The Sat-nav screen on my IS200 sport intermittently drops it's display and comes back on again. I still get voice commands,but no display. Used to happen every once in a while,but getting worse now. If I open and close the display a few times it settles down. My car is a 99 model and the system is CD based. I seem to remember long ago reading that it maybe an issue with the connector ribbon to the display but can't be sure. Is this a part I could order from Lexus and do myself or leave well alone and get a dealer to do it?

theres a few of us who have a similar problem mate, yeh its the ribbon cable. nobody seems to be able to track one down and Lexus seem to want to replace the whole unit costing $$$$$$$$$.

Don't like the sound of lexus charging $$$$$$$$$. That's gonna hurt. Thanks for the reply. Just have to live with it until it does'nt come on at all.
Cheers

This site Autotoys.com was mentioned in some of the US forums for replacement ribbons/cables
Maybe worth sending them an email

[url="http://www.autotoys.com/x/search.php?mode=search&page=1"]Linky[/url]

i got so fed up of mine doing that, so i decided to open it up few days ago.

i took the entire unit out... surprisingly it was only 2 screws and 4 clips...
at the back of the unit, once its out, there is 2 connectors, one big white one with about 16 pins, and an earth plug.

took the unit into the house, and started to clean it.... at the back of the unit there is a "box" that is attached using 4 tiny screws, it may not be the most descriptive sentence written, but once you look behind the screen you will know what i mean by "box".

take that box off and you will notice 3 connectors underneath, 2 plug style connecters, bit like the power of the old floppy drives in PC's and one ribbon.

i took them all off and sprayed WD40 onto it.

Becareful with the ribbon, as the black holder is very stiff and have very small clips, i broke the right side of the clip but it still holds, taped over it just incase.

plug them all back in again, put the "box" back on, reconnected it all... since then its worked everytime. im not holding my breathe though, as there seems to be no sure way of getting it to work 100%
but im feeling confident. *touches wood*

in terms of diffculty, its not at all. i suggest you give it a bash

good luck

[quote name='Vyker' post='466042' date='Aug 27 2007, 01:02 PM']i got so fed up of mine doing that, so i decided to open it up few days ago.

i took the entire unit out... surprisingly it was only 2 screws and 4 clips...
at the back of the unit, once its out, there is 2 connectors, one big white one with about 16 pins, and an earth plug.

took the unit into the house, and started to clean it.... at the back of the unit there is a "box" that is attached using 4 tiny screws, it may not be the most descriptive sentence written, but once you look behind the screen you will know what i mean by "box".

take that box off and you will notice 3 connectors underneath, 2 plug style connecters, bit like the power of the old floppy drives in PC's and one ribbon.

i took them all off and sprayed WD40 onto it.

Becareful with the ribbon, as the black holder is very stiff and have very small clips, i broke the right side of the clip but it still holds, taped over it just incase.

plug them all back in again, put the "box" back on, reconnected it all... since then its worked everytime. im not holding my breathe though, as there seems to be no sure way of getting it to work 100%
but im feeling confident. *touches wood*

in terms of diffculty, its not at all. i suggest you give it a bash

good luck[/quote]

im going to try this now!

ill report back once ive butcherd the unit!

well i had a bash at this.....and so far the screen seems to be ok! fingers crossed it stays that way....

did what you said vyker but access was limited to the whole of the ribbon cable, undid a few more screws inside and opened up the unit even more, to the point where you can seen the screen inside the unit. this exposed the majority of the cable, it was really dirty so gave it a dust down with a microfibre and put the unit back together.

i also broke the right clip on the ribbon cable connector

[quote name='swfcdan' post='466071' date='Aug 27 2007, 03:02 PM']well i had a bash at this.....and so far the screen seems to be ok! fingers crossed it stays that way....

did what you said vyker but access was limited to the whole of the ribbon cable, undid a few more screws inside and opened up the unit even more, to the point where you can seen the screen inside the unit. this exposed the majority of the cable, it was really dirty so gave it a dust down with a microfibre and put the unit back together.

i also broke the right clip on the ribbon cable connector [/quote]

A lot of interesting information here. I will have a crack at it myself over the week-end. I will keep my eye out for the fragile clips. Thanks everyone who took the time to reply to my query.

yeh give it a bash mate, if i can do it im sure most people can! been out again this afternoon and the screens not flickerd once!

glad it worked for you swfcdan!

ruddy clip eh! beats even the best of us

i didnt chase the ribbon down deeper, getting to the other end seemed too much effort, just sprayed it with WD40 at the connector.

lets see how long our little initiative last! fingers crossed

[quote name='Vyker' post='466280' date='Aug 27 2007, 11:27 PM']glad it worked for you swfcdan!

ruddy clip eh! beats even the best of us

i didnt chase the ribbon down deeper, getting to the other end seemed too much effort, just sprayed it with WD40 at the connector.

lets see how long our little initiative last! fingers crossed [/quote]

Hi guys
have had a chance to have a go at this and have got this far. Please excuse my lack of knowledge/use of technical terms as I am not really technically minded when it comes to cars,but i don't want to make a hash of it. So far i have located two screws underneath a panel which runs just in front of the screen. i removed these two screws but can't locate any clips that look like they should be removed. Are they behind the air vents? i have tried removing them for inspection by prising them away from their housings but they don't appear to pop out. Please could you give me an idiots guide to where I might find these clips which will allow me to get to the ribbon connectors and give them a good squirt of WD40. By the way has anyone had a re occurance of the fault after spraying the contacts? thanks in advance.

Marke

[quote name='Hugo Sanchez' post='468587' date='Sep 5 2007, 12:43 PM']Hi guys
have had a chance to have a go at this and have got this far. Please excuse my lack of knowledge/use of technical terms as I am not really technically minded when it comes to cars,but i don't want to make a hash of it. So far i have located two screws underneath a panel which runs just in front of the screen. i removed these two screws but can't locate any clips that look like they should be removed. Are they behind the air vents? i have tried removing them for inspection by prising them away from their housings but they don't appear to pop out. Please could you give me an idiots guide to where I might find these clips which will allow me to get to the ribbon connectors and give them a good squirt of WD40. By the way has anyone had a re occurance of the fault after spraying the contacts? thanks in advance.

Marke[/quote]

right once you have removed the 2 screws (dont worryabout the clips for now, the clip we were referring to is inside the unit) you need to pull the whole upit towards you. you will then be able to pull it up and out of the dash board.

then behind the sat nav unit there are two white clips, you cant miss them as there have 2 wires connecting the car to the uni so you cant fully remove the unit until they have been unclipped.

once the unit is removed if you turn it over you will see 4 screws connecting what i can only desribe as a 'box' to the back of the unit . you should be able to see thick black wired going behind the box into unit. anyway...remove the 4 screws to seperate the box from the uni. from there one you should now be able to see the ribbon cable.

I had another crack at this and still can't get the screen out. I can only assume that a. i am complete thicko b. i have a different type of screen to yours. The screen itself will not pull forward once the two screws are removed. It is still fixed tightly in place. My system is CD based and installed in a 99 model if that helps. As a by product of me trying to remove the sceen,the display no longer flickers for some reason. I don't know how long this will last so i would like a more pernament fix. thanks for all the help so far.

Marke

Just done this on my sat nav as it worked when it felt like it and found that my ribbon cable was loose as the black clip holding it in place had come undone and was a very loose fit, so i added a bit of tape to the back of the ribbon to thicken it up a bit and now its a tight fit when i put it back in the ribbon holder and pushed the clip back in as it only needs to slide out a couple of millimeters and doesnt need to be removed to get the ribbon out so no broken clips also cleaned it all inside and out all the screws were loose on the inside of the unit so gave them a quarter turn to lock them back up and just put it back in and hey presto i now have sat nav again and it took me all of 20mins to do so thanks guys for the help now a happy chappy again...

[quote name='aztecbandit1' post='468677' date='Sep 5 2007, 06:36 PM']Just done this on my sat nav as it worked when it felt like it and found that my ribbon cable was loose as the black clip holding it in place had come undone and was a very loose fit, so i added a bit of tape to the back of the ribbon to thicken it up a bit and now its a tight fit when i put it back in the ribbon holder and pushed the clip back in as it only needs to slide out a couple of millimeters and doesnt need to be removed to get the ribbon out so no broken clips also cleaned it all inside and out all the screws were loose on the inside of the unit so gave them a quarter turn to lock them back up and just put it back in and hey presto i now have sat nav again and it took me all of 20mins to do so thanks guys for the help now a happy chappy again... [/quote]

I must not be doing something right if the whole job takes 20 mins and I have only been able to remove 2 mounting screws in 2 hours. I get the feeling that some of responses assume a certain level of understanding or previous knowledge of this as I can't for the life of me get the screen to move forward out of the housing. I assume that there is something which needs to be done before it comes out after the screws are removed. Like I said earlier, I really need an idiots guide as I am obviously missing something that everyone else seems to grasped in a heartbeat.

mate im useless too im no techie what so ever. once you have removed the 2 screws you really need to give the unit a good yank (dont pull the screen, not that you can as it should be in its closed position).

the best way i can describe to remove it is to put your four fingers inside, where the plastic panel cover has been removed and pull with force towards you pushing your thumb in the opposite direction (pushing towards the air vents). you really do need to give it a good pull, dont be afraid

Guess who was trying to remove the screen by pulling it out of it's housing? Thank *** common sense kicked in. It makes sense now. Lights getting bad so I will have another crack soon. Thanks for sticking with a complete novice and pointing me the right direction. Really appreciate all the help.

[quote name='Hugo Sanchez' post='468706' date='Sep 5 2007, 07:58 PM']Guess who was trying to remove the screen by pulling it out of it's housing? Thank *** common sense kicked in. It makes sense now. Lights getting bad so I will have another crack soon. Thanks for sticking with a complete novice and pointing me the right direction. Really appreciate all the help.[/quote]

Had another go yesterday and all i can say is it's easy when you know how. Thanks for the help guys. Took it apart gave it a good spray and fingers crossed.

Cheers
Marke

my dodgy screen has returned! booo. gonna take it apart again at the weekend

swfcdan, thats strange, mine is still going [touch wood], and we did it about the same time.

one thing i have noticed is that when its a cold morning,
it takes about a min longer to start, i can only assume its to do with the pc in the boot warming up before it boots.

how much WD40 did you spray on there? i flooded all the connectors with it, cleaned up the mess after mind.

let us know how you get on.

oh and, congrats for getting there in the end Hugo!

[quote name='swfcdan' post='470271' date='Sep 13 2007, 09:40 AM']my dodgy screen has returned! booo. gonna take it apart again at the weekend[/quote]

Check that the ribbon cable is a tight fit in its holder mate as mine was a very loose fit, I put some tape on the back of the ribbon to build it up a little and now it tight when you push it back in to the holder as it must work loose with use after time??

gave it a fair squirt,but not enough for it to dribble down. Screen does'nt flicker anymore though does take a 2-3 seconds to kick in once it is the upright position. Colour seems to have a reddish tinge to it on the Lexus standby screen. maybe needs adjustment. i have it set to night mode at the moment. Need to play around with it a bit more.

Hugo, the colours do come back slowly.

previous owner of my car told me, after i had asked as to why the screen was green [like an old amstrad], said to me that as its been off for so long the LCD screen needs time to "warm" up all the colours, he told me that that is what Lexus told him.

true to his/lexus' word all my colours are back and vibrant.

so i can only assume that as your screen has suffered from the dodgy ribbon symdrome, it will take a few boot ups to get all its colour back.

i will keep an eye on it and hope it gets better. glad I did'nt have to get the whole screen replaced by Lexus. thanks again