DavidinCT

Hey,
I have had 2 LS460s, I have NEVER seen this light work. I am talking the passenger side "Garnish light" the one that shows under the wood on the dash. I looked into this years ago and the word is the LEDs fail, and is very common. On the drivers side, it's always worked on the passenger's side, I have never seen it work. Spending $150+ a light is crazy in my eyes, I picked up a eBay used one, and of course, it didn't work(did get a refund after a hassle). Circuit board is fine (nothing burnt out, etc) but, lights do not work.

If you're not sure what I am talking about, it's part 55011-50090.

Seeing how you have to take out the radio to get the top wood off, it's kind of a big job to replace this.

IS there any way to FIX this light with out buying a new one?

SW17LS

Its not that big a job, I did it. You don't have to remove the radio, just pull the trim from the passenger side along and it just pulls out

Gerf

If it's your 2014 460 you have to take the radio out or you can't get the long piece of trim that the light is under out, I took mine apart when the clock crapped out. it's the same procedure as installing a Grom unit up to the radio removal which doesn't take long.
It has to be almost pitch black to see that light and doesn't stay on very long,I didn't see it until after I read about it failing here.

SW17LS

I really don't think I removed the radio and climate unit when I made this repair on my 2017...

BMCha

I had the same issue on my 2014 and saw that it was a pretty common issue around here. The price did put me off of fixing it, but last summer I pulled the whole clock trim panel to fix some of the wood delaminating on a corner (the actual wood was pulling away from itself, not the metal backing or plastic coating on either side), and while I had it out I unscrewed the light bar to see if I could fix it. (Because of the situation I can't remember whether or not the radio requires removal. I pulled mine but I think I was actually in the car to do that to double check some things for the Android Auto install I was about to do and while I was there I decided to finally fix the wood and check the light).

Sounds like you've looked at the board already but for other readers unaware this was the surprise I got when opening it up:


I figured there'd be a microcontroller involved but I didn't expect all this complexity for just a light bar. For what it's worth I did test the actual LEDs in the bar and they were all working fine, so the problem is somewhere in the controller. I desoldered the RFI can you can see above and took photos of both sides of the PCB for my records (which I'll post at the end), but nothing looked obviously amiss (e.g. burnt chips or blown caps). I suppose I could've (and still can; I have the old part in my garage) checked over all the capacitors with my LCR meter to see if any tested bad, but if that's not it I don't know where to go next. In the absence of a schematic a pinout for the connector at least would've been helpful but I didn't feel like paying for more TIS access just to pull a page or two of the wiring diagram.

With all that in mind I ended up just deciding to buy a new part to get to a 100% working interior*. I should note that this was during the July 4th "celebrate your Lexus with 17.76% off" sale so with that and the dealer discount (Bell Lexus) I ended up getting the light for $112. Still a questionable return on investment but low enough for me to go ahead with it. While it's no game changer I can't say I regret doing so; maybe it's just me justifying the expense but I do enjoy watching it animate on and off at night when I get in and shutdown the car respectively.

*Speaking of which, sometime over the past year (or really somewhere between Dec 22 and Sep 23) the light that illuminates the drivers-side temperature increase button at night went out; has that happened to anyone else? I'm not about to disassemble the radio to fix it unless more lights go out but I'm curious to see if this has happened to others.

Here's those close-up board photos I mentioned above:

Gerf

I can't be sure that you have to remove the radio in order to take the dash strip off, that's just the way I do it because Toyota has layered the console/dash assy's in such a way that you can't usually start removing parts from the middle.
The circled areas at the bottom of the trim are tabs that insert vertically and on the top of the climate control they are horizontally inserted against the bottom of the trim with a felt strip that presses against the bottom of the trim.

This car is 11 yrs old and I'm pretty careful with anything like this because I hate dash rattles.

SW17LS

Oh I agree with you about the rattles…

dan25man

I have this exact issue too! I love this forum, thanks everyone <3 I was thinking there was something else major wrong... crazy to think these failed without any external issues. Maybe I'll pull the board, do an ultrasonic cleaning, and try and re-flow the micro-controller. ?? But also it's Only $141 at LPN so...

DavidinCT

If you do this, post back if you have luck here. The failure on these is very common and would like to get to the bottom of it instead of paying $120-160 for a light. If there is a common part that fails on the board, I would love to replace it....

I thought I was subbed to this thread but, I guess not

dan25man

Not had the time to pull the center console, radio, and lighting garnish out again. I did the valve covers a few weekends ago and am just enjoying driving it at the moment. Maybe next weekend...

JRA2000TL

Where is this light located? I went to check mine and the only lights I see are the ones that light up the floorboards; and the obvious instrumentation and clock lights.

Gerf

The trim piece that houses the clock has a strip along the bottom edge and a short strip is on the left side of the steering wheel at the same level. When you get in the car before you turn the ignition on they light up and fade out with the ignition on or when you start the car, they're not very bright. Yours might be burnt out.

BMCha

These are light bars tucked underneath the wood (or I guess aluminum in the F Sport?) trim pieces that shine onto whatever's just underneath them. I say "bars" since there's another similar light on the corresponding trim piece to the left of the steering wheel. That one is only a few inches wide and the original is still working fine in my car; I think it's only this larger one that likes to fail.

Here's a photo I took after installed the replacement where you can see it shining on the top of the glovebox door. As Gerf said, when the car first turns on there's a short animation. The default sequence is that this bar's lights illuminate from left to right. Then when you shut the car off the lights fade out from the edges towards the center kind of like an old tube TV turning off.

JRA2000TL

Oh mine doesn't work either, and I bought it that way, so I didn't know the difference. Maybe one day I'll get to it. After spending $2k on a valley plate repair and a transmission service, I'm good for a bit. $141.50 at my Lexus dealer. I'm scared to pry off that wood trim. Just open the passenger door and gently, but firmly, pull on the edge of it? Any specific instructions? Don't want to break anything, and I hate not having a standard, huge paperback OEM shop manual like the old Helms ones I had on my Fords. I'm one of those that needs clear step by step instructions. "renting" the TIS/Toyota manual electronically would get very expensive every time I need to refer to it.