Illumination

[littlerock]

The audio illumination on my 97 ES has gone out on the right side of my radio. The Lexus dealership told me that I needed to replace the entire radio for $675 AND that a "new" radio would only be a refurbished radio. Well, this is the same thing they told me when my LCD radio panel light went out and they were wrong- this site helped me then. Is there a better, cheaper way to correct the illumination problem?

[littlerock]

THEY MOVED MY TOPIC AND IT'S NEVER GOING TO GET ANSWERED IN "AUDIO". THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE AUDIO BUT THE ILLUMINATION.

The illumination on my 97 ES has gone out on the right side of my radio. The Lexus dealership told me that I needed to replace the entire radio for $675 AND that a "new" radio would only be a refurbished radio. Well, this is the same thing they told me when my LCD radio panel light went out and they were wrong- this site helped me then. Is there a better, cheaper way to correct the illumination problem?

[hawkshaw]

Several years ago I replaced several radio and instrument panel lamps in my old 1995 SC 400.

The job is not for the faint of heart and took the large part of a day to complete. You have to carefully disassemble the dash and then the radio. Then you need to figure out what lamp(s) are out and order them from Lexus if they don't have them in stock, which is what happened in my case.

Did the illumination go out suddenly? Does it seem like more than one lamp might be out? It's probably just the lamps but it could be something more serious.

For reference, I took photos of the dash and bulb types so it'd be easier to identify what was out in case I needed to do it again. I've attached a photo for the heck of it.

Sorry I don't have photos of the radio.

[littlerock]

Thank you very much.