Okay so I've searched for answers on this for quite some time but to no avail. I have an 08 G37s with all the option packages. From time to time when I start my car, the main LCD screen does not turn on. The most noticeable times is when it's cold or rainy outside. I keep the car in the garage all the time. My wife and I work together and drive her car to work so I don't put more than 5,000 miles a year on the G37. So here's what happens:

I start my car. Everything starts up and turns on but the LCD screen stays black, no backlight or anything. All sound, fans, A/C etc. still work and are controllable. Here's the kicker: I can tap the screen and whatever button is where I'm tapping still works even though the screen is off. I can turn the car off and back on over and over and it'll just not come on. This is about 60% of the time I start my car. The other 40% it works fine. Usually after driving for about 10 minutes to a half hour (in my mind the car is warmed up at this point) I can turn the car off and when I start it back up the screen usually comes on. It's the strangest thing and very hard to replicate.

I took it to the Infiniti dealer for an oil change last month and asked them to take a look at it (of course this was a day when the screen worked fine, funny how that works out) and all they could say was they could try out a new screen and see if it works better. Oh, and that's $1,100. So I said no thanks I'd deal with it.

Any ideas what this could be?? It seems to me it's entirely functional since the touch features still work it just seems like it has a problem firing up the backlight or something. Anyone had this problem before?

 

i'm gong to say one of 5 things, since you said you can tap the screen (touch screen) i'm assuming you have navigation.

1) best case scenario either the connector or the RGB connector are loose or not making a good connection on the back of the screen. remove the screen disconnect the harnesses, inspect the pins to make sure they all look good, put it back together and test. (i believe 08's have 2 connectors, 2010's-current do)

2) second best scenario, either the display connector or the RGB connector are loose or not making a good connection on the back of the head unit. remove the head unit disconnect the harnesses, inspect the pins to make sure they all look good, put it back together and test. (i recommend doing this at the same time as option 1 since you are almost there anyway at that point)

3) crappy but not the end of the world, the screen is going bad (this is the one i suspect). buy a used one on ebay for about $200 and replace it.

4) a littly more crappy but not the end of the world, the head unit is going bad. buy a used one on ebay for about $600 and replace it.

5) the real crappy one, there is a bad wire somewhere with a break in it, figureing this out would be horrible and require a lot of pin to pin tests while jiggling wires to figure out which one....lets just hope this isn't it.

if you find wiring harness diagrams for an 08 this will help with your overall trouble shooting, i only have 2010 through current
if you have a coupe it'll be here: Index of /FSM/G37/Coupe/2008
AV.pdf is what you are looking for, this area might be the exact same for Sedan

 

Michg37, thanks a ton for this list of potential causes. Sounds like I have a project to get working on as soon as I finish up those pesky taxes. The wiring diagrams are headache-inducing, especially since I have a civil engineering degree. Hopefully I can figure them out and put them to use, but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

 

Mine has done this since it was brand new! I thought I was the only one it was happening to. It doesn't happen often, but at the most inconvenient times it seems.

 

OP, next time the screen goes dark, try taking a flashlight of some kind and shining it on the screen at a 45 degree angle. If you can see the picture with the aid of the flashlight, then you have the answer to your problem -- the LCD back light is failing.

Same thing happened to one of my Samsung LCD computer monitors. I knew the screen was registering that it was working with the computer, b/c the computer would still allow my mouse to go onto the blank screen. Once I shined a bright light onto the screen and saw the picture, I was about to diagnose the screen as having a failing back light.

 

Anything on this? Mine is doing the same thing