It is obvious that the rubber cover is defective and should be made good by Toyota. It powers up and allows entry into the diagnostic modes, and from here I can check to see what connectivity it still has. The largest white connector is M13 -- the main one from the car, and is the one with the connections marked up in the parts-location bible page shown. Parts that must be dismantled from the vehicle will leave within 1-3 business days. I should be seeing something rather different on the scope here. This was several years ago.
Internet searches show this is a widespread problem that can involve safety. This is almost a lack of hack, but it bugs me. Same with the smaller connector that goes to the button matrix -- tiny wear areas. No, much less than hairline, since a hair would look like a giant ugly log in this picture or an even. And works perfectly over several days of testing. From there I assumed I would take the ride to poor town. The problem is intermittent and has occurred a few times over the past year.
However, she said the customer cited in that post had purchased five Toyotas from that dealer so they were doing the loyal customer a big favor. The freezing aspect of this defect is dangerous when the back cannot be opened. Googling this returns surprisingly few substantial hits -- just a lot of noise from the datasheet pirates that try to keyword up anything that even remotely looks like an electronic part number, those fucking parasite bastards. My dealer wanted 3 K for the unit and 3 K to put it in,I just asked and that's were it ended. X X X X X X Back in the car, the network problem is still there, and still comes X X and goes when the boards are wiggled relative to each other. It no longer functions properly and I have safety concerns regarding the use of the rear door in case of emergencies. Both units and the empty bezel.
If you're bored, view the big picture and stare intently into it while moving your head toward and away from the screen. Car harnesses are pretty tough and reliable. I wanted to verify the part numer and also look for any obvious failures. Every one of those sixty pins gets a little tweak outward, using a small sewing needle under the 'scope. The issue first began this past summer and as outside temperatures rose, the rubber melted. Please advise as to how to get this replaced.
The bezel buttons seem to function, responding instantly in the box when pressed. All the pins are gold- flashed, and I see no evidence of the pressure pitting like on the other connectors. So I desperately need to calibrate the system. The shield soldered onto the board covers a bunch of inductors, and appears to be a power supply for the electroluminescent panel backlight whose little white connector can be seen near the right end. There's a lot of sheet metal holding this thing together, and healthy attention paid to shielding integrity. My wife is unable to open the hatch even though her hands are stronger than the average woman.
There's a plastic pad glued under where the metal finger bears against the board underneath, and the whole thing is very slightly stressed upward at that point as evidenced by a compressed divot in the pad. This problem happened several years ago and twice last winter in subzero temperature. Reducing the test environment to this makes rechecking much easier, since I can just plug in, turn on the stereo and wave the probe around near the network connections and then fiddle the volume or tuning up and down. It has gotten harder and harder to open the trunk. I'm aware that there have been hundreds of complaints about this problem. That is pretty scary, especially since we are traveling with 2 small children. Retesting shows a solid connection, even under substantial deflection in both directions.
I have to press repeatedly to open the trunk. My update: I took the dash apart last night and took the display out. The inner fingers touch the outer contacts and the slight springiness keeps them pressed together. Fewer traces is just one more reason the change made sense. Toyota should recall and fix this problem. Basically what we concluded is that Toyota can not fix my problem for they cannot verify that the problem exists.
We also can't talk to the climate control system. This is a factory refurb unit they want to sell me. The fact that he couldn't get in to the trunk was inconvenient and expensive. But the majority of connections between the halves appear to go through this 60-pin micro-connector. I've eliminated the button cable, which was evidently giving some false button-press events during early testing stages by picking up stray voltage from somewhere.
At the same time, we'll just get a good look inside the unit in general. First layer: rear cover removed. After a few more testing cycles, I know several additional things: I've reduced what is necessary to reproduce the symptom to just the two main boards, naked, thus eliminating the jumper connector and its little ancillary board entirely. Analysis of the differences to improve reliability are detailed on a separate page; see below. Been going on for 3 wks and I'm not at a 2nd dealer.