[turretslug]

LCDs generally, and the ones in car radios in particular (because of the wide temperature and humidity range environment) can suffer from poor contact problems involving the conductive rubber trace strip that often interfaces between PCB tracks and LCD segment contacts as they age. A bit of careful and patient cleaning of contact surfaces can sometimes bring the display back (or most of it....) but it's often a short-term and frustrating exercise unfortunately. Don't know of your level of knowledge and experience, so excuse me if I'm teaching to suck eggs, but car radios are typically close-packed, tricky and delicate to dismantle and LCD glass is thin and fragile.

'LIVEWIRE?' is obviously the man to go to for this sort of thing, but I got the impression through "can you just look at this for me....."-type requests that the Bosch/Blaupunkt group stuff that was badged for various car makers' OEM fitment seemed more prone than most to LCD problems with age.