OBC pixel and button fix DIY...

[ivopivo]

SORRY TO EVERYONE, IF ANYONE, THAT HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THE BUTTON DIY AND ANY OTHER FIX... I GOT BUSY IN SCHOOL WHEN I MADE THIS BACK THEN AND THEN NOW WORK 2 JOBS SO I HAVE NO TIME WHATSOEVER TO PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER... I WILL TRY MY BEST TO FINISH EVERYTHING UP THOUGH ASAP... UNTIL THEN, I HOPE THE PIXEL FIX HAS BEEN HELPFUL ENOUGH


I WILL READ THROUGH THIS TOMORROW AND SEE IF THERE ARE ANY MISTAKES OR PHOTO CONFUSION, IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST ANY COMMENTS, ETC..

I decided to do a DIY since a few people said they’d like to see one and I didn’t find another one online, so here it goes…
Here’s the procedure with some photos. Keep in mind, I’m making this as clear as possible, so any idiot can understand it… so if you feel like you know most of this, I don’t mean to insult your intelligence. Oh and don’t blame me if you screw up your OBC and have to buy a new one (very easy to do). If you’re patient with little parts, it’s a very easy 10-15 min. job. This should fix most pixel problems, but I can’t guarantee anything, since your OBC might be bad in another way. This is all I know so I hope I can help some people out.
I can't take all the credit since I learned from another guy who tried to fix my first OBC. Although he didn't completely fix it (it was my fault I never took it back to him to fix), I learned this by watching him do it once. Thanks AL.
Lastly, as far as I know this works on the 11-button OBCs. I haven't messed with any 18 or 7 button ones so I don't know if they're similar or different.
I WILL INCLUDE THE BUTTON DIY IN THIS THREAD ALSO BUT TOMORROW BECAUSE IT'S WAYYY PAST MY BED TIME NOW, SORRY
OK…..

Required tools:
Small flat head screwdriver (for pushing tabs, etc.)
Small Phillips screwdriver (one that fits the little screws mentioned later in the post, I
used a flat head for these screws btw.)
Very thin 3M double sided tape (thinner is better because you will layer it)
Optional:
Some material as alternate for 3M tape… you will see what it needs to be later on in the
post
Needle nose pliers, or whatever they’re called (for bulbs, but some use their hands so,
up to you)



On to the instructions

1. Take OBC out of your car. To do this, you have to push/pull the OBC from the bottom through a hole at the top of the sunglass holder. I find it easier to use a screwdriver (be careful not to scratch the trim) on the sides of the OBC to kinda prop it out, then I push it from the bottom and comes right out.
Below is a pic of the OBC out of the car.



2. Next, remove the back cover from the OBC. The two photos below show the 4 tabs (2 on top 2 on bottom of the OBC) that you need to push in to remove the back cover.




3. Below is the back of the OBC with the cover off.



OPTIONAL STEP… remove the bulbs from the OBC. I did this because when I did another OBC before, one of the bulbs didn’t work, I guess since I shook it. I suggest removing them, but it’s completely up to you.

4. Remove the display panel along with the circuit board. The two photos below show the 2 tabs (one on each side) that hold the panel and circuit board in place inside the cover. Just push the tab on one side, hold the circuit board back (be careful not to crush anything on the circuit board), then push in the tab on the other side, and wiggle out the circuit board along with the panel. Be very careful when you do this, it will come out, just do it slowly.




5. Here’s the display panel and circuit board out of the cover.



6. Next you will remove the cover that is over the display panel. To do this, you have to “unhook” 9 tabs… 4 are on top, 3 on bottom and 2 on the sides (one on each side). The photos below show these tabs.




7. One the cover is off, you will see this. The display panel (glass or plastic I’m not sure, didn’t care to check) is held to the white part by a “connector strip” (sorry but I have no clue what that’s called) be very careful not to peel the strip off of either the glass panel or the white plastic, if you do, you’ll have a lot of fun trying to put it back together, NOT. Just make sure you keep that strip intact… my suggestion is, after removing the orange strip and after bending the white plastic away from the circuit board(you’ll see later what I’m talking about here) just set the panel onto the circuit board so that it is hanging between the circuit board and the white plastic where you’re working…(again you’ll see what I’m talking about in photos later on)



8. This is the orange strip I was talking about. Remember the orientation of it (orange part faces out of the OBC, back/whitish part is facing in) Set this aside for now.

[ivopivo]

9. Next you need to bend the white plastic back, away from the circuit board. (it’s optional and really not necessary but you can also remove the white little plastic pieces that are behind the orange piece. They didn’t bother be since they never got in the way. Sometimes they fall out sometimes they don’t. this is up to you)
OK…
1st photo below shows the white little plastic pieces still in the white plastic cover and also I’ve drawn the direction in which you will be moving the white plastic.

2nd photo shows the 2 little “brackets”(I will refer to it this way since I don’t know what else to call it, sorry) that need to be removed in order for you to be able to bend the white plastic back.

3rd photo shows one of the “brackets” removed partially, and rotated. You will need to remove them completely and set aside.

4th photo shows, in blue, the little screws that hold those grey “brackets”. You just remove these screws, turn circuit board over, and slide out the “brackets”.

4th, in red, 5th, and 6th photos show the tabs you will need to push in order to separate the white plastic from the circuit board. These are a bit tricky. I marked them 1 and 2 for the following reasons…on side 1, it is easier to push the tab and pull out the corner of the circuit board. Next you just pull the circuit board up holding at that corner until it clears the tab in the middle. Then, still holding corner 1, you pull away from corner 2 in order to clear the little tab (as you can see in the 4th and 5th photos, corner 2 has a cutout on the circuit board, so instead of having to pull the tab to the side and pull the circuit board up, you just do as I said… do the hard work on the easier corner 1, then just pull out corner 2. I really really hope all this made sense.)

7th photo shows two metal pieces that are attached to the plastic and soldered to the circuit board. When you bend the white plastic back, these are the pieces that are bending. Be careful to only bend it once back and once back down when you’re done, since you don’t want to go back and forth and break the thing off. If your OBC is very old, you might want to have a soldering iron ready in case this does break)

Finally, 8th photo shows the white plastic bent back. Circled in red is the area you will be working with.

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[ivopivo]

10. Now, the fun part. The whole idea in this fix is to either replace the existing “cushion” with a new one, or make the existing one thicker. The reason for this is that the “cushion” pushes the “connector strip” to the connectors on the white plastic, and this is how pixels are transmitted from the computer to the display panel. Over time, the “connector strip” looses it’s grip at some points… thus no pixels showing when you hit the TEMP button. Anyway…
I’ve posted 4 photos of the work that needs to be done and will refer to them as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th when writing instructions…

I’m sorry I didn’t take a photo of the old “cushion”, which you can see in the 2nd photo (I cut it in pieces while removing it)

The 1st photo shows the 3M tape put in place of the old “cushion”. The tape is 2 strips taped to each other than taped to the white plastic. You will easily locate where to put the new “cushion” since there are 2 plastic strips, on big one small, running along the edge, as you see in my little diagrams in the 3rd and 4th photos. THE “CUSHION” THAT’S TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE OBC DOESN’T MATTER SO DON’T MESS WITH IT, UNLESS YOU’RE REALLY BORED.

(As I said earlier, if your tape is thin enough, you can simply put a strip of tape onto the existing “cushion” and get the same effect. You will see in the diagrams in the photos that the existing cushions are shorter than the big plastic tab that runs the whole way on the edge. The “connector strip” is at the level of the plastic tab, so ideally you want a cushion just a tiny, tiny bit higher than that plastic tab. If it’s too high, it’s bad because the circuit board will bow out since it’s much tighter at the corners, and you’ll probably loose even more pixels. Mine was a bit higher, and when I first connected the OBC to the car, the pixels in the middle were a little bad, but once I put it in it’s place, the middle was held together by the molding and everything worked out great, as you will see in the final photos)

The photos might be a bit confusing since I couldn’t get a clear shot up close, but you’ll understand everything once you actually look at your OBC.
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Well… You’re done!!! Once you put the new “cushion” in or “mod” your old one, just make sure it’s not higher than that tab like I said and you’re good to go. Put everything back together opposite of what you did to take it apart.
Bend back the white plastic and clip the circuit board into it.
Reconnect the grey “brackets”
Put white plastic pieces back in (if you took them out)
Put orange piece back in the right way
Fold back the display panel
Put the little cover over the display panel back
Put the bulbs back
Stick the circuit board and display panel back into the plastic cover
Put the back cover on or go to the button DIY if you need to

10. Finally… enjoy your “new” OBC, with all the pixels.

[fisherbln]

Great writeup! I hated the first time I took it apart to fix the broken button... you might have convinced me to do it again though!

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by fisherbln

Great writeup! I hated the first time I took it apart to fix the broken button... you might have convinced me to do it again though!

hey thanks. like i said i really was tired and it was late when i did this so i will do the button DIY tonight. I fixed my button because i had 2 OBCs , so i just replaced the button mechanisms, but I've also fixed one before by repairing that little tab that breaks. Everything should be completed by tonight and hopefully up on bimmerdiy soon.

[redflame]

hey ivan wanna fix mine for me one of these days?

i have a feeling if i go in and do this i'll break something LOL

-Sam

[99E36M]

Sweet, the last two days I've found two fixes for annoying problems in my GF's 328...squeeky steering wheel, now this! woohoo I'll be a busy man!

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by 99E36M

Sweet, the last two days I've found two fixes for annoying problems in my GF's 328...squeeky steering wheel, now this! woohoo I'll be a busy man!

can you pm me the link fo rthe squeeky wheel fix? i have the same problem. thanks

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by redflame

hey ivan wanna fix mine for me one of these days?

i have a feeling if i go in and do this i'll break something LOL

-Sam

yea, if you build me a turbo like yours. haha j/k. sure, if you're in the area just PM me or gimme a call and i'll definitely do it. you just need to buy some 3m tape cuz i don't have any, ran out yesterday. i'm just gonna have you sign a waiver that if i break something you wont' blame me haha. j/k man, like i said just pm me when you're gonna be in the area and i'll give you my # and we can set something up

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by fisherbln

Great writeup! I hated the first time I took it apart to fix the broken button... you might have convinced me to do it again though!

thanks. do it, it's too easy not to do it. good luck

[redflame]

ivan i can give you the list of the turbo parts

then we can have two turbo 328's

-sam

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by redflame

ivan i can give you the list of the turbo parts

then we can have two turbo 328's

-sam

haha, no i'm trying to save up for an M3

[redflame]

still?

forget that... m3's are nice... but i'd rather have a turbo 328 then a stock m3

-Sam

[TboneM3]

Is this fix only for missing pixels, it seems that some of mine are just scrambled or in the wrong place, is this just so that they reappear?

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by Tbone325

Is this fix only for missing pixels, it seems that some of mine are just scrambled or in the wrong place, is this just so that they reappear?

i have no clue what you mean by scrambled?? do you have a pic? and yes i guess this is only so they light up... if a letter is missing a line of pixels this fixes it, most of the time.

[synkro]

Great DIY. thanks !!

[92E36Sedan]

Thanks for the write-up. I just finished this repair on my OBC. I think mine is a little more damaged to start out with, but at least now I can make out what it is saying on the screen.

[2mbb]

great procedure. took me about an hour from start to finish and cost less than four bucks for the roll of tape. I did an additional step. I removed the metal strips (the light contacts) from the back of the white plastic piece. With a small screwdrive I carefully lifted the metal strips off each of the white plastic nibs, then bent the metal strips out of the way. This made it really easy to separate the white plastic from the circuit board.

[k2c69n]

I just did this MOD and would like to say, It worked awesome. I am so glad to have my computer back up and running and not spending 295 to get a refurbished one. Im not too technical and a few times i though i ruined the whole thing, but it all came together. ... thanks again..

best mods are the free ones..

[Daved]

I just added a link to this thread in the parked FAQ...

Ivan, do you have any pics of the bare LCD? I need to see it naked, without any color strips on it... I want to figure out how it works.

[Daved]

Oh, is the LCD the black thing here?



So it's just black... not greenish like other LCDs?

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by Daved

I just added a link to this thread in the parked FAQ...

Ivan, do you have any pics of the bare LCD? I need to see it naked, without any color strips on it... I want to figure out how it works.

i'm not sure if i get what you're asking for but in post #2, fist pic shows the LCD, not that clear but it's just the LCD with a strip of connectors taped to it and also taped to the circuit board. does this help at all or no?

[Eryan36]

Can you take a pic showing where the bulb for the clock is? Mine is burned out; the pixels all show up in direct sunlight, but the backlighting does not work. I didn't know this thing just pops in and out. Great writeup!

[ivopivo]

Originally Posted by Eryan36

Can you take a pic showing where the bulb for the clock is? Mine is burned out; the pixels all show up in direct sunlight, but the backlighting does not work. I didn't know this thing just pops in and out. Great writeup!

if you look at 2nd, 3rd and 6th pic you'll figure out where the bulbs are.. in the 2nd pic... you see the 4 holes on top of the OBC... that's the bulbs in, there. you can see the bulb housings (black) in the 3rd pic along the white plastic piece. in the 6th pic you see the holes where the bulbs go. got it ?

[ivopivo]

btw i'll finish that button fix DIY sometime soon, i've been too busy and lazy to do it but it'll be fixed soon.