Sometimes my odometer blinks, or flashes... on the way home from picking up my car tonight, it was a blank screen.

I parked it in the driveway, went inside for an hour, came back out, turned the key and it was fine...

help please?

 

The classic first question is always this - how old is your battery?

 

i've only had the car for a day, but according to the carfax report, it got a new battery at a Jag dealer in sept. 2013...

all other lights, stereo, navigation, etc...work fine...

 

Just the ODO reading - everything else in the Instrument Pack display working properly and, when it comes back on it displays the correct mileage?

As suggested, a failing battery often causes all kinds of weird electrical issues but this one sounds like a loose harness connection to the IP or a bad joint on the IP circuit board.

Graham

 

What has the local temperature been?

I've been experiencing the same thing on hot day cross country trips. The display winks out and comes back on a few miles later. If I turn the A/C on, it will stay cool enough to not wink out at all. When it "is" out though, if you look closely, you'll see that the information is still being depicted, but without the back lighting (or whatever it is), the display isn't readable.

I anticipate it being a cracked solder joint somewhere back there, but those are sometimes so hard to find, that I haven't been very motivated to chase after the problem.

Does anyone have a pin-out on the display illumination.

 

it's everthing in the display area...odo, gas usage, etc...when it comes back, yes, correct info is displayed. i would say so far (again, i have had the car just 3 days now) 1 out of 5 times it displays correctly.
i will be taking it in for brake pads soon, so will find out.

 

funny, we have had very rare rain here in southern california the last few weeks...very cold (for us) at night...but i feel like maybe it is a wire that has become loose. all other electrical works fine, and no issues starting the car...
there are times where it looks like a bunch of XXXXXXXXX or flowers...or part of the info displays....

took it to a jag dealer, service was closed, but a salesman told me it probably needs a new board... please update if you get your fixed

 

Haha, .... I was going to ask, that if you take to a shop and they fix it, that you get the technical details of the fix from them, so others (like me) can replicate the fix.

 

since i don't really need that info, im not in a terrible rush either. but i promise to post if/when i get it figured out.

 

Same here. There must be someone other than us that has experienced this. I'm surprised there haven't been other posters.

 

i just came from dinner, and like magic, the screen worked perfectly. it even was nice and added "suspension fault" for a minute, then that went away.
someone said it could be a fuse, or wire issue...i think i will take it to the dealer in newport where they can run a full scan for me...
will update you when i get answers.

 

Hey Bluefin,

Just out of curiosity, the next time the display is out, take a closer look at it (a much closer look). Is the information still there, barely visible, just not illuminated? That's what I experience.

 

when it goes out, it is totally out. when its flickering, sometimes i see half of the display info. funny, it is at the mechanic now getting new brake pads (mintex) and the display is working perfectly of course. *eyeroll...

what pads do you use?

 

The PO installed ceramics (brand unknown) on the front that have lasted 100K miles, but have worn the rotors A LOT! The rears are Akebono ceramics that I installed some tens of thousands miles ago mostly because the prior pads squealed so much. The Akebonos have squealed every morning the whole time too (sigh). Sometime this year, I'm going to just put on the most affordable pad & rotor kit I can find.

 

ooooh no im hoping the mintex don't make noise. i was going to use akebono, but didnt want to wait the 2 days for them to order...have you tried using grease to reduce the noise? im going to be very sad if these make noise...he is resurfacing my front brembo rotors a little. said the back were good.

on another note, i fought with the useless cup holder and decided i want to somehow use it to hold my phone...or something...that thing really is annoying. it was missing a hinge, so i just removed it.

 

I have the brembos too. Yup - when the new ones started squealing, I greased them "again". Still squealed. I have drilled rotors up front, but solid in the rear, so I'm going to try drilled (and maybe slotted) rotors on the rear as well when I place them.

For my phone, I've always just used a sticky pad (or whatever they're called) to hold it in place on top of the dash. However, when they're new, I can sometimes even stick my phone to "the front" of my dash. That's pretty cool (looks real weird though).

Occasionally I actually end up with a can of soda in the cockpit, .... and get to use the cup holders! Woo-hoo. ;-)

 

Do your headlights ever go out?

 

mechanic just called...
battery is good
says the display has worked fine on the test drive...
the rear brake bar light is out
i may wait on it since the other brake lights are fine

all other lights/stereo/clock/navigation controls work fine...its just the display...will drive a few days and see how it goes.

 

DSD: Yup. They'll flicker a bit every once in a while, especially on long night drives. Once they out all together, but I recycled the switch and they came back on - no problem. I'm pretty sure the Ballasts are going. I'll change them someday, ..... when I figure out HOW! - lol.

 

looks like it was a weird wire thing...found out the brake light switch needs to be replaced, so the mechanic fiddled under the dash, and now the display works correctly everytime.