I have a 2002 LS 430 and my instrument cluster went out the other day.
When I start the car, only the CEL lights up(just for a second), and when driving, the blinker lights are the only ones that work on the dash. The gauges are all nonfunctional too.
When I disconnect the battery to reset the ECU the cluster works for the drive, but sometimes if the car is running for a pretty long time (2 hour drive home), the ABS light, Brake light, gas light all come on. The speedometer also reads like 8 mph under what speed I'm actually going.
My battery is holding a full charge, and the leads are making good contact with the battery terminals, but I can't find why the cluster would be acting this way.
I visually inspected all the fuses, and nothing looks burnt out. Could that even be the problem since it starts up and works when I reset the ECU?
Someone told me it may be a bad ground, but I'm not sure where to start finding where the bad ground point would be.
I also haven't been having any problems with any other electronics. I'm pretty sure one of my headlights is going out, as it only comes on sometimes. could that be a factor?
Any ideas what the problem could be?

 

When those random warning lights came on, the steering wheel buttons to control the information display (mpg, range, compass) are also nonfunctional. Not sure if that gives any information to what could be the problem, I'm just at a loss right now and I feel like this should be an easy fix, but I just don't know exactly what the problem is. If you need any additional information I can answer some questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.