Radio display shorted out?

[mjgrantham]

Looking for an answer/advice in why my radio display went crazy and now displays all random lcd characters, changing every couple seconds. No more time or coherent display info. It's the 2001 6-disc unit. It happened after I took the unit out and opened it up to retrieve CD's that were stuck inside. I've done this before without a problem. While unit was out, and top cover & front removed, I temporarily put the front back on and plugged in to see what the mechanism was doing and try to get it to eject the CDs. This is when the display went berserk. I noticed I forgot to put in the rubber insulator sheet that goes b/t the face plate (that plugs into main circuit board) and the front metal body of the radio. Would this have shorted something? If so I'm wondering if the problem is in the circuitry of the main unit or the display/faceplate. Radio still works fine just no display. Player has been messed up but I'm not wanting to replace the unit to fix that.

Just hoping someone has some electrical knowledge/experience with these units besides "it's shot" cuz I already know that. Thanks!

[merc81]

Sounds like you may have dislodged a ribbon connector between boards. The display isn't getting its data pulses anymore. Take it back apart and look carefully at all the interconnects to each board. Make sure all are seated fully in place.
I doubt that you burned anything out--more likely its just loose.

[mjgrantham]

Thanks merc81. No ribbon connectors were disturbed when I took the front off. On the faceplate there is a group of pins that mate with a connector on the main unit, with no ribbons. There are two ribbon connectors in other locations that I made sure were nice and tight. The display is lighting up, just random gibberish. I would like to check over all circuit boards, but some are buried underneath or next to mechanical parts that are too intricate for me to remove. Thanks for the tip tho! My wife would have my neck (rightly so) if I spent one more hour working on this van. We need to sell it...I want it to have no problems but she just wants it gone!

[merc81]

Hmmm. That would suck if something shorted and caused this--seems unlikely but I have that kind of luck here. Junk yards have the single cd model for the vans pretty cheap, but I don't see many of the 6 units. Maybe to sell it you can swap in a single cd unit and not have to invest much time or $$$.

Just checked ebay and found one buy it now for $56, free ship. Maybe go that route. . .change front display circuit for yours.
search for 10329488 UN002

[mjgrantham]

Cool, I'll check that out. The only drawback to switching units is they have Theftlock which requires dealer programming for the computer to enable the radio. I'll still check into it. Thanks!

[merc81]

Not a problem so long as its been turned off, which ebay sellers always claim is the case. I've not had a problem with that yet.

Let me take that back . . .
Just read the add again and they claim it will need to visit the dealer. Use it for parts instead..replace the display?
Not sure how much time you want to spend. ..