NAV Screen blacked out, sh!t!
 

2008 4.8i

Haven't had the car for 4 months, it has only 38,000 miles on it, and the navigation screen has already blacked out.

It's been black for a couple of days now. The NAV screen went blank a couple of times before, but always came back on after the car was turned off and system was reset. Now it's staying black.

The system is still working, I can still listen to music. If I shine a flashlight at the screen I can see all of buttons and control the system.

I bought a warranty with my car 4 months ago, but they only started offering electronics coverage on the 2009 and newer models. So that sucks, because I did not have the option of adding the electronics warranty.

Do I need to buy a whole new LCD screen or is it possible just to replace the defective backlight?

I searched the forum on this topic but most people had the BMW warranty and had the LCD screen replaced for free.

Any tips on how I can save money out of pocket would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I did not research a lot, but it looks like these early screens have CCFL tubes??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdc1jgrgV2U

ebay may be a solution for a replacement screen and/or I am sure there are repair shops that you can ship the unit to.

Thanks for this link.

I saw the comment that you are referring to:

"hello i've had the exact same problem and managed to replace the ccf tubes from the lcd with two led stripes connected to the switch right after the two 25Amps condensators on the board... it's not an easy procedure... but if you put into it i'm sure you'll manage it... the two big problems are the lack of space to squeeze the led stripes in place of the cold cathodic tubes and the fact the 12v power sources on bmw are always on... once i find the 10v switch on the board and connected the leds are working as normal..."

Hmm, I am not handy with DIY stuff like this. I wonder if I could find an electronics guy who could install some LEDs like this connected to the 10v switch

CCFL tubes are hard to work with, they are small florescent tubes that are smaller in diameter than a drinking straw. They can break easily if stressed, sometimes the original tubes are a very difficult to removed and even glued into place.

I have changed them in scanners/fax machines and even some LCD monitors.

Sometimes the inverters for the the CCFL's fail.

A LED solution would be good, but often they are hard to get installed as mentioned.

Ugh, sounds like a big headache. Obviously something I'm not gonna be able to do. Guess I should search around for some electronics handy men w/ BMW experience

"Press the in-dash DVD eject button along with the in-dash CD eject button along with the volume knob altogether for a few seconds. This is equivalent to a PC's CNTRL-ALT-DEL."

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I also tried this which I found on another forum. No luck.

A lot of the posters seem to be citing cold weather as a common factor

Your CCFL is gone, I just replaced my screen a few months ago for a similar issue.

Was yours under warranty? Happen to see the price on the new screen? Also, did you buy it from BMW?

No, I have an '09, plus it was the screen from an '11 (CIC retrofit). I picked one up from a recycler, they are not hard to change at all, 15 minutes or so

Thanks for the info Blue.

I will check the used parts shops. How much did they charge you for the screen?

Btw, what is CIC retrofit?