car radio lcd display problems made in china

As you have read, a couple of weeks ago I decided to upgrade my wife’s ride. Not only did I respray her whole car, I also decided to install a new car audio system.

Just like me, my wife doesn’t really bother about how huge the bass sound is, or if the stereo has thousands of functions. The important thing was that the car stereo produced sound, and could play MP3 and CD.

The installation of the Double DIN car stereo system was quite tedious. I tried to learn as much as I can from what was done, but with little space to see, it was not easy.

So, I really can’t say much about what the technician did. All I can say is that the installation looked quite easy, and it required tactfulness when opening the original car components.

This new unit worked as it should without any problems, but a couple of months, it also failed. This time, the new unit kept on although the car engine was completely dead and the ignition was pulled out. To add to the situation, the reverse camera also failed to function.

My checks online reveal that these China made double DIN car stereos cost less than RM299. In fact, some are priced just about RM189 on Lazada.  Of course brands are set aside since there’s plenty of unknown brands.

Remember however that the cheap rice does come with some short-comings like a shorter warranty, an unknown brand name and a very ‘normal’ display on the LCD screen panel.

In terms of sound, I can’t really differentiate if it’s better or worst because sound is sound to me, particularly when it’s coming from the car audio system.

- If the bulbs are out behind the display, then all the rows and colunms do work on the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display, but the background light of the LCD display is uneven, or some cases the display is completely dark. This case no need to repair the pixels, you do not need a silver cable, nor a new LCD display of the instrument cluster. This case you just need to buy the lightbulbs that provide light behind the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display.

- If the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display has really pixel problems, then typically lines or colunms of the display are missing. Several cases the characters are broken, numbers and letters shown on the instrument cluster"s display are unreadable - the backlight is even. In case of a real pixel problem, when one or more pixels are missing from the display, you need to buy a silver ribbon cable or some cases a complete Audi/VW/Seat LCD display. It really depends on that if it is a BMW, a Mercede and Audi, Saab, VW or other make, and of course if it a MID display, a speedometer, a board computer or other LCD dipslay. Most cases, when you have a pixel failure, and you decide to repair it, it"s really worth to buy a set of bulbs too, as bulbs tend to go out during repair - this is due to the massive mechanical shocks experienced during the pixel repair procedure.

Well, most of the Audi/VW/Seat pixel repair KITs we sell are designed to be simple and easy to use. The word easy should now be the subject of further discussion. An average Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD pixel repair is far more difficult then replacing a lightbulb. You definitely have to have good mechnical skills, and some household tools, such as nippers, screewdrivers, household tape, and other goodies to fix things around the house.

If you have to ask one of these questions, then you definitly should NOT do an Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display pixel repair at home (we were asked these questions before, this is not a joke):

Well, Pixelfix is an internationally registered trademark. Pixelfix only sells the highest quality Audi/VW/Seat speedometer LCD display silver ribbon cables, that are capable of lifetime operation. We sell most of our repairs with lifetime warranty, and you will find the exact same displays, cables, and other spare parts that we use for professional repairs. The silver ribbon cables we use for Audi, VW, A6, TT, A3, A4, Passat LCD display pixel repair are real silver, which is a very expensive base material, that is why the price is much higher compared to carbon ribbon cables.

You may keep an eye on your package, if you ordered the Audi/VW/Seat speedometer LCD display silver ribbon cable with postal delivery on you may check the status on your local post office"s website, or if you ordered next day deliver then you need to see TNT / FedEx or DHL tracking site for status.

All Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD displays, silver ribbon cables, speedometer spare parts bought in the webshop will come with an invoice. All invoices are issued electronically, so you will receive an e-mail with the printable invoice in it. This invoce can be printed and filed to the accounts.

No worries, we do provide technical support, and help repairing of the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display. However there is an advice you ought to consider before starting the work. If you have not repaired Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s LCD display before, this is mandatory. PLEASE read the manual, and if available watch the video BEFORE starting the work. This will definitely save a lot of time and will help to do a hassle free work.

No worries, this symptom can be due to a bagatel problem which can be fixed easily. If there are no pixels on the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s display at all, that MUST be due to one of the followings:

- the contacts of the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display or the panel are not perfectly clean - this case there is no contact between the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display and the panel

- the alignment of the silver ribbon cable is no good, so the pads of the silver ribbon cable do not match the pads of the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display or panel.

Let"s talk about the worst case scenario, you started the repair, but you do not seem to deal with the repair of the Audi/VW/Seat instrument cluster"s display. This case we have a backup solution. We always stand behind our customers, so you may send the Audi/VW/Seat LCD display unit to us for repair, and no matter what the condition of the unit is, we can help. More precisely, up to this point we always succeeded, meaning none of our customers managed to do such a damage in the unit that we could not fix. The repair does not cost a fortune, in a lucky case it is 20-30 Euro plus return delivery cost only.

APO/FPO, Afghanistan, Africa, Alaska/Hawaii, American Samoa, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Jamaica, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Macau, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Yemen

APO/FPO, Afghanistan, Africa, Alaska/Hawaii, American Samoa, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Jamaica, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Macau, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Yemen

Tier 2 suppliers such as Epsilon said this: “We were hoping everything after the Chinese New Year [February] would get back to normal and it got worse. Honestly, I don’t know. That’s the scary part,” said Ronnie Brashear, Epsilon VP of Sales.  Regarding supply in the fourth quarter of this year he added, “I think it will be a struggle.”

Car stereo companies are also competing with the likes of Walmart and Amazon for shipping containers that are in very short supply, hence the reason for container costs jettisoning from $1,500 to $10,000.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) like blind spot sensors are using more chips.  Electric vehicles (EVs) require more computing power. Chip demand in cars is expect to grow rapidly over the next 5 years, climbing to 3,000 chips per car, said the CTA report.

The report also mentioned Renesas Electronics, which said of the recent fire at its plant in Tokyo, it will take 3 to 4 months to repair. The plant accounts for 30 percent of the global market for microcontroller units used in cars.  Two thirds of the chips made at the damaged facility are used by the car industry.

The Kenwood DMX905S is one of five Kenwood models that feature wireless Android Auto, along with a traditional corded Apple CarPlay app. The Kenwood worked well in our testing, but small usability details separated it from our top pick. It has a capacitive display, although pinching-and-zooming didn’t work in Google Maps. The unit’s hard buttons are large enough to press easily, but they don’t have the nice tactile feel of the Pioneer models’.

The Kenwood DMX7704S is very similar to the DMX905S, above, but lacks its wireless Android Auto capability and capacitive display. It has the same relatively large, but tactile-less buttons along the bottom. And we found the menu structure to be more complicated than the Pioneer or the Sony models’.

The JVC KW-M730BT, our previous runner-up, and the newer JVC KW-M740BT are almost identical models. When plugged in with a USB cord, both CarPlay and Android Auto worked well. The Pandora and Spotify apps were also flawless when using a Bluetooth connection. Our main gripes are the three tiny hard buttons across the top, which offer less functionality and aren’t as easy to access on the fly as those on the other models we tested. Also, you can’t customize the buttons’ illumination colors.

The new Sony XAV-AX5000 is very similar to our budget pick, except that it has a larger, 7-inch, bezel-less display and smaller, hard buttons across the bottom, rather than the XAV-AX100 model’s volume knob and left-mounted buttons. We had no problems connecting to CarPlay and Android Auto through a USB cord, and the AX5000 provides dual USB ports and satellite radio capability. It could be another good budget choice, but it’s sparse on features, compared with our other picks. It doesn’t come with a GPS antenna; it uses the one in your phone. The display isn’t as customizable. You can’t vary the buttons’ colors. And you can’t connect this model to an iDatalink adapter for use with a car’s steering-wheel controls and other features.

Our former also-great pick, the Alpine iLX-107, was the first replacement car stereo to offer a wireless connection to Apple CarPlay, although it doesn’t include Android Auto. The iLX-107 model’s interface is relatively easy to use, with responsive capacitive volume buttons below the screen. Its screen can be finicky, though, and we often had to hunt and peck to find what we wanted in the menus. The iLX-107 has a 7-inch screen and a host of extra features, such as satellite radio and HD Radio, multiple color choices for the controls, and the capability to pair with up to five smartphones over Bluetooth, but it tends to be more expensive than our top pick.

The Alpine iLX-207 has the same bright, 7-inch display as its cousin, the iLX-107, along with Android Auto, which the iLX-107 lacks. However, it doesn’t have the iLX-107 model’s wireless CarPlay connectivity or its slick capacitive volume buttons. Instead, it has a thick lip across the bottom of the screen that protrudes about half an inch from the display, and houses several large plastic buttons that provide some tactile feedback. The iLX-207 worked fine overall, and includes satellite radio compatibility, HD Radio, selectable illumination colors and wallpaper, and an HDMI input and output. But as with the iLX-107, we often had to hunt and peck to find what we wanted in the menus.

The Sony XAV-AX210 is similar to our budget pick, the Sony XAV-AX100, with a 6.4-inch display and volume knob. But it adds a CD/DVD player, satellite radio capability, variable illumination, and the ability to connect to an iDatalink adapter for use with a car’s steering-wheel controls and other features. An SXM version that includes a SiriusXM tuner as part of a package is currently being sold.

The Pioneer AVIC-8201NEX is very similar to our upgrade pick, but without its wireless capability for CarPlay and Android Auto; you need to plug in with a USB cord. Like the AVIC-W8500NEX, this Pioneer comes with a built-in navigation system, capacitive touchscreen, satellite radio compatibility, HD Radio, and Pioneer’s Dual Zone Entertainment (which gives rear-seat passengers the option to enjoy different content than front-seat passengers).

The Kenwood DNX875S is essentially the same as the DMX905S digital media receiver, above, but with an integrated Garmin navigation system. You can connect to Android Auto either wirelessly or with a USB cord, and to CarPlay with only the cord. But, as with the JVC KW-M845BW, above, we had problems wirelessly connecting to Android Auto with our Pixel 2 XL test phone, and switching between two Bluetooth-paired phones wasn’t as seamless as with the Pioneers. We like the nav system; in our car GPS testing, we’ve found Garmin’s navigation system to be easy to use, with an intuitive interface, reliable and responsive routing, and helpful lane guidance at highway interchanges. As with Pioneer’s Here mapping, Garmin’s traffic data isn’t as comprehensive or accurate as that of Google Maps and Waze, though. The DNX875S is compatible with Kenwood’s DRV-N520 dash cam, and can accept two camera inputs.

Our previous upgrade pick, the Kenwood DNX694S, and the newer Kenwood DNX695S are very similar models. We had no trouble connecting to CarPlay and Android Auto through a USB cord. Both models come with built-in Garmin navigation, a CD/DVD player, HD Radio, satellite radio compatibility, variable color adjustments for customizing the controls’ backlighting, and dual video inputs for connecting multiple cameras. Unlike on the other Kenwoods we tested, the buttons are located on the left side of the screen, where they’re easier for a driver to reach, and the CD/DVD slot is visible above the 6.8-inch display. Both models can connect to the company’s DRV-N520 dash cam, and when a backup camera is connected, the stereo overlays helpful parking-guidance lines onto the camera’s image. According to Kenwood’s Seth Halstead, drivers can also connect other accessories, such as an add-on forward-collision warning system.

A distinct whine from the electric motor accompanies you as you drive along. Priced this low, there is not much insulating the car from road noise. Luckily as you’re unlikely to ever get the Mini EV much above 50 mph this never becomes too much of a problem.

One-pedal driving is not really possible, as the car simply takes too long to slow down—probably because it only weighs 700 kg (1,543 lbs). Wuling is coy regarding acceleration figures, but since the vehicle is electric and has instantaneous torque, it isn’t unduly slow in town traffic.

With no fast-charging capability, you really are stuck using the Mini EV as a city car. Given all the other foibles detailed here, that is probably not a bad thing. But as a cheap introduction to electric family motoring, the car is infinitely safer and better than a scooter or motorbike.

Even though you cannot buy this car outside of China, if we had to rate it on WIRED"s scoring system, we"d charitably give it a 5 out of 10 (Wired: Bargain basement price for an EV. Safer than a scooter. Can seat four. Trendy…sort of. Tired: Limited to being a city car. Uncomfortable. Little safety equipment. Wayward steering.) The score not being a “4” is mainly down to the considerable value on offer here, but we"d find it hard to ignore that lack of safety kit.

Speaking of value, prices for the Mini EV originally started at RMB28,800 ($4,389), while the 13.8-kWh luxury Macaron version we tested retailed for RMB43,600 ($6,645) until recently. But increased battery costs have seen prices rise by around $1,000. Astonishingly, the company is reportedly making less than $14 profit on each car.

The poor profit margin hasn’t stopped Wuling and its sibling brand Baojun from creating more cars in the same vein. Wuling had always produced microvans aimed at rural farmers and commercial buyers, so producing the Mini EV was a surprising move.

Baojun, on the other hand, is a Wuling sub-brand aimed at the car market and was earlier to micro EVs than its parent company, with both the Smart-like E100 and E200. Both of these only seat two people, and the E200 is also sold in a slightly restyled manner as the Wuling Nano, with a more powerful motor and longer ranges. Being two-seaters, they’ve never really sold well, but the E300 (aka Kiwi EV) in many ways replicates the Mini EV formula, except it costs around twice as much and features a chunky robot-like appearance and desirable features such as fast charging.