I bought the car with a very dim speedometer LCD. The numbers are barely legible but when they are sometimes it seems to say eRR, but I could be just seeing things. Other times it flashes random numbers and other times it says the correct speed (I'm using a GPS speedometer app on my phone right now instead). Has anybody got any advice? I just did the DIY to pull the cluster out so it's sitting in front of me right now. When I pulled the cluster all the wires were firmly attached. Google searches indicate I'm the only one with this issue. lol.

 

This may sound stupid, but did you know that there's an adjustable **** to set the brightness?
It's below the dash to the left of your left knee...

 

I do. Unfortunately it is not that. It's the LCD screen itself.

 

I have the cluster out and stripped to the circuit board. See pictures. I was hoping to have something stamped on the LCD screen so I could search Google and order a replacement based via part number but the display is blank.

I took some pictures of the soldering. The LCD is directly soldered to the board via 20 pins. Maybe try resoldering those?

 

I plugged he LCD board back into the car. See pictures. It looks really robotic and cool! Anyways, now you guys can see I need a new LCD or hopefully resoldering it works. I need to find a friend good at soldering.

 

I put a soldering iron on each of the 20 pins and was able to make sure each pin is soldered to the circuit board. That did nothing. It still displays like the picture. I need a new LCD. Does anybody have one?

 

Just find a new/used instrument cluster and put it. Won't be identical mileage, but at least you'll have a display. Or find a cluster, and (if you are comfortable doing it) swap the LCD over.

 

That seems like the only way. I have now a WTB posting in the parts forum.

 

Let me get home and take a look at the one I have laying around. It's from a series 2 though. Bought it to practice swapping the LEDs, would be willing to ship the LCD if it's compatible.

 

someone needs to weight in on replacing the cluster. From what I understand, the ECU, Cluster and Ignition key all have to play nice together or the car will not work. This is part of some hideous anti-theft requirements.

That is why places like Mazmart sell them together to replace and ECU.

 

As I understand it, there is communication between the Odometer portion and the ECU to prevent "rolling back mileage". Since his odometer is fine, he should be able to replace just the speed component without issue. Don't know for certain, but that's my understanding.

 

Here's what mine looks like from the spare set.



Front





Rear

 

Thanks. The LCD itself looks the same. The circuit board is different. I also think Mazda put in some anti-theft stuff so replacing just the LCD, although more time consuming, would be, in my opinion, the most legit way to do this.

Please give me a day or two to find something locally. (Alberta, Canada) There is a person in our car club who has a few parts cars but they might be under 10ft of snow

What would you want to sell the just the LCD for? Shipping would also be not too bad since it is so small.

 

Actually, looking at my pictures, the LCD on the series 2 circuit board appears the same but the circuit board is VASTLY different and the LCD on the series 2 appears to be controlled by that LC75822 8PX3 chip right near the LCD. I'm not an electrical engineer but I don't think it will work.

I wish Mazda put a part number on the LCD itself.

 

Yeah, but the only logical place to put the lcd part number is on the back of it, which you can't see until you desolder it. See what you can get locally, would rather leave the board as much intact as possible for practicing the led swap, but always willing to help out another rotary.

 

I found another cluster in town. It had broken mounting tabs but the circuit board was fine. I transferred the circuit board over and all seems to be well now