WRXGC82000

Signed up as I have an Aussie Outback BP9 which had a dead clock/trip unit when I bought it, which I thought would be an easy fix! Although I spent hours on it, tracing it to a few poorly soldered surface mount components, I never got the original unit working in the car. Quite by chance I found a later model in a scrapyard with a working unit for a good price and triumphantly plugged it into mine. To find they changed the mpg calculation (from l/100km to km/l). Really annoyed, with reference to my original unit, I speculated that there are two 'options' for two smd components. Swapped each one to the alternate patch on the PCB and BINGO! It swaps the mpg calculation. But after a little while, the damn display flashes 'Err' on me. This is by far the best thread I've read on this and I wanted to chime in with two things I've noticed that might be relevant. 1. These cars commonly leak leading to a musty smell from the carpet. On my car, I think it's when the drivers (rhs for us) window isn't adjusted properly, water can get through the seal and wicks down the roof pillar into the foot well. I had thought it was the fresh air vent drain that was getting clogged, which is another known weakness, but I've seen a small damp patch on the roof pillar trim, and the wettest part of the carpet is the sill at the corner of the door frame under the pillar. So I can see a good reason that grounds in the cabin could get corroded leading to intermittent electrical problems, which is a possible factor here and was questioned. 2. I think it's more likely to be dodgy solder joints in the clock unit. These units run stupidly hot and so I think the regular heating/cooling cycle just cracks solder joints. I heard someone on some forum suggest these were the early days of lead free solder and that made them brittle. On my original unit, the display failed, but taking off the plastic case allows gentle flexing of the PCB, which would bring it back to life and I traced it to a poorly soldered resistor. Unfortunately I lacked a good soldering iron back then and ended up breaking stuff faster than I fixed it. As I said, it never made it back into the car on a permanent basis - but does now work. I've reflowed my 'new' one twice with a hot air gun and it displays 'err' most often when the car is cold. Once warmed up a bit, the display is usually OK and for the first time since I got the car in 2014, I have a working trip computer for 98% of the time. But it could be an earthing issue so I'd be curious to know if any of you ever found out how to get to the wiring between the clock unit and earth? Especially GB-3. I will try playing with the illumination levels next time it plays up.