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DIY UV Treatment for Yellowed MCU Screen
- Thread starter ucmndd
- Start date
I suppose eventually it could damage the LCD, though I have no real basis to support this theory.
By all accounts the lamp used by the service center is a great deal more powerful than this DIY approach, so I figure they’ve decided there’s plenty of margin for error and we’re unlikely to cause problems with a hobby lamp from Amazon.
bnsfengineer
Active Member
The light that the op suggested works and it was as simple as can be.. just takes several hours over each part of the yellowing areas affected. I placed the light into a box and I also positioned a small fan toward the screen as I did notice the light will get the glass fairly hot.
Country Roads
Member
jeffb - I'm trying your box and tape method. Roughly speaking, how long did your lamp sessions run? How much total time under lights?
Probably around 4-6 hours per area of the screen, I was experimenting so I did not just set it and leave it, I ran it for a couple hours, checked on it, moved it to the other part of the screen, a couple hours, found it was working but not complete.
Came back the next day and did it some more, directly over the yellow part on the top of the screen this time. I was trying to see how directional the lights were and if more direct exposure was "better" than the off access exposure it was getting if I lit up more of the screen.
Interestingly now that its done and the yellowing is gone, I think that the light is not that directional, because of the shape and size of the box I was using I never really exposed the middle portion of my screen to direct light. It only got off access exposure or just the light leaking and refracting within the screen itself, BUT the yellowing in the middle portion of the screen was cured anyway.
I think you can probably concentrate the light more closely and on axis over the yellowing areas to speed things up but I found that to not be necessary as 4-6 hours of general exposure seemed to get the job done and was easier to rig up, less likely to expose other parts of the car to excessive UV, etc...
From others experience here it seems I may need to do this a few times to completely cure the issue long term, but now that I have my "tool" in my garage that is easy enough to do.
GoBlue88
Member
Will do. Update 1: showed up at Carlsbad yesterday only to find out they don't have the machine that repairs it. Now have an appointment at San Diego on Dec. 17th.
Dropped it off at the San Diego service center at 10am today. Had it back by 3pm (in addition to the screen, they also took care of the two outstanding recalls on my car: airbags and steering bolts). Yellow border is gone and the screen looks great. Total charge: $0.
SucreTease
Teslarian
I kept reading this trying to figure out what you meant. Did you mean off-axis exposure?
yes, the way my box was set up the screen directly under the light is getting exposed at a 90 degree angle. While the screen towards the edge of the box I used as a shield would be exposed at about a 45 degree angle. I though there might be some trouble from this (with the 45 degree portions getting less exposure, needing more time) but I didnt really see any evidence of that, the yellowing seemed to be eliminated fairly evenly regardless of where it was compared to the UV light. However its just a one time anecdote and I wasn't specifically looking for/testing for that, so of course your results may vary!
As straight forward as this seems, there must be some sort of user error on my part. After about 9 hours of exposure (3 sessions for 3 hours at a time) using the same light from Amazon listed by the OP the yellow band actually appears to be worse off and is darker now. Wife and kids all seem to agree that it looks worse as well. Long shot here but does the yellow band get darker before it fully cures after which point it will then fade away?
KArnold
Active Member
Some cars (like mine) had the SC UV method and it failed. Ended up replacing the screen.
Would be nice to know exactly what "failed" - I would assume that means the yellow border did not clear but it's only an assumption. Different conditions, perhaps different results/symptoms.
Would be nice to know exactly what "failed" - I would assume that means the yellow border did not clear but it's only an assumption. Different conditions, perhaps different results/symptoms.
hmm sounds like my condition where the yellowing was only getting darker with the UV treatment. Must have been a point of no return with the yellowing. How much was the screen replacement and labor total? Thx
I see on my test screen the glowing is there around the edge, similar to yours even though it has not yellowed. I was curious to see if my liquefied screen could cure the glue back to solid but it has not with over 24 hours of exposure to the area that I tried to solidify the bubble to a side unsuccessfully.
KArnold
Active Member
Mine was free - had to go through arbitration in the USA though to force Tesla to treat it as a warranty item
In May I was quoted $1389 to replace if I paid for it.
Yeah, interesting. Looks like there may be more than one possible cause of the yellowing. For those of us who had the speculated "incomplete adhesive curing" the UV light seems to be an effective solution.
But if the cause is something akin to "weather exposure" degradation (or a lack of protection against exposure), more UV may not be the answer. Glad to see the price coming down on the parts though, although still not cheap, at least you are not going to go into foreclosure on your house if you have to go the replacement route out of warranty.
This thread has been very informative and lead me to my own solution for $14.99.
I found this device that has 4 UV bulbs at 365nm:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X8ZVJSS
I removed the lower sides of the bottom cover and lined the inside with foil HVAC tape.
I placed the box on 1 quadrant of the screen at a time for 13 hours. I noticed the yellow fading at 5 hours then left it on overnight. Possibly it didn't need att 13 hours. The temperature in my garage was 65 degrees F. The screen was slightly warm but not hot. The size of the box did not let light out so I didn't need to cover anything.
Here are the before and after pictures:
My car is a 2018 X100, manufactured 10/18. Yellow border appeared 7/19.
I don't know if this will work for anyone else and if you try this method, you do so at your own risk.
I found this device that has 4 UV bulbs at 365nm:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X8ZVJSS
I removed the lower sides of the bottom cover and lined the inside with foil HVAC tape.
I placed the box on 1 quadrant of the screen at a time for 13 hours. I noticed the yellow fading at 5 hours then left it on overnight. Possibly it didn't need att 13 hours. The temperature in my garage was 65 degrees F. The screen was slightly warm but not hot. The size of the box did not let light out so I didn't need to cover anything.
Here are the before and after pictures:
My car is a 2018 X100, manufactured 10/18. Yellow border appeared 7/19.
I don't know if this will work for anyone else and if you try this method, you do so at your own risk.
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