Hi Everyone, This is my first post on this forum, although I have been reading it for many years. Last week I was driving up the M1 to Birmingham in my 1999 Mk 4 (owned for twelve years and only 37000 miles from new) and feeling at peace with the world, as one does when driving a Lexus, when as I approached the M1/M6 turn off, without warning the instrument panel lights went off and the gauges all dropped to zero. Simultaneously the heater stopped working, along with the flashers, the wipers, and although the sat nav screen remained lit, it stopped moving. Mercifully the engine kept running, as I was in the narrow roadworks section of the motorway, with no possibility of being able to stop safely anywhere. As the car was still running I carried on to the Corley Services on the M6 to assess the situation. As I pulled in to the services I realised that the power steering was also not working properly. I didn’t dare to switch off the engine, in case it wouldn’t start again, so I sat and consulted the hand book on the section about fuses. That told me precisely nothing, but whilst I was sitting there pondering what to do next, for no apparent reason the instrument panel came back on. Also the heater restarted, the wipers and flashers came back on and the satnav screen went out and then came back on showing the correct position. The power steering also started working again. As I badly needed to go into the services (old age) I took a chance and switched off to see if the car would restart, which it did. I then completed my days travels without further incident, and I have use the car a couple of times since without any further problems. Thinking about it afterwards, it almost felt like a thermal overload cut out cutting out and then resetting itself, but I didn’t think that these cars had anything like that on them. I suppose the fault lasted for about half an hour in total. I suppose the next thing to do is to pull all the fuses to see if any of them are faulty, but of course everything is working now so it will be difficult to find. What ever possessed the designers to put the fuse box in such an inaccessible position in the drivers footwell I don’t know. However before going any further I thought that I would ask if anyone else has had a similar occurrence, and if so what the cure was. Many thanks in advance.
Hello again, and thank you all for your replies, and especially to Mark for the picture of the switch. It’s a relief to know that the problem is only caused by a faulty switch, and not by something buried in the electronics as I had at first feared. At least I know what to do now if it happens again, wriggle the key, or if not, stop and switch off and on again. I have to say that as well as my LS400 being the nicest car that I have ever owned, its also been the most reliable by far. Its certainly the only car I have ever had where after fifteen years everything still works, even the radio aerial. Unlike my wife’s Renault Scenic which is the most unreliable car I have ever owned and has cost me a small fortune. Anyway, thank you all once again for your help Kind regards, John.
