shuiyuan

they were working fine but today i took the whole cluster off and tried to clean it after i put it back all the lights on the needles are stopped working.

Rollin'ES3

Id check the fuse. Maybe you shorted out the fuse while removing/reinstalling.

shuiyuan

is there a fuse for the needle lights only? all the back lights are working on the cluster

BadViper22

You probably didn't plug in the wire harnesses to the cluster all the way. Go back in and push them in nice and tight.

Edit: There's three wire harnesses and since the back lights and everything else are working, chances are one isn't making contact with the cluster, give em all a good push.

Rollin'ES3

Oh I thought you meant all the lights were out. Oops

Yeah like said earlier, check to see if you have it plugged in all the way.

What year is your ES?

Aren't the 2nd gens known for having their needles burn out?

shuiyuan

i checked the harness, pushed hard to make sure they are in the slot but still no luck. my car is 94

esucaris1

make sure you didn't bend any of the contacts on the plug receptacles also check the plugs for contacts that might have slipped out of the plug...

swifty562

i agree... theres two contacts on the needles between the middle holder.

looks like this []0[] there could be a possibility that you might of bent the metal.

Lexucan

What did you use to clean the cluster when you removed it? If you used some type of liquid, could some of it have gotten inside the cluster and shorted something out? I'm having a little trouble understanding why you would remove the cluster to clean it in the first place. Maybe it would be easier to figure out what happened to it if you could explain in more detail what you did to/with the cluster once you removed it from the dash.

srvcm

I agree with Luucan... also is it just the needles and all four or is it just one or are all of them out? Ive examined the daughterboard of the 92-96 lexus instrument cluster and find the fuel and temp guage get power from 5 screws located on the back of the cluster. The Speedo and Tach have two long pins that protrude into the contact slots of the board. Spraying anything on to the guage face is sure to have shorted out the electronics and your only fix may be to have it repaired or replaced (if you cant fix it yourself)

shuiyuan

just the needles, all the back lights are working. here is what happened, the last owner saw there is a light bulb on the back burnt out, he said he opened the gauge to change the bulb, when he puts back the temp and all needles stopped the working. after i bought it i took out the cluster and checked everything, i found that he didnt screw 2 screws on the back of the guage which are for singal of the gauge. after i put it back the temp works again but the needles still dont work.

shuiyuan

i hate when people who didn't know about cars but still want try to fix something to cause problems on cars. a lots screws have been lost on the cluster.

Lexucan

Could it be that the gauge needle LEDS are burnt out, which is very common with the 2nd generation (92-96) ES300?
Did you see that the gauge needles were lit up before you took the cluster out? Your first post would suggest that they were working, but your later post suggests that they haven't been working since the previous owner played around with the cluster. Not sure which is correct.

shuiyuan

sorry that i posted everything the last owner said on the first post when i go buy the car, that he said he was trying to clean the gauge. when i saw there are some reply above that want me provide more details then i called him again today and asked what did he really do then he told me another story today.