I have a 1992 SC400 and the needles for the tachometer and speedometer are out, not working. Makes it hard to see your speed.

Has anyone else had this problem? There isn't an easy fix is there. The Lexus shop said it could be $700!!!

Mark

 

welcome to CL!

i'll be the first to say that there is a GREAT amount of info on this subject. Just do a search and you'll find reading material for days. if that doesn't work, just post again and someone might have an answer.

 

welcome to the club. That quite a problem you got there and a VERY VERY common one, too. Its probably not going to be the easiest or cheapest fix either. Like do luck said do a search you'll find a crap load of stuff. May or may not be helpful but you'll find out that its common and the easiest fix is buying a new cluster

 

Wow! After searching I found many, many posts with this same problem of the needles burning out.

I wonder, if this is such a common problem how come Lexus doesn't issue some kind of recall? Seems scandelous that they kept selling vehicles with a known history of needles burning out.

Speaking of recalls, are there any issued for the SC 400?

Thanks for the welcome. Learning a lot from this group!

Mark

 

1. the reason why no recall is most people don't bother to report it like we should

2. Needles don't usually burn out till about 10 years later so they don't bother wasting money

3. No one is getting hurt so they probly won't do a recall

 

Hi everyone,
My name is Cleeve Morrison and my company is La Jolla Audio Repair. We have been working on a replacement circuit for the Dash Needles that seem to go out in most of the Lexus dashes. The circuit is a bit tricky which is why we don't have an immediate replacement available, however, we are working on a solution. We have a current design on the table that seems to meet to needs of the dashes electrical requirements and weight. We are attempting to obtain the micro parts needed to build the needles. If we are successful the cost will most likely be around $150 per needle on an exchange basis only. Please keep track of our progress as we will notify this site when the circuits are finally available. If you would like to know a bit more about us you may visit our Web site which is still under constuction at: www.lajollaaudiorepair.com

Cleeve Morrison
La Jolla Audio Repair

 

Hi cleeve, good info!!. finally I found somebody working on those needles we'd like to hear about the progress soon.

 

Personally...even though 150 each is better than 500 for new assembly...that problem still doesnt bother me enough that Id spend 300 on it. I am convinced there is an easier and cheaper fix. Taka...have you actually taken the needles apart?
If the lights burnt out....then where are these lights? I assume they are on the back of the needle and not the front?

 

mjr24, I been playing around with those needles but never tried to take out. For my temporary solution(3 of them are out), I use reflection tape on needles and blue led lights installed outside of dash. it works good enough for me. it's better than you see nothing at night.
I have no knowledge about this needle lights, I thought you can just replace the bulbs for needle but I dont think it's that simple..
maybe Cleeve can answer seems he's professional on this area.

 

while you have the assembly open can you tell me the light bulb size and model number for those little bulbs that light up the housing white. It says Toshiba Xe on the back but can i get a number i can use to order them. i want to change mine to different color

 

Hi,
Just to clarify things, The needles in the dash are made up of Micro LED's 0406 in size. There are between 12 and 20 inside the needle itself. They are sealed so are not repairable. If you were to attempt to put any other type of lighting inside of the needle you will then be faced with a different problem and that is the weight of the parts would throw the needle off calibration. So as you can see what we are trying to do is not that simple. The dash needles may seem like no big deal but at night it really is. I hope that this information cleared up some questions.
You can visit me at www.lajollaaudiorepair.com

Cleeve Morrison
La Jolla Audio Repair

 

I have an idea. Now I don't know if this would work or not but I was looking at the needles at night and there seems to be plenty of light coming from the speedometer. What if the needle itself was a clear plastic with a color on the sides. Would the light shine through enough to show where the needle is?

It doesn't matter to me whether it's illuminated or not, as long as I can see it more clearly.

 

I know this has been covered in another thread, but thought I'd post it here.

http://www.lexusdash.com

Hope this helps.

Blanco