As many on this list have observed, the polarizing film on the dashboard display made the screen unreadable. I spent the last 3 days repairing the dashboard display on my 2007 vantage.

It’s a challenging project but I believe, with some patience, can be done by an experienced DYI.

The entire project (58 photographs) is on my website. If interested please PM me for the website address.

 

This is very timely (I hope!). I was just on the forum, searching for possible answers to my dim dashboard display, on my 2005 DB9. You mention the polarizing filter issue on your Aston. I'm not sure if I am suffering the same problem. When I adjust the display brightness with the small pop-out **** next to the light switch, the display changes but never gets bright enough to see clearly (in daylight conditions.)
At night the display is quite clearly visible but if the sun is shining directly on the display I cannot see a thing.
I am always up for a challenge, but I'm not positive that I am "an experienced DIY'er" ... (I just replaced the seals in my transmission... if that is any indicator!). If this "faded display" sounds like a similar issue to yours, I would love to hear back from you.

 

Your does not seem like the same thing. Having said that AFAIK the 2005 DB9 uses the same dashboard and the same polarizing film. Your film could be in the early stages of becoming opaque.

 

Good write-up! I did the same job a couple of months ago but didn't do it quite as well as you. I sanded and polished it for about four hours and probably could have used another couple of hours on the job.
I'm interested that you aren't going to add a new top film; I haven't added one yet but I was thinking of looking for something like a thin sunglass film if such a thing exists.

 

I want to see if the polarizing film is really necessary. I can put up with the occasional glaring, and as long as it’s manageable I will keep the film off.

 

Hello I have a vantage that has the same issue that I’ve been putting off until winter. Could someone send me instructions on how to repair this?

 

https://bernardembden.com/am/dashrepair/index.htm

Good luck

 

Thank you! Looks like a blast….

 

The process works. You must be patient. No rushing... it is a time consuming process. Prep and clearing a good work space that can be left fo a few days is wise. Taking some pics of your disassembly for reference is helpful. Again take your time and use the proper tools. If you want to "practice" lol. you might want to do your clock face first!

 

Yes great advice - this is definitely a winter project - it might be spread out over the whole winter actually….

 

This has happened to both my instrument cluster and radio display.

Question: Why are you scraping the film off? Why can't you just heat it up, pull it off, then you an adhesive remover like ATR or goof off the same way you would for window tint? Using a headlight polishing compound on a LCD display seems like a really bad idea and looks like it takes forever. If the goal is to just remove the adhesive left behind from the film why not use the above products?

Surprised this hasn't been written about more since it seems to affect all of these cars.

 

The LED display is plastic, and the film is literally fused with the plastic screen. Heating the surface would probably distort the plastic and ruin it.

 

I made the exact mistake on my spare ICM display as practice for repairing my DIM display. If you peel the film off completely, you'll be left with a bare glass OLED/VFD screen. The screen will no longer look correct and will be effectively ruined unless you figure out a suitable replacement for the film. There are about 6 layers of nearly inseparable filters, polarizers, tint, and antireflective coating. If you're going to to repair the screen, short of desoldering the screen from the PCB to get the metal frame out of the way, the method @embdenb describes is about as good as you're going to get.

Charles

 

I must not be understanding something then. In the DIY, a hair dryer is used to provide heat and it looks like the film is scraped off and a polishing compound is used to remove the adhesive residue. So what exactly is coming off of it then? I just had an idea that ATR would work really well if the issue were removing film adhesive.

 

From the DIY it really looks like only the top antireflective layer and its adhesive is all that's being removed. That's enough to improve the visibility of the display. Remove any more and you will be looking for a new instrument cluster... or scavenging a display out of a used DIM or ICM.