Jim Walker

Well Jason, welcome to our world. These are great cars and rarely fail, but when they do, you had better be prepared with a fat wallet. When the dealer gets done with you, that wallet won't be thinner, it'll be GONE! I can't help you with this problem, but I can with a potential future problem. You see, the 90-94 LS400s are notorious for the failure of the TEMP / TIME Climate Control LCD. They will begin to fail by showing a smudged black display. It will usually clear up on hot days, but the smudged black look will return when the display cools down. This will continue to worsen until it will always show the black smudged look no matter how hot it gets. The Lexus dealer wants approximately a ton of money to repair this problem. They replace the whole climate control unit itself. This unit has lots of electronics in it including the climate control computer itself. I am an electronics engineer so I decided to explore this problem and I found that the glass liquid crystal display itself is the part that fails, as opposed to an electronic component that drives the display. These displays are custom made for or by Lexus so you can't just go to the neighborhood Liquid Crystal Display store and by a replacement. Lexus won't sell them, they only sell the whole climate control unit. I decided to have some of these manufactured to my specifications. I ordered these with the widest temperature range that I could possibly order. Since these are custom made, it will take a while to get them and they are expensive but not nearly as expensive as going to Lexus. Anyway, I am expecting delivery of 5 engineering samples within the next few weeks. Once those are tested by me and I determine that they are acceptable, I will order at least 100 of them and offer them for sale to this forum at a very reasonable price. I have found the there is a difference in the displays between then left hand drive cars as opposed to the right hand drive cars. The ones I'm having manufactured are for left hand drive. It will require an adapter to use these on right hand drive cars. A daughter-board that will allow the use of the same display to be used on right-hand drives. I will design and offer these as well. Anyway, if you or anyone else out there is interested, please Email me and let me know. Jim Walker jimlwalker@sbcglobal.net

Well, I hesitate to say how much I charge, I was spanked recently by the Forum Cops for sounding too commercial. I'm really just another LS400 owner who happens to be an Electronics Engineer and like to help out other people and make a few bucks on the side. You can find me on Ebay by doing a search for Lexus LS400 Dash Lights. You can also Email me directly, that way I can say whatever I want without fear of the LOC swat team showing up at my door. By the way, if you want detailed instructions on how to remove the instrument cluster and take it apart. I have written such instructions and all you need is a philips screw driver. Just ask me for a copy. For that matter, this offer is open to anyone on the forum that wants it. I don't charge anything for my instructions. :arrrggg-matey: Jim Walker jimlwalker@sbcglobal.net

Hi Curt, I do repairs on the lighting problems of the LS400 instrument lights. That places me in a unique position such that people with other problems such as yours will Email me to inquire about the problem. I can tell you this, it's not a very common problem, but I have heard of it before. I have received probably 3-4 Emails in the last 5 months from people with that problem. Although I have never had an opportunity to troubleshoot that particular problem before, I would be happy to try to repair it for you if you want. If I'm unable to repair it, I'll ship it back to you and you can just pay for the shipping. If I am able to repair it, I'll charge you the same fee as I charge for my dash light repair. Jim Walker Fresno, California USA jimlwalker@sbcglobal.net

Actually this is a very common problem for the 93/94 LS400. The problem is in the high voltage power supply on the "power source" circuit boards. Several components have aged to a point that they were so far out of tolerence that it has damaged an integrated circuit on those boards. I have been repairing these circuit boards for members of this and other forums for quite some time now. If you would like to contact me regarding this problem you can either post a reply here or contact me directly at jwalker@cwia.com Jim jwalker@cwia.com

You can replace those speakers with Pyle speakers part # PLM-45 they are a pretty close match on all the specs. You can buy them at MCM Electronics pretty cheap as I recall. mcmelectronics.com Jim Walker jwalker@cwia.com

I had the same problem! I fixed it myself. I took my car to the Lexus dealer and he told me that it's a common problem with several different models but especially for the '93 and '94 LS400. They wanted $1400 to fix it! I'm not a mechanic, I'm and Electronics Engineer but I was determined to find this problem and fix it. With the help of another Club Lexus member who gave me his old defective circuit boards I was able to locate and repair the problem. I have repaired several for other people and I can repair yours too if you want. I have some very good references. Please email me and I'll be glad to email you more info on this. Jim Walker jimlwalker@sbcglobal.net