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2008 Tribeca Navi Screen Dim

DrWubyDrWuby Member Posts: 3
edited May 2014 in Subaru
Hello,

I have a 2008 Tribeca with Navi, purchased in April. This winter I have noticed that the Navi's LCD screen stays very dark first thing in the morning when the outside temperature is low (40~50 degrees F). The brightness starts to come back slowly after about 20 minutes since the car was started. The service manager of my dealer does seem to have a clue.

I have two other cars with Navi's but none exhibits the same problem. Does not sound like an inherent issue with LCD displays.

Does anyone else have similar problems?
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Comments

  • ttentelhttentelh Member Posts: 46
    i also have 2008 tribeca with navi but i have not seen doing this, maybe you have it in auto dim. yo can manual change the setting under navi settings
  • DrWubyDrWuby Member Posts: 3
    Thanks for the reply! Yes I suspected such a setting but was not able to find out where this setting was. I saw the automatic day/night mode, and it was set to "automatic". The display is very dim when cold in the first 20 minutes even in "day" mode. I tried to manually crank up the brightness but when it's doing this no amount of adjustment would make any difference. It looks as if the backlight CCFL is maxed out.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    FWIW, I had a loaner for a week and never noticed. I test drove a CX9 and complained about a dim Nav screen so that would have stood out to me.
  • ponymobponymob Member Posts: 4
    Doc...just bought my Tribeca (08 LTD) and experienced the same problem when outside temperature gets down to the teen's. After about 15 minutes of driving it begins to get brighter. I assumed this was inherent with the NAV display.

    Did you ever resolve?
  • DrWubyDrWuby Member Posts: 3
    Hello,

    No I have not found the cause/solution to the problem. I think this might just be how this particular brand of LCD screen behaves. The 2005 MDX this car replaced did not have the same issue, nor does my wife's current car 2003 Lexus ES 300. My other issue about this Navi is the routing. It is really bad, enough for me to buy a Garmin 255w to keep in the car for a "second opinion". I now use the Navi screen strictly as the back-up camera display.
  • rcastle57rcastle57 Member Posts: 1
    Common in flat screen monitors, TVs and laptops with displays that use older LCD technology. Older LCD displays use flourescent lighting will be dimmer at low temperatures and will brighten up a bit as they warm up. The lamps will also dim in time/use. Your LCD screen has two small flourescent lamps that are built into the screen and run either along the sides or top of the screen glass edge to light up the image, which is imposed on the glass surface with transistors. LEDs are the newer technology and have a longer life and are brighter than the flourescent lamps. Keep your display "Off" if not using it, will help extend the life of the lamps. The LED displays are hitting the market now and many LCD to LED screen sizes will be interchangable. It takes a lot of practice and patience and almost a clean room to replace a display but it can be done.
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