mcb

Hi, I'm responding to this older post which could be helpful to others in the future who are having intermittent PCS issues. I own a 2007 LS460L 189,000 miles which I bough originally with PCS factory installed. I ordered this option because I had I had it on my original LS430 and loved it. Lexus LS430 was the first model in the US to have this powerful feature. It totally changes highway and interstate driving the same as cruise control did. In 2007, it was a $3,000 add on option. I'm sure the configurations have changed over time, but on my car, the main PCS transmitter unit is located behind the hood emblem. They PCS unit and the plastic Lexus emblem are two distinct parts and not necessarily, a unit. The PCS device is hard installed to the front assembly housing and not the grill assembly. It sits behind the grill. The grill can be easily removed by removing one 10mm bolt in the top middle of the grill assembly and then two plastic fasteners on the top corners. Be careful with these fasteners because they can easily break. I had to use an alternative faster purchased at Advance Auto parts because both of mine broke. Less than $5. The hardest part is working the grill out of the bottom plastic pressure fit. Look for the plastic tabs the hold the grill to the lower trim and work the tabs out one by one until free. My PCS kept going off intermittently which makes all the major dash lights come on, including engine check. I even bought an OBD scanner to clear the codes because it came on so often and my dashboard was always lit up. I finally decided to try to turn the PCS feature off, (I did not have the "Turn off PCS" button found under the driver kick panel mentioned in detail in other threads about this subject.) I ended up taking off the front grill assembly so I could have clear sight of the PCS device and to see if there were any loose wires, broken supports or something obvious I could fix. What became obvious was that the front of the PCS box (mine was retangular about 3''X2") was very dirty and had wax splatter buildup on it. The back of the emblem which is plastic, also had the same wax splatter buildup. I'm guessing that when I had the car detailed from time to time, the detailer would use a high speed polisher that would sling wax behind the grill which would stick to these parts. I cleaned both parts, put it all back together and have not had a PCS error since. It has worked flawlessly. It fixed the problem on a 12 year old car. The emblem itself is attached to the grill with two press lock washers at the top and a plastic snap clip at the bottom. The emblem does not appear to be some sort of special plastic material or lense, etc. I have not seen the non-PCS lense, but if it may have metal in it or made of incompatible plastic that blocks the radio frequencies constantly being emitted/monitored by by the PCS device and therefore cannot be used.

TSteele

Thank you .. very helpful for me!