Optitron Gauge Flickering or blinking- Fortuner and Innova

**number001** · May 3rd, 2014 06:19 PM

My unit is 06 Fortuner VVT-i
16,2xx kms.
Bone stock.
2SM motolite excel (22 months old)

I have observed this starting late last year. How frequently this happens I'm not sure since my eyes are always on the road. Today it happened for around 3-4 seconds of blinking. Also today's incident, not so sure if its incidental, but the flicker occurred at the same time the A/C compressor kicked in.

Other posters are also experiencing this in some form or another:

Originally Posted by crazy_boy

Anyone experienced blinking optitron gauge? Our blinked for around 10secs earlier. The whole gauge was blinking. What could be wrong?

Originally Posted by n5110

Pansin ko din ang pag flicker ng optitron gauge pag nag ON ang AC. Mas pansin din ito pag naka polarized glasses ka. Baka normal lang.

**rangeles** · May 3rd, 2014 07:01 PM

Subscribing to this thread. Same experience. 06 vvti Fortuner with 67k+ mileage, 2SM battery less than 1yo. Optitron light flickers once in a while. No observed signature whenever it happens.

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**crazy_boy** · May 3rd, 2014 07:31 PM

Sa innova namin hindi na nangyari ulit. Hindi ko alam ano ba problema.

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**vvti2.0** · May 3rd, 2014 07:57 PM

Ang alam ko sir dalawa technology gamit ng optitron, one is smd leds and yung isa ay parang cold cathode backlit same nung sa mga laptop, anyways sir kapag nagblink na ganyan may probability na sa power supply or source ang issue kasi may dc to dc driver yan.

**number001** · May 3rd, 2014 09:03 PM

^alternator ?

**vvti2.0** · May 3rd, 2014 09:12 PM

Mahirap rin sir na mag-assume na alternator kaagad, baka natyempuhan lang sir na nagkasurge sa power supply.

**oj88** · May 3rd, 2014 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by vvti2.0

Ang alam ko sir dalawa technology gamit ng optitron, one is smd leds and yung isa ay parang cold cathode backlit same nung sa mga laptop, anyways sir kapag nagblink na ganyan may probability na sa power supply or source ang issue kasi may dc to dc driver yan.

Optitron only uses LEDs. What you're probably referring to is EL back-lighting, which was a popular mod during the 90's and early 2000.

From experience, high power LEDs would start blinking towards the end of its life. This is particularly true with cheap high-power LEDs that were over-driven with higher current (so it could artificially produce more light than it was designed), at the expense of a much shorter lifespan. I still got a few of these crazy festoon and T10 LEDs-turned-disco-lights in my drawer.

**cast_no_shadow** · May 5th, 2014 02:37 PM

aba may dedicated thread na ah.

Mine is innova '06 G A/T VVTI Model, i experienced blinking optitron too.

Replaced my alternator last April 30.

Coincidence?

inoobserbahan ko pa it mag blink pa din.

**number001** · December 4th, 2019 04:01 PM

Any updates?

Think its just the backlight that needs replacing?

**sirbutch** · February 18th, 2020 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by number001

Any updates?

Think its just the backlight that needs replacing?

Own a 2006 Innova V A/T VVTI. Replaced 2SM Motolite Gold in April 2019 (ie. battery is replaced religiously every 3 years). First experienced dash instrumentation blinking one cold morning in Dec 2019 in Tagaytay when switched to ON prior to starting engine. Blinking stopped seconds after engine started. Didn’t happen again until this week when the blinking occurred before every start attempt. I gently tapped both battery terminal clamps with a small hammer to check any loose connection, though everything felt really tight. The blinking hasn’t reoccurred thus far.

My battery clamps are never visibly dirty so I don’t recall ever cleaning them except for an annual engine wash. I guess it may need some scrubbing at the next PM to remove any possible film buildup from dust/oil/detergent/etc. over the years.

Just my 2 cents...