Fixing a faulty FN2 radio display (8th gen civic) 

When soldering a job like that , the best way is not to really use any solder ! Just warm up pins so that original solder reforms around joint, this stops any excess solder from forming where its not required, also if you want to clean joints, the best way is to heat up solder and using an old tooth brush or similar just brush it clean and the resolder ,,,

True to form, a fantastic video. Nice one. My clock display was playing up like yours so I followed your example and give it a shot and jumped right in . I agree - if you try this, definitely keep a towel handy and tall drink nearby. Fortunately it's winter here. All videos on the topic seem to follow the same approach but I'm not entirely sure that re-soldering "broken" connections is really the issue. I got to the point of trying to wiggle the clock unit out, but never actually managed to wrestle that third clip free. It really did feel like I was about to break something - my hand included. The crazy thing is that with all that jiggling, the display seemd to come right "on its own". I had to move the car before I was done and as I started up, there were all my old friends, staring at me with a sense of bad humour in the air. So I never even got a chance to improve on your soldering job. Deflated. The problem is that I am not even sure what fixed the problem. I think there is a case for checking loose connections before going through the hassle of skillful electronic repairs. Keep testing as you disassemble the various units. Just a technical tip: I followed the same sequence of disassembly but once I had the dash open, it was clear that the sequence should be slightly different - just to destress the whole procedure: 1 Remove the shelf cover 2 Remove the speedometer top cover 3 Remove the Speedometer 4 Remove the clock to repair

So Ive seen a written guide as well. on a honda civic forum. I have a Civic gen8 as well with a faulty display. It was time to do something about it so I watched this. First off - it worked - yes soldering fixed it. I was planning not to apply new solder as one other comment mentioned. As soon I put the iron on the first pin I knew there had to be applied a tiny bit more. Its clear to me after doing this the reason this fail is that Honda originally have not supplied enough solder from factory thats why this issue is common. The bad news, I broke the windshield. Seriously I barely touched it with the edge knockle. Im supprised how easy I broke it, didnt even feel any pain, I just removed my hand and I saw the crack. I checked, it cracked on the outside layer and I just touched it, I wouldn't even call it a gentle bump, and you even "warned" about it in the vid. The thing that annoy me the most is that it only happed the second time I took of the "center plastic part" as I forgot to put the screws in. Shit happens - if you do this, mount this piece as the last thing after mounting the speedo.

Same fault on my civic. Thanks for the DIY fix. I love your maintenance vids like this the most. Keep them coming as I really enjoy learning. Cheers Lew

Thanks for showing this guide Lew, I've literally just done mine and I know what you mean RE trying to solder it. If you sharpen the point of the soldering iron, melt some solder on the end of it to 'tin it up', wipe it on a wet cloth, press the tip of the soldering iron into the terminal pin where the solder is on the board and quickly press the other side with a small length of solder, it'll follow the heat of the soldering iron tip and look a lot neater. I had a couple of pins where the solder had stuck to the iron tip when I melted it so I used the method above. All the other pins I just melted the solder. It's.certainly bloody hard to see it and trying to keep a steady hand is difficult.

Just wanted to thank you pal, I did mine today thanks to this video. I only warmed the pins up as you advised and its spot on again!! Thanks again mate, the video really helped me out. 👌👍👍

An easier way to remove the side that requires a lot of force is uding a zip tie. You can insert it from the top and it comes down from the bottom. Just pull on both ends and it will come off. Wished I could've come up with it 1h earlier.

just soldered mine today ! what an utter complete mess i had made ! burnt pins the worst soldering you have ever seen but guess what??? its working lol thanx for video our kidda n props to you.

Thanks for this vid, i did this and it works a treat.. Top tip.. get thin solder and cut it into tiny (less than 1 mil as the pins are alot smaller than they look in the vid) pieces and pick each one up with the end of the hot iron and place where you need them, do this on wood as it won't stick to it as it melts, I did it on a metal bench and made a right mess lol.. Cheer again.

I have solder em all and now it is working correct

Have faith dude, a dab of heat to reflow the solder can make all the difference! great job

Many thanks for posting this video. I bit the bullet, ordered some trim levers and set about pulling apart the dashboard (not my normal thing). Initially I tried to skip the speedo step until I realised the speedo panel slightly covers the offending screen. What a buggar it was to get the last piece out! A couple of my pins were bent. So I straightened them and heated all the pins without adding new solder (again not my normal thing). Then put it all back, difficult corners first. Everything was back in around 2 minutes. So far, so good.

Make sure to pull the speedo straight out, wiggle it each end but don’t pull one side out first. I pulled one side out first and broke the plastic pin at the back of the speedo. I used a maplin soldering iron kit to do this to my 06 civic I-ctdi. The kit came with a solder plunger which I used to extract all the old solder from each pin. You probably can just heat up each pin and the solder should be ok but I wanted a clean slate for each pin and added the solder afterwards. This is seriously fiddly though and you’ll need the hands of a surgeon to be neat and tidy. Anyways I wasn’t that neat but made sure all the pins were solid with the new solder. I found the video really useful. Thanks

A good slap on the dash works sometimes. I tried soldering mine but it only worked for a short while. ( it requires you to be really precise and you probably need a magnifying glass and a real steady hand ). I will try again but this time without any solder as suggested by others in the comments.

Cheers mate. Did mine today and it works perfectly. Also did the Speedo too as that was also erroring.

Great job lewis . It's nice to see you getting stuck In and sorting the display out . A+++

Thank you for the guide. I finally got round to sorting the display. Looks like new now!

Thanks for this, I managed to do the same and it's all sorted! I had a lot of issue with the radio display left clip as well, took well over an hour to make sure I didn't snap anything.

I also had this problem and fix it by resoldering, the cause of the broken welds in my opinion is because of the aer "leaking" from the a/c and contracting/expanding the welds untill it will crack , also this you can feel the air when the display is removed

@FNLEW - thank you so much for this, you saved me so much time and money! Solder 1 and the last two looked somehow different to the other “gold” looking ones, so i just heated them up and woweee!! Good as new!

Great stuff, had a go myself today and what do you know!!! Fixed it!

Very cute! But so sketchy looking soldering im going to keep looking ahaha

I have the same problem and tomorrow I'm going to try also and it will be the first time using the iron...let's pray 🙏 😂

Great video Lewis. The radio display is a right pain to get too. The display is ok in the summer months but the cold weather makes it mostly unreadable. Have to get my soldiering iron out. Cheers bud.

All you have to do is touch for a second the original solder points ( the blob of hardened liquid below the pin * no extra solder required) it will look like a hole in the liquid with a tad of smoke. I take it its cracked in some of the solder points but they are microscopic and you wouldn't be able to see with the naked eye so I done it for all of them as they initially looked all fine. Fitted back in and it worked and never required a slap ever since!

This might be an old video, but it got my display working! That left hand clip in the display unit took me nearly 15 minutes to remove; thought I was going to snap the damn panel.

Do you have any idea , how to repair radio display after installation of my new aftermarket stereo on honda civic fn2r? mine was japan imported 2009 fn2r model. The wiring of the radio was chopped and messy. I just replaced new iso stereo harness and my radio display went blank and did not on.

My display takes a couple minutes to come back on when I start the car. This doesn't happen every time but maybe 50% of the time. The Aircon etc will work but the display doesn't light up and can't use radio. Any ideas what might cause this? Also the climate is always reset back to 22 whenever I start the car. It never remembers the previous temp and I'm sure it used to.

This is starting to happen on my Civic too, cheers for the vid as I’d have probably went off and bought a new battery or something 😂

Well done mate excellent vid and respect to ya for giving it a go,. Don't think I would have tried that but after watching a video like this it gives you something to follow. I changed my gearbox oil on my fn2 thanks to you and ya dad which I thought I would never try. Thanks again. 👍

dude, would much rather be in the sun fitting new discs and pads to mine, instead im in wind and rain, outside, JOYS ! :)

My 1.8 Si has the same problem. Whacking the dashboard doesn't help and I don't have the confidence to attempt soldering. I've noticed that pressing the external perspex on the corner fixes the display but it returns to faulty as soon as i release the pressure. So I'm intending to wedge a screw or a piece of plastic between the perspex and fascia.

Thank you so much. This helped me to fix my car. Your instructions were exactly what I needed. Thanks so much!!!!

I cracked it! but I still managed to get it working again... so it is what it is.

Same thing happened here (Honda quoted £700!) I got it replaced under warranty but it went wrong again so I fixed it myself...the solder joints are dreadful, It doesn’t matter what it looks like so long the solder is strong I reckon that is a fix.

Bro I’m afraid to open my door, let alone the dash.. good old punching does it for me

Top Work Lewis! I had the same issue on my FN2 - top fix!

Hi I ve done mine this weekend but just resoldered the existing solder and it works great. But now the speedo is squeezing over bumbs does any have the same issue cause it is driving me nuts. BTW thanks FN Lew saved me a lot of money.

Nicely done if not a little lucky lol 😉 Good choice on the brake pads, I'm ordering the PBS one's soon as I haven't been very impressed with the Ferodo DS2500 you mentioned you might be interested in previously & the forum's always bring up. A friend has them on his BMW & doesn't rate them at all for track days. If you're going to do a full track day I would upgrade your rear pads as OEM or equivalent can't handle a full day imo, especially Brembo. I had them on the rear at Anglesey & they just overheated & on another friends car they cracked too. For a half day OEM will probably be fine on the rear.

Awesome, my FN2 is doing the same so will have to get round to doing this. Cheers mate.

Thanks for uploading this fella. Total fix and well chuffed😎

Thanks for the video, I did it myself, my first real solder job, and got it fixed :)

Brilliant and concise vid; sympathy on the soldering iron, I wouldn't use that to solder my worst enemies toaster, not surprised it was a challenge, the end result worked tho! :- D

Nice work young man

Absolutely creased when it came back on all fine 😂😂 fair play bro mines naffed guess I'll have a go now lmao!

Thanks for the video! , bought a 8th with a faulty display. Took it out according your video, fluxed and soldered the pins (although no one seemed to be faulty from just looking at it). And works again! One doesn't need to unplug the speedo and also had to take the big panel out before the speedo.

ありがとう✨ございます！ From east cea～Tokyo JAPAN～

I have done this twice, and the second time I just heated the pins, that was better. I saw double at the end ;-)

Will have to fix my 09 too, the level indicator of bass/treble is half readable

How do you get the temp on your radio display? I don’t have that on my civic

Just sorted mine. Cheers for the video.

Good Job mate, soldering can be a pain in the ass if you don't do it all the time!

Air con on at 19• 😣 good job on the repair. Saved some money. Great detailed video 👍🏻

Great video, mine also does it. At the min giving it tap seems to sort it lol. But least there is hope if it goes altogether I can fix it.

Hello I have a question! I have a Honda civic which is model year 2008 and has the same problem but the cream that does not work with the radio sometimes sounds a bit but it is not so works what is it for problems do you think?

You just needed to reheat the existing solder.

Does anyone no if a type r display work in a normal civic?love the red display

Anyone recommend a garage that’ll do this fix in London/Essex?

Wish I’d watched this before I went to a Honda dealership. Nice one man. Very helpful video! I left mine into Honda there, paid £1,000 to have a new matrix installed , which meant the whole dash coming out. Since I got it back, turn the heater on for 30 mins and the stereo is turning off and on, making a popping sound. Can anyone help a guy out with a bit of advice with this? Is there a heatproof protective plate for the stereo that Honda have forgot to put back in or ??

Awesome video, as always. Do you know if this affects the smaller LCD screens that come on the SatNav models?

I generally use H-Tune, but I'll give mjc a look. I may replace my gearstick gaiter soon. This year is car......next year is bike!

nice work, but the displays are a pig to get out, The reason that these displays fail is because they are made down to a price (see how much a new one costs YOU to buy) They are rubbish and not what we should expect from Honda. There's no excuse for this, digital displays are nothing new, we've had digitals since the 1970s such as in watches that take a hell of lot more abuse than an in-car displays ever will. My soldering is just as crap but now the bloody thing works! and I hate things that don't. Very well done video, top stuff!

With the radio and CD player unit completely removed will it cause that top display to stop working completely?

Tricky stuff. Although my soldering skills are a bit better than yours the repair can still be a shot in the dark. Mine worked fine at first reconnect on a hot day but the next chilly morning about 30% of the LCD segments were gone again. Mine was really screwed though with nearly total darkness. Now it's fully back only on warm dry days. The whole unit seems to be extremely sensitive to air humidity and perhaps a drop in temperature. Back to square one as I couldn't find a blueprint of the exact pin connections, like which pin controls which LCD segment. My clock is completely scrambled again, the radio stations/music titles are somewhat readable and the smaller fonts (A/C on/off) are OK. You're right about the idiocy of the assembly. The bunch of responsible engineers and designers should all be "sentenced" to disassemble, re-solder and reassemble the display for 100 Civics EACH. :D

Great upload, mine is all fixed now! PS, my soldering is worse than yours :D

Thank you for the video. I soldered again the pins. 7-segment displays are ok now. But, the illumination is too faded. Any advice??

Hey Lew, just wondered if your Stereo stayed fixed after the average job of Soldered the connections? Need to fix mine . I know it was 20 months ago now so a good idea of the work 😄 Thanks in advance buddy 😎

great video pal

hello, can the car be driven with the screen removed?

ihi friend. a brought a diy stereo steering. but it doesnt work anyway and my radio display was lose.. do yoy have any idea on how will i do for fixing this fault.. thank you so much

Hi my mates civic is playing up. His red clock has screen burn and can go all funny. Then the radio lights go off and the speakers make a popping sound is the clock at the top of dash causing this problem.

I don't understand how you done this!? Have you just touch the top of each pin that looked broken? Could you explain this in Layman's terms, please?

Very helpful! Thanks for making this. My screen has been flickering for months on my 07 Type-S and today the screen died completely. Going to give it a go soon!

Are you ever going to upgrade your stock radio to a double din screen or anything like that?

Hey mate did it work later soldering the radio unit. Am thinking of doing mine. Mine is different i believe being a 59plate

good vid keep them coming

After a visit to a looser mechanic, my radio unit beeps 6 times every time i start the car... any clue why???

As good as always , your will be on tv soon lol

Sweet bru

So I bought my car with a dodgy screen from a Mercedes dealer, they got honda to fit a new radio screen as part of the sale, 400 odd quid it cost them, that was in October, now February 2019 and the new screen has gone mad! Sending it back to honda, can't believe after 4 months the screen has broken!

my screen is not completely dead, but it dims itself in a random matter... because it's still works, I'm scared to touch it xD

Your plug was loose mate mine the same. it half on, like half numbers things I've never seen, But if I slap the top of the dash it goes right lol. (loose plug) lol. 👍 👍 👍 👍 But cheers for the info on how to get the clock out.

is there a aftermarket alternative to that display? i would like to change it and put a high rez lcd screen with some sort of android... ( something like the stock satnav but... newer) any ideas?

Use flux

Absolute bugger to get off

Thanks for the detailed vid very useful. You think this is the same problem? I have the display issue but then also my radio will turn on and off. Even if it’s off will random come on. I’ve took a pic and vid here to have a look ( mega.nz/folder/nBtgjD7B#uPgcKkcT4zleDhYPmnA7mA ) if anyone can help. Thanks 🙏

thanks for this!

Get a sun visor or something

Don't want to be 'that guy' but I was quite unimpressed with this video. I have the same display issue, had it for a while and knows its very common and doesn't have a permanent fix. I was happy to see this vid show on my recommendations, especialy as it fairly recent (4months at time of writing). However, you didn't actually show the problem in the video before starting work on it. Your camera angles hid everything you were doing, and you also edited out all the actual work that needs to be shown. It's. Wry easy to describe how difficult or easy it was to remover a part, but it's always better for us to actually see it happen. Just some needed constructive feedback

Why can't we see the display instead of you chatting not a good video at all