my clock still works. But its getting very dim. can barely see even real dim at night. Could this be the problem

 

Because the computer board does not have a bulb that you can replace, this could be the problem that the solder points on one or more of those 5 resistors that I mentioned in my video can be going bad and may need to either be refreshed by reheating up the solder points and/or adding new solder to all of those solder points on the resistors.
Try that and let me know how that came out for you. Its really simple to do this fix and you save a ton of money doing it yourself than having the "stealership" take your money for a 15-30 minute fix

 

It's amazing how much money you can save. The dealership actually does not repair this; they just replace the clock. They won't do an actual repair. The dealership here charges $406 to do this job that cost me nothing. $292 for the clock (yes, you read that correctly) and $114 for the "labor" to replace the clock (yes, you read that correctly). If I wanted to replace the clock, I could do it in less than 10 minutes. Actually, probably can do it in 5 minutes. I have no idea in the world why they would charge $114 for that other than that they can and people are willing to pay for that even though it's easy and fast. Anyway, I soldered those 5 resistors and VOILA! it works now.

EDIT: July 2019 - It's still working fine amost 5 years later. I need to add, though, that when I originally did the repair, I added additional solder to the joints instead of just remelting the original solder. I recently worked on a friend's clock and just remelted the original solder instead of adding more solder and it only lasted a couple of weeks before it started acting up again. My advice is to add additional solder when doing this job. It will be a permanent fix that way. An additional tip for anyone reading this is to be very gentle when pulling up on the four clips that keep the clock housing together, otherwise you'll break them. I just used my nails instead of a screwdriver.

EDIT: June 2024 - The clock failed again maybe about 6 months ago. Every now and then it'll start working on its own. I'll have to redo this soldering trick.

 

It's amazing how much money you can save. The dealership actually does not repair this; they just replace the clock. They won't do an actual repair. The dealership here charges $406 to do this job that cost me nothing. $292 for the clock (yes, you read that correctly) and $114 for the "labor" to replace the clock (yes, you read that correctly). If I wanted to replace the clock, I could do it in less than 10 minutes. Actually, probably can do it in 5 minutes. I have no idea in the world why they would charge $114 for that other than that they can and people are willing to pay for that even though it's easy and fast. Anyway, I soldered those 5 resistors and VOILA! it works now.

Beautiful! I'm glad that you were able to save money and fix your clock! The dealership, or as I call them "stealerships" will rob you of your money especially for easy fixes such as this. Dont forget to like my video and subscribe to my channel if you havent already done so as I will have more videos to come in the near future.

 

Excellent video. Thanks

 

Mines finished. I tried plugging it back in after another solder job...and it smoked so I immediately unplugged it and now it's just sitting there. My next bet is to try and contact the company who made it directly and see what luck that will give me.


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Did you add new solder? or just heat up whats there?
Any chance some of the solder flowed into another joint creating a short somewhere?(this would probably be more likely if you added more solder)

 

Hello ToyotaNation,
I know this topic is already a sticky but the person who made the original video I thought did not do a good job. So I made a better one! :grin:
I hope this is more helpful than the original video to do this!
If you like my video, don't forget to hit the "like" button and subscribe to my channel.
Thanks ToyotaNation!

Here is the link to my youtube video regarding this repair:
http://youtu.be/tfGE4AeTQCE

Great video Juni! The clock on my 2004 Corolla is starting to blank out on startup so I may need to do this when it finally craps out. Thanks to you I'll be able to do it myself now at a low cost. Look forward to seeing more DIY maintenance videos!

 

Just be careful when trying to use the soldering iron as to not burn the circuit board or the plastic holding the board in place. Please "like" the video if you have the chance and subscribe to my youtube channel so you will get notification of my future DIY maintenance videos. Thanks! :smile:

 

Just did this DIY today
Followed the video and it worked perfectly.
Thank you. Save me lots of money.

 

You can usually find a used one on e-bay for around $60. Since its already out, go ahead and solder those resistors before changing out your non-functioning one for the e-bay one. I had success snipping tiny pieces of solder with an exacto knife and then placing those tiny bits right on the solder joints before soldering them on.

 

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...lla-1st-gen-matrix-2003-2008/346431-finally-fix-those-damn-blanking-clocks.html

 

Following the video, I was able to fix my clock that had been out for several years in just 10 to 15 minutes.
Excellent video.

 

But if I am not mechanically inclined to get the clock working, what other choices do I have?

 

First time I tried this, the clock worked for a few months before it started intermittently going out again. After it went out completely, I did this fix again. It only worked a couple of days before it started to be intermittent. Third fix never brought it back to life. I'm not sure what to do now.

 

From what I've heard by others, that is sometimes experienced by some people. I can't remember exactly when I did this repair, but it's definitely been more than a few months and it's still working fine. I added solder, though.....not just remelted the original solder.

You can pull one from the junkyard or you can order one on E-bay. One of the self-service junkyards here in San Antonio charges $7 for a clock. They don't have many Gen 9 Corollas from which to choose though. Most of the inventory is Gen 6 - 8. I don't know how much the cost would be from a junkyard that carries newer cars.

EDIT: IMPORTANT: I had also remelted the solder on a friend's clock without adding more solder, and it stopped working after a short while. I did it again and added solder instead of just remelting the original solder. That did the trick. For all who are reading this, just add additional solder when remelting what's on there originally. I'm thinking the original soldering job was bare minimum and doesn't last.

 

I have just soldered the resistors from the circuit board of the clock and behold!!

??

Glad I did it. The job is not that difficult at all! Huh! I save 15% or more on this! Even a caveman can do it!! Thank you Geico !

 

Just want to report back that it's been over a year now, and the clock on my 2003 Corolla CE with 206K miles is still working after the quick soldering.

 

I did mine back in 2015 and it's not that difficult. It helps if you have a soldering iron with a small tip rather than a big one for more precise work.

 

AWESOME!!
Just picked up my '03 Corolla LE last night. There was a few issues I knew I would have to fix, but I wasn't sure I could do the clock without going to a dealer...silly me. Did a youtube search for "03 Corolla clock" and found your video. Very concise on the steps to get to the clock AND how to fix it. Just did mine and REALLY taking my time I was done in 15 minutes.
Thanks again.

 

Well, it died a few weeks ago. I re-soldered it and it worked for about 15 min. Now it won't work at all after trying to solder one more time. I'm just gonna buy one of those $5 tiny clocks you can glue to your dash.

 

Mine was starting to go in and out. Your video was excellent. I made the repair yesterday. Pretty much the first repair I have done to this car.

 

Just did mine yesterday. It's a lot brighter now than i ever remember!

 

It's probably cheaper to source a clock from the salvage yard instead of a clock with double sided tape.

 

When we first bought ZippyCar, our '05 Corolla S, several years ago, the clock was stone dead. I followed the instructions for reheating the five resistors on the circuit boad, and got it back to life for a few days, after which it faded out again. I went back in for a second attempt (using a pencil soldering iron for precise control), but this time I also followed the guidance about adding a very small drop of fresh solder to each connection, and that did the trick. That was several years ago now and the clock is working as well as ever.

While I would not say that it's a difficult task, it is a precise one, in that you're dealing with small fiddly bits, and you must not get too sloppy with the solder to avoid interfering with nearby circuits. If you're nearsighted and patient, like me, you can do it.

 

Pulled my clock the first time, heated the contacts, worked for a few days and then went dim again. Two days ago I bought the solder gun, pulled the clock, resoldered the points per the video; the clocked worked fine all day yesterday, and then this morning started fading in and out, very frustrating. I will see if I can find a clock at the junkyard and see what happens.

 

Mitch, just add a tiny bit of solder to each contact. I did the same thing as you, melted the existing solder and it didn't last. After adding solder the clock has worked fine for the last 8 months and is still going strong.

 

good video but gloves not required.

 

Hello ToyotaNation,
I know this topic is already a sticky but the person who made the original video I thought did not do a good job. So I made a better one! 😁
I hope this is more helpful than the original video to do this!
If you like my video, don't forget to hit the "like" button and subscribe to my channel.
Thanks ToyotaNation!

Here is the link to my youtube video regarding this repair:

Hello ToyotaNation,
I know this topic is already a sticky but the person who made the original video I thought did not do a good job. So I made a better one! 😁
I hope this is more helpful than the original video to do this!
If you like my video, don't forget to hit the "like" button and subscribe to my channel.
Thanks ToyotaNation!

Here is the link to my youtube video regarding this repair:

What do I need to solder?

 

The only thing different I did was add a little more solder instead of just remelting the original solder.

 

Yesterday I had to change the clock because of Daylight Saving time, anyway I notice my 07 Corolla is getting dimmer and dimmer to a point I can't see it. Thanks for the youtube video and this forum and now my clock is fixed. I want to add a few tips not detailed in this thread.

1-The PCB has a conformal coating so you need to remove it with a striper before soldering. If you don't do so you may contaminate the solder joint and that's why some of you experience.
2-Don't just reflow the solder, you have to add solder. This failure is caused by cold solder joint, and the original use the minimum solder on those resistors.
3-After soldering test the clock and then re-apply conformal coating, I have picture showing conformal coating under UV light.
Note: Make sure you practice solder cleanliness, use rubbing alcohol if you have it.

 

Yesterday I had to change the clock because of Daylight Saving time, anyway I notice my 07 Corolla is getting dimmer and dimmer to a point I can't see it. Thanks for the youtube video and this forum and now my clock is fixed. I want to add a few tips not detailed in this thread.

1-The PCB has a conformal coating so you need to remove it with a striper before soldering. If you don't do so you may contaminate the solder joint and that's why some of you experience.
2-Don't just reflow the solder, you have to add solder. This failure is caused by cold solder joint, and the original use the minimum solder on those resistors.
3-After soldering test the clock and then re-apply conformal coating, I have picture showing conformal coating under UV light.
Note: Make sure you practice solder cleanliness, use rubbing alcohol if you have it.

Yes, we've discussed above that adding new solder is much better than just resoldering what is originally there, because what is already there is insufficient.

I haven't had a problem with not removing the conforming coating. Didn't even know it existed until I read your post. It's been more than six years for my clock repair, and it's been fine, so based on that I don't think it's necessary to purposefully remove any of the conformal coating or add new conformal coating after adding solder, but doing so would certainly not hurt anything, so I can't cirticize it. Being thorough, however, may be desireable for some of us, so this info shown below is for a spray-on conforming coating, which is what I think you're referencing?

 

Conformal material is dielectric, and it's the glossy coating you see on the PCB. If you don't strip it before you solder then it's a hit and miss fix. I work for a company that work with PCB so I know a thing or two. As for conclusion it's recommended to strip the coating first then add more solder. You don't have to apply the protective coating if you don't have any.

 

After re-soldering the resistors the clock is back to its original brightness, all that fuss just because daylight saving time.

 

Hello ToyotaNation, I know this topic is already a sticky but the person who made the original video I thought did not do a good job. So I made a better one! 😁 I hope this is more helpful than the original video to do this! If you like my video, don't forget to hit the "like" button and subscribe to my channel. Thanks ToyotaNation! Here is the link to my youtube video regarding this repair:

I watched your video on fixing the dim display. I didn't even have to watch it twice becausedid a great job. I grabbed my tools, took out the clock, went to the basement to solder, took the clock back out, plugged it in and it's bright as can be! It took about 20 minutes. Thanks for the video!