Pixellated Radio Display

2009 135i with 20,000 miles... and as I'm leaving work last Friday night, I notice that my radio display is pixellated. Fortunately, my final service appointment is this week, so I mentioned the issue to my Service Advisor. Of course the problem didn't recur that morning. They could find nothing wrong with the radio, but acknowledged that the problem had been noted, and I was told that "this is a recurring issue on 1 Series'. The next evening, it happened again. Only consistency between the two occurrences appears to be heat, as the inside of the car was well over 100 degrees the two evenings when the problem occured. Has anyone else had this happen? Looks like I'm going to get a new radio.

Can you explain what you mean by "pixellated"? I've had a BMW radio display where the amber lines were not consistently lit, had dark areas in quite a few places. But this also wasn't consistent. Sometimes looked fine.

It looks something like the attached picture right??

Had the same issue with my 08 vert. Anytime it got hot or I left the top down in the sun my display pixilated. I could never duplicate it at the dealer but took this picture when it happened and emailed my SA. She then used that picture to get approval for a new radio from BMWNA.

Yeah, I had the same thing. I never equated its appearance with temperature. Couldn't get BMW to replace it although they fixed pretty much every other complaint I had. Should have taken a picture, apparently.

So looks like same story as E38/39/53 radios pixel problem.

Yes that photo is exactly what mine looks like. The display is fine in the morning, but after sitting in the sun all day, it is pixellated every night.

Yep. '11 128i with 26,000 mi.
Same as the picture above a couple of weeks ago...horizontal lines were broken up randomly (just started car; over 100 degrees outside).

Next time I'll snap a photo.

I had the same problem with the radio in my 135i and I agree with those here who suggest that it 's heat related. In my case, when I took the car in for service and mentioned the problem with the radio the technician was no help at all. Of course the radio was performing normally by then so I asked if I could take a picture the nexxt time it happened and send it to him...to which he responded I could, but that it would do no good because he still had to see it for himself.

Leslierc,

That's ridiculous. I usually work the issue out with the SA, but I would go above his head on that. My wife's radio display had the same issue: I took a picture, emailed it to my SA, and when I took it in for service, they replaced it, no problems, no questions.

It happened to my 1 series. I just got the car back from service yesterday. According to the paper work, they were able to replicate the problem. I doubt they were able to. I think enough people made the same complaint. My SA got BMW NA to approve a stereo replacement. She fixed a few of these already. I think mine was heat related. It was about 100 degrees when I stepped into my car after work when I found the display pixelated. I sort of doubt how a radio replacement would fix the problem if the pixelation will return each time heat reaches above some threshold.

Originally Posted by etane

It happened to my 1 series. I just got the car back from service yesterday. According to the paper work, they were able to replicate the problem. I doubt they were able to. I think enough people made the same complaint. My SA got BMW NA to approve a stereo replacement. She fixed a few of these already. I think mine was heat related. It was about 100 degrees when I stepped into my car after work when I found the display pixelated. I sort of doubt how a radio replacement would fix the problem if the pixelation will return each time heat reaches above some threshold.

No, it's quite possible that it's fixed just fine. I've had a number of BMWs with similar displays. One of them was pixelated. The other's have not been. It's been in the 100s here lately and the display's just fine. I'm confident your heat theory doesn't have much to do with it. Certainly not every display. Best of luck.

Originally Posted by etane

...... I sort of doubt how a radio replacement would fix the problem if the pixelation will return each time heat reaches above some threshold.

The replacement unit (at least the one they put in my wife's car) is the more updated display than the one on theprevious unit: its a sharper display, and suposedly more advanced LCD, so it probably will not pixelate. We'll see, but it definitely looks clearer, and bonus, it came with HD radio, where hers originally did not have it.

I just bought a 2008 135i Cabriolet. First time it happened to me the car was in the sun with time top down, I thought it might be heat related so I put the top up and turned the AC on. The display went back to normal in about 10 min. once the interior cooled down. I think it's because the display is LCD, "liquid crystal display" and not LED, "light emitting dioed". It's really annoying and I don't know if there's a solution other than replacement.

I had the same issue, brought it up to my service advisor and he said they'd look into it. They replaced the radio and didn't even tell me, only way I found out is when I called sirius to see why my satellite radio was not working and they said that the radio in my car was brand new and had a free year of service! Anyways, since the new radio I haven't had any issues with the display.

Same issue on my '08 135 but never tried to address it. My radio seems to work fine however and the pixelation disappears once the temp normalizes. Has anyone had any issue where their radio did not function correctly?

My radio has always functioned fine, but last night the pixellation devolved into "no pixels whatsoever". The radio display was completely black. It was 96 degrees outside, and probably 110 degrees in my car. After driving 20 minutes with the AC on, the car cooled off enough that the pixellated display reappeared. Fortunately, I'm getting a new radio put in tomorrow AM by the dealer.

Originally Posted by brew99

Same issue on my '08 135 but never tried to address it. My radio seems to work fine however and the pixelation disappears once the temp normalizes. Has anyone had any issue where their radio did not function correctly?

Same situation here

My dealer did replace the "pixellated" radio with a new HD radio. I had mentioned the problem while my car was still under the 3 year warranty, so there was no charge, even though the replacement radio wasn't installed until 2 months after my warranty expired.

I had the problem and after a couple of days of the dealer trying to reproduce (heat), they replaced it. I also got a new HD radio version.