odo53

I've got a 1994 ES300 with lots of trouble with the dash lights. Several of the back lights have gone out to the point where it can be difficult to see, for example, how much gas is in the tank. I am not talking about the needles, those are OK for now, but I can't see when the position of the needle is at Empty because the gauge behind the needle no longer lights up. The odometer is also not lighting up at all.

When I search the forums here I see lots of people talking about replacing capacitors in the dash units for the LS but I don't see similar discussions with the older ES.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it the capacitors as described in the threads about the LS? Any help pinpointing the information here would be greatly appreciated.

BadViper22

Ta da, here ya are:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=272735

Should provide sufficient help.

Slooooooow

iTrader: (1)

First off, to Club Lexus and the ES forum in particular.

It looks like you naturally did your due diligence in using to find information about your problem. One tip that helps is limiting the search to the ES forum. We ES owners, especially 2nd (and 3rd?) gen have had all kinds of problems with the stock dash lights dying out. BadViper's steered you in the right direction for starters.

CUMan

A rap on the dash close to the location of the unlit bulbs often brings them to life.

We also have a 94 ES, and this always works for us.

odo53

What about the odometer? I see lots and lots of problems with backlighting and needles. I assumed when my odometer went out it was related because it all happened over the course of 2 months (needle started to flicker, back light went out, odometer went out, another back light...)

Thanks for the help. Tried the rap on the dash with no luck. Will try replacing the bulbs.

odo53

Any electronics specialists out there? I took the instrument cluster apart and found the bulbs are fine. There is a transistor, TR18, on the main circuit board that is cracked and looks like it had a minor volcanic eruption. There is also a diode that obviously overheated.

The transistor says:
NEC
C23 _ _
L26s

The spaces after C23 are other letters/numbers that I can't read due to the burning.

The diode simply has a "D 3" imprinted on it, it is a 3 pin SMD.

Any advice on how I could get a wiring diagram or how to identify these parts so I can replace them would be greatly appreciated.

I can post pictures if that helps.