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What Does This Light On The Dash Mean?


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Hi

Just bought my 1994 GS300.

A light came on the dash last night that now wont go out. It looks like a symbol of a car with the rear lights on.

If i indicate left or right then this light will start to flash with the indicators aswell. When the indocator goes out so will the light, but a few seconds later the light comes back on. Its also knocked thecruise control out as it wont come on whilst this light is on.

It came on when i put the rear fog lights on, now wont go out.

What does this mean and whats it trying to tell me?

Oh yeah, the rear brake lights do work, i thought it might be telling me a bulb had blown but they all seem fine.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

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Have you checked all the fuses?

er ... no.

Are they under the drivers foot well as usual?

And im guessing im looking at a fuse that has something to do with the rear lights?

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Check your high-level brake lights as well, they'll trip the bulb failure light.

Ok, just checked all the necessary fuses, bulbs and lights and everything seems to be working perfectly well.

Also noticed that the light only comes on under 2 circumstances:-

1. Switch on side lights AND press the brake pedal.

2. Switch on headlights.

I cant understand why it comes on with the headlights given its the REAR lights its ment to be indicating as out.

Can something else in the braking system be causing this aswell? Pads, discs, brake fluid. Maybe being stupid but the obvious has been checked out and is in order.

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Check your high-level brake lights as well, they'll trip the bulb failure light.

Ok, just checked all the necessary fuses, bulbs and lights and everything seems to be working perfectly well.

Also noticed that the light only comes on under 2 circumstances:-

1. Switch on side lights AND press the brake pedal.

2. Switch on headlights.

I cant understand why it comes on with the headlights given its the REAR lights its ment to be indicating as out.

Can something else in the braking system be causing this aswell? Pads, discs, brake fluid. Maybe being stupid but the obvious has been checked out and is in order.

The same thing happened to me a few months ago, strange as it may sound but the problem is with the bulb holder in one of the rear lights on mine, could the same problem your having.

On the Aristo all the back lights act as a brake light as well as side lights, on the UK GS, only the outside pair act as a brake/side light, so you may be looking at the outside pair only - the bulbs that have a twin element require a better earthing point, if the bulb holder has rust in the connection, the earth resistance is lower thus bringing the warning light on the dash.

I needed to clean and remove all the rust before the warning light went away when I braked with the side lights on.

Hope this helps

BR

Paul

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Hi

Are you using any non-standard bulbs such as LED's etc?

Use of such bulbs without load resistors will trigger the 'bulb out' warning on the dash.

Welcome by the way, us GS owners seem to be on the decline.

Hi

Thank you for the welcome, i think your about the first person to say it actually.

No the car doesnt have any LED's fitted as such, i would have picked up on this from the days of the Soarer. All the lights are standard. Although LED's should be an option as the headlights are rather weak and crap.

Yeah i see what you mean about the decline in GS owners, rather scarce now-a-days. Iv always wanted a GS ever since i saw one back in the nineties, but i must admit i fell in love with the "sport" model and not the normal one. Ironically iv bought a normal model just because it had LPG fitted. Now im looking for some sport model alloys as yours! ;)

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The same thing happened to me a few months ago, strange as it may sound but the problem is with the bulb holder in one of the rear lights on mine, could the same problem your having.

On the Aristo all the back lights act as a brake light as well as side lights, on the UK GS, only the outside pair act as a brake/side light, so you may be looking at the outside pair only - the bulbs that have a twin element require a better earthing point, if the bulb holder has rust in the connection, the earth resistance is lower thus bringing the warning light on the dash.

I needed to clean and remove all the rust before the warning light went away when I braked with the side lights on.

Hope this helps

BR

Paul

Paul i think you could be onto to something there mate. I was having this little thought earlier today about how one of the rear bulbs might not be sat quite right in the holder. And iv definatly dealt with rust in the holders before. I even checked the bulbs for the rear plate number incase they were causing it, but both of them are working aswell.

I ran out of time today, or light i should say, but i think il take all the rear bulbs out tomorrow and give them a good clean along with the holders themselves.

Hopefully that should clear my problem, if it doesnt then i dont think theres anything else i can do about it at home.

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As far as i can recall,the yellow is rear side bulb. Rear brake gives the red ! mark in a red circle.

Dave

The little ! mark in a red circle is for the handbrake mate.

I thought the yellow light would be for the rear lights being out but im not sure anymore. EVERY single bulb is working at the back and iv even taken them out and had a look. ALL the holders were rust free, ALL the bubls were sat right and iv even WD40'd them all just incase there is a bad connection somewhere.

All to no availe though.

Surprisingly though, that yellow little light will ONLY come on when i press the brakes with the HEADLIGHTS on. If the headlights are not on then i can brake as many times as i want without the yellow light coming on. I think its trying to tell me something else, or the actual sensor itself is bust.

Im not too sure but iv tried everything i could at home. Next step might be lexus themselves.

Any one know how much they charge to connect it up to a fault reader?

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I can assure you that the red ! will come on if you brake with a brake light out.It then goes off when you turn off the ignition and will come on again if you press the brake pedal.I've had it happen twice-both times it was a brake light.The yellow is rear light out warning.It does sound as if you have a fault in wiring or sensor.Hope you get it sorted and its a simple fix thats not too costly

Regards Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, a new bit of info.

I had heard of this years ago but had forgotten about it until some one mentioned it at work the other day.

My problem is that the "rear light out" light is on on the dash board, yet all my rear lights are working!!!

A possible answer, which you would never think of, is that the bulbs may be of a different voltage than those recommended by Lexus. Surely some one must have replaced a light bulb in the past at some stage, if they used a bulb of a different voltage than that too could trigger the light, despite the bulb working.

Does any one know what power bulbs are used at the back?

Cheers.

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Ok, FINALLY got this sorted and that damned light is bugging me no more! :D

Turns out it was indeed one of the rear lights thats had a problem, but as stated before they were all working perfectly fine. I did think it could be due to a bulb not being of the correct voltage but couldnt tell the difference. However, a rather sharp eyed work colleague assured me that one of the lights was ever so slightly dimmer than the one on the opposite side. I couldnt see this myself but when we stood quite far back from the car i could almost see it.

Bottom of it is that the next day i took out that particular light. On the back of the light cluster itself it actually tells you which voltage and type of bulb is supposed to go in there. When i compared the information on the brake light to what was written on the bulb there was indeed a difference. The car is recommended to take a bulb that is a W5W rating, the bulb that was in there was a W3W and THAT was causing all the hassle.

Its a very very tricky thing and i was REALLY lucky to find the problem as it was not the most obvious problem of all.

So if your replacing any bulbs at the rear then PLEASE PLEASE replace like for like. Look at what is written on the bulb itself, as the 2 bulbs here were identical to look at but a slight difference in voltage caused a heck of a lot of problems. Im just glad i got it sorted at home, had i taken it to Lexus to find the problem i might have owed them the car by now! :o

Hope this helps some one in the future.

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As I said previously the yellow light is rear side bulb. The handbook tells you every bulb type including wattage and the type.It always pays to read your manual which gives so much info on this type of issue.

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As I said previously the yellow light is rear side bulb. The handbook tells you every bulb type including wattage and the type.It always pays to read your manual which gives so much info on this type of issue.

Reading it is one thing, knowing what the previous guy put in the car is another! The light has been on ever since i bought the car, thats why it was so hard to trace down. If i had done it myself i wouldnt have made that mistake as i always replace like for like.

Talking of which, thinking of replacing the front bulbs for some brighter ones. Current ones run 55W as far as im aware, new ones im looking at run on a lower power of 35W, or another set which runs at 100W. Does any one know if this will cause a similiar problem as to the rears?

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