Jack.pe

Got the spare dash kindly sent by HowPlum and swapped a few bits over but no luck. Trying to send to BBA Reman on Monday… see if they can fix the thing!!

Thanks! I’ll make sure they are insulated but they shouldn’t  short against the board as the part they were close to doesn’t conduct.. 

incidentally I have a YouTube channel and for background this video might be useful! another update specifically on the cluster coming soon, 
 

The Water Leaks On My Cheap Lexus Are Much Worse Than I thought!  (Luxobarge S2:EP3)

57 minutes ago, Howplum said:

My faulty instrument cluster was the bane of my life for most of last year, until I managed to source a replacement, although I did not have the same issues. Anyway, I have a couple of spare incomplete clusters and a full set of electrolytic capacitors which you might be able to use. My car is a 1996. It sounds like you are handy with a soldering iron, so PM me if you are interested. Incidentally, if you do end up replacing it, I found out how to retain the mileage.

Hey, yes I saw your excellent thread.. what a challenge!

I will PM you! 

Hello all!

I have an LS400 with the backlights in the cluster not lighting up. All the dials work and all the smaller lights in the dash like indicators, gear selector, all work. However it’s the cathode tubes that don’t seem to light up. The needles flicker on for one second when the car is started and then go off and stay off. The car had a water leak from the windscreen for a long time so the cluster would have been subject to humidity but the board and contacts do not look corroded. 
I found a scorch mark (pictured) on the board but the traces around it are still working.. so not sure how that happened.. also found one capacitor where the heat shrink had shrunk down indicating overheating so I replaced it (pic attached). Also found two resistors under the mosfet heat sink (mosfet and heat sink pictured) that looked overheated and replaced those too. 
But still no lmprovement. 
So it seems everything apart from the cathode tubes and needle lights is working.. but I’m not sure where to go from here any ideas or guidance on which components I should change next ? Is it the mosfet that feeds the cathode tubes? Should I try and change that?

I have been through about 20 second hand clusters on eBay and FB groups from 95-97 cars like mine but none are an exact match. There are so many variations so can’t just replace this cluster with a second hand one. Thank you 🙏