light, but one end of R18 may not be soldered properly...

If I had to guess, I'd say a 1210 size 510 ohm resistor. However 1210 is an unusual size...

Search for "1206" on this page and see what size is closest to R18.

 

[Dave 69]

Ha ha the plot thickens!

Geezo all this to sort a clock, realistically this is less hassle than paying over the odds for a new or second hand unit.

When I contacted Subaru direct to ask for help they were as much help as..............well a missing resistor realistically ha ha

So if I was to source a 1210/1206 510ohm resistor you think this would work? So when I go to purchase this, this is what I’d ask for?

Thanks for your help Steve. On another note, for the same Legacy 2004 have you ever had problems with the radio display? This comes on with “Subaru” when the ignition is switched on. The radio station then shows and then it just disappears! Radio still works but no display?

Any thoughts?

Again thanks for your help Steve

Interesting. It looks larger than 1206, and there's another one which appears to be the same size in the second picture (R18).

And it may be the light, but one end of R18 may not be soldered properly...

If I had to guess, I'd say a 1210 size 510 ohm resistor. However 1210 is an unusual size...

Search for "1206" on this page and see what size is closest to R18.

ha