Overhead Compass/Temp Fix

this post saved me hundreds of dollars... Thanks...

 

I was hoping to find a post here about this issue. You guys didn't dissappoint! I found both of the resistors had cold solder joints. Broke out my cordless soldering iron and had it repaired in less that ten minutes! Works great for now. Thanks for the help.

 

I fixed mine last winter and it has worked fine until about a month ago. I'm going to try and solder it again this weekend, but am wondering if I did something wrong the first time?

Any tips on soldering would be greatly appreciated ~ like can you really heat up the small plastic piece without melting it, or do you just heat the solder and melt it onto the chip?

Thanks!

 

Got some pics to show the results.



When opened, I found two resistors with cold solder joints.
I pressed down with my fingernail and reflowed the solder by placing the tip of the iron at the edge of the resistor and the board. At about 5 seconds, I felt the resistor heating up and removed the iron. There should be enough solder on the board to hold the resistor, it does not take much. The result was nearly as clean as the originals.



This looks like a process control issue at the factory where these boards were assembled. It does not appear to be an issue from over heating beyond the fact that the joints were bad to start with. The board shows no signs of the damage that would be done by currents high enough to melt this solder.

It took about 20 minutes to remove, disassemble, repair, reassemble and reinstall. Well worth your time to check it out!

 

tarandus,
See my writeup here for soldering tips and general recommendations for repairing the display. I'm not sure what you mean by heating up the small plastic piece...are you referring to the 510 resistor itself? If so, then yes...apply iron tip the the metal end segments of the resistor, and simultaneously feed in a bit of solder. Don't put solder on the iron and transfer it that way.

Note that I don't recommend using your original resistors...the metal is oxidized, and solder won't adhere well to it. You will only get a temporary repair. Do it right by buying replacements at radio shack (see the writeup for more info.) Good luck!

 

Bought my truck thinking that my busted compass unit was just a small price to pay, until I read this post. Took me about 20 min and has been working flawlessly since. Thanks for the tip.

 

success!! let's just hope my new found soldering skills will do the job!

thanks again

 

Hey, great fix. Glad I found this thread.

 

Any chance of getting a picture of the axial lead resistors soldiered in place ... showing the orientation of the coloured bands? (I'm assuming the direction matters?) A pictures worth a thousand words as they say ... especially for us 'electrically-challenged' types
Thx

 

Resistors can go in either way.

 

No pics, but it was just soldering the #510 resistor back in place. I got the pics I used off of this thread.

 

Amazing!! bought my tacoma with my overhead display not working. saw this thread and thought i would give it a shot. neither of my 510s looked disconnected so i went ahead and soldered all 4 sides anyways and sure enough, BOOM!!! like magic i got my temperature and my direction back. so stoked!! thanks for the help!!! and a side not: those suckers are frickin small and they are not easy to solder just to give you a heads up.

 

My display went out last week. Just under 40,000 miles on it. I remember reading this thread a while back. Just wanted to say thanks. Worked like a charm. My soldering skills our really terrible. But it works. And those 510's are smaller then i thought. My iron tip was to big.lol

 

Hey Guys,
I'm new to this site looks like a great source of information. Does anyone know if you can tap into this power source to power a GPS or Radar Detector? It would be really clean to mount either of these above the rear view mirror.

 

most likely, but make sure that the radar detector is 12v. Most GPS units have a circuit in the cig. plug that drops the voltage to 5v for the USB input. If you direct wire, you will fry your GPS. You probably can get a cig. plug adapter with a USB out and shove it above the head liner. Or a 12v jack that you can plug your GPS plug into, and shove that above the headliner.

 

Hi All,

I opened up my overhead compass/temp computer and saw that one 510 resistor was completely missing. Does anyone know the specs on the resistor such as ohms, watts, etc. so I can buy a new one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

David

 

That's awesome! if I knew it was that easy, I'd have done it months ago.

Thanks for the great right up!

 

Thanks for the post. Worked like a charm!

 

I have had to do this twice now, nice to see its not just my truck with the problem..
The first time this happend i was going to send it in to a place thats fixes these, but i saw that 510 thingy was off the board at a 30 Degree angle.. Just re-soldered it, and it worked fine.. I dont know if the 510 thing gets hot or if its my bad soldering, but it has come off again.. It is currently working!

Thanks for the post..

 

Awesome!! Worked liked a charm. I feel pretty good and prideful.