cqhall

Hi, all.

I just bought a 1-owner, 100% dealer-maintained LS 430 with an issue that may have been the catalyst for the owner selling. Static from the stereo (Mark Levinson).

My findings:

• There is constant static from the speakers.
• The volume from the speakers is much lower than expected for the volume input level from turning the ****.
• The most prominent speakers are the ones on the dash. The others emit faint sound that you have to be very close to hear.
• To eliminate the antenna being the issue, I tested with a CD and the issue persists.

I see mentions of this in the service history (before I purchased the car):

• 2019 NOV: CUSTOMER STATES RADIO DOES NOT WORK. WHEN CUSTOMER TURNED KEY THERE WAS STATIC. CUSTOMER DECLINED REPLACING RADIO AMP.
• 2020 JAN: CUST STATES NO SOUND FROM RADIO.
• 2020 JAN (later): CUST STATES INSTALL AMP. REPLACED HAMP. (is "HAMP" a thing or a typo?)
• 2020 FEB: CUST STATES STATIC IN AMPLIFIER AFTER PICK UP. ALL OK THIS TIME.
• 2020 DEC: CUST STATES THAT THE RADIO WILL PLAY INTERMITTANTLY, WILL GET STATIC THEN HIT A BUMP THEN IT WILL CLEAR UP. CUST DECLINED SPEAKERS.

Today, I called the dealership and talked with the service advisor who was very familiar with the car (which is great). I asked her where did they leave off with getting this sorted out and she said that at some time between the original amp issue and the new amp, the speakers were damaged and need to be replaced. I asked how much, and she mentioned something over $3,000 USD (!!!) for the 4 door speakers and the big speaker in the rear window.

While, I'm decent when it comes to working on cars in my garage, stereo stuff is something I know little about. Before I talked to the SA, my gut was telling me that either the amp had a loose wire or it was going bad. But, being that the entire amp was replaced, it stands to reason that that isn't the culprit.

Questions:

• Could all of the speakers really be fried and need replacement? Does that sound right?
• If so, is this something that needs to be Lexus / Mark Levinson or would decent quality speakers from a local shop work just fine?
• Is there something else that could be the culprit?
• Any way I can test on my own before taking it to an audio shop or Lexus?

Thanks in advance.

YannG

Welcome to the Club !

@styloren may be able to help you with this - He is based in GA and is an audio wizard!

Good luck

cqhall

Update:

I've replaced the 4 door speakers and rear sub with ML speakers purchased from the dealership as they were in awful shape. No joy. Now I just have better sounding static.

The car is at the dealership now. They suspect the tweeters/dash speakers as they are all wired in series. We are waiting for new speakers to arrive to test the theory.

ls430w140

Any chance one of ground cable is rusted or damaged? This may generate a decent amount of noise if it is not insulated.

cqhall

No idea. Where should I look to find it?

cqhall

UPDATE: It's not the tweeters. The 1 year old refurbished amp is messed up.

Apparently running the refurbished amp on dead speakers just fried the amp. The previous owner had the amp replaced but didn't replace the speakers and sub, thus borking the new amp.

Dealership tested with another amp they had on hand and the system works as expected.

Yamae

This is just an information given from a friend of mine. He is an audio maniac and had some good experience of making amplifiers. He also fixes variety of amplifiers. Among them there were some amplifiers manufactured by Mark Levinson. He said, "Mark Levinson's audio circuits are designed well, but the voltage boosters are not that much. Almost every Mark Levinson's amplifier has a voltage booster inside and it often oscillates when aged". This causes cracking/static sound at the initial stage and it tends to become serious more and more. Also the sound is distorted and at the final stage there will be no sound.

I asked him the way to fix it. He quickly said, "It's something similar to your post 'All my crazy......' at the Clublexus LS400 Forum and all you need to do is just to replace deteriorated electrolytic capacitors used at the voltage booster circuits". He added,"Like you often mention, use an ESR meter and check the ESR as well as the capacitance of electrolytic capacitors used at the voltage booster/DC-DC converter circuit and you will know failed ones easily".

He himself did not have any particular experience to fix an LS430's amplifier but he had fixed some of LS600hL's Mark Levinson's.

cqhall

That really does help explain what's going on and how it may have been intermittent for the owner before I got the car.

I wonder what Lexus / Mark Levinson does when they refurbish these amps.

Lexicon1

I realize this is an old thread, but for future folks w similar problems, MOST deteriorated speakers can "easily" be re-foamed to replace the damaged foam surround.
There are kits out there from speaker supply places....do a little googling and you will find how a DIY person can scrape/clean off the old foam surround and glue a replacement in place.... pretty common for old speakers...