Jeff Posted February 20, 2003 Posted February 20, 2003 I have a 93 LS that only has half the speedo needle lit and the tach needle is 100% black. Has anyone had these needle lights replaced at a decent cost ? Lexus says that you have to replace the instrument cluster at $600 to $1000 cost. I'm sure others have had the same problem and found a more cost effective solution. Please let me know if you have a better solution than the dealership. If you've found somebody to replace these things or even if you know how to get new needles, please fill me in on price and performance. I'm not affraid of doing the work myself if i had the parts. Thanks in advanced for your reply. I really feel like Lexus should step up and repair this problem on the older models. In a car this smooth, it's hard to judge speed without any indication.
Matthew_McNally Posted February 20, 2003 Posted February 20, 2003 Hi Jeff have heard of this before - quite a common complaint. This is the reason I kepp my dash display lights quite low key. this site might be useful
chromiez Posted February 28, 2003 Posted February 28, 2003 i have the same problem. worse of all its the speedometer!! the needle is hald way out, but i cant still make out what speed i am going at sometimes...and when i mean sometimes i mean that my speedometer is also out. its all messed up, when i'm driving it sometimes gives me an inaccurate speed, but most of the time its stuck on one speed. even when i'm at a complete stop it will be at 40mph.
zeta Posted March 1, 2003 Posted March 1, 2003 lol don't worry guys, you've got it easy. i have dead tach/speedo/engine temp gauges. i guess my speed by waiting until the needles roll over the numbers. lexusdash is a really good company. they just started up and they use cold cathode lights. i've talked to the guy that actually created the first one. he wanted to do it because his SC had dead gauges as well.
UCF3 Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Good call Zeta. Now I know where to go for customization, but the prices are terrible.
Matthew_McNally Posted March 5, 2003 Posted March 5, 2003 Good call Zeta. Now I know where to go for customization, but the prices are terrible. dunno about over by you guys - but over here that his a huge job, costing in excess of £1,000 (>$1500). its a whole new dashboard basically.
zeta Posted March 6, 2003 Posted March 6, 2003 this is just for the 4 needles. but it's new technology. no one's been able to do this yet. he was the first one, and he's tweaked it to dim with the controller and use less power than the original needles. they look really nice in person as well.
Jeff Posted March 14, 2003 Author Posted March 14, 2003 What is the price that has been quoted for the needle repair from lexusdash ?? I sent an email but never received a price.
zeta Posted March 16, 2003 Posted March 16, 2003 the price is $600 i think. with labor included. for all 4 needles replaced. it should be on their site. http://www.lexusdash.com
a2thepoint Posted May 9, 2003 Posted May 9, 2003 I checked LexusDash.com. The price is $500.00 (US) I found several used Displays at various Wrecking Yards in Los Angeles County. I purchased mine for $70.00(US) and it's working fine.
Ozz Posted May 9, 2003 Posted May 9, 2003 a2thepoint, how did you install the new dash, and do you have any wrecking yard recommendations (I am also in LA County)?
jswett Posted May 18, 2003 Posted May 18, 2003 I have a 93 LS400 that had one bad needle, and a non-functioning gas guage. I found a guy (an electrical engineer) in MN who has a lot of experience with repairing ALL Lexus instrument problems. I sent him mine, after speaking with him on the phone. It was repaired within 24 hours, 2 year warrantee, and works great. All much less expensive than the dealer. Email me if you like, I'll send you his name, Phone# and email address. Also, the removal of the instrument cluster is actually fairly easy. I can give you a few hints on that too. Email me at "jswett@optonline.net" Added 12-13-05: His name is David Ruberg, 507-452-9664, Winona MN.
UCF3 Posted May 18, 2003 Posted May 18, 2003 Is your source a private person or is he willing to put his name on the forum? This way, if we have an issue, we can just call him when needed.
jswett Posted May 18, 2003 Posted May 18, 2003 I think the gentlemen wouldn't mind at all if I post his name and contact info...I contacted him on the phone first, discussed my problem, he quoted me a very fair price, and I am very happy with the result. He is David Ruberg, 507-452-9664, Winona MN.
motjebben Posted May 23, 2003 Posted May 23, 2003 What about those of us that already have cold-cathode tubes that are burned out? That is, when I visit the lexusdash.com site, I read that the older lexus' used LED's, and that lexusdash is doing the conversion to cold-cathode technology. I have disassembled my dash and my needles are clearly already cold-cathode: I can trace the circuitry back to inverters to provide the high-voltage to fire the tubes. Wouldn't it just simply be a matter of replacing the cold-cathode tubes, then? And wouldn't that be much less expensive, considering one can purchase cold-cathode tubes for "PC-modding" for about $20.00 for a 12" tube and less for a 4" tube! Really curious! LS400 (1993) -Mike
UCF3 Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 thanks jswett motjebben: I'm guessing that's what this guy is doing in the first place. I believe the older cars have the same Cold-cathoyd running in the dashboard. There are some LEDs in the dashboard but not for the guage needles.
motjebben Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 The lexusdash site seemed to indicate that for several of the older-model Lexus', at least, the needles were made up of several segments of LED's and that they, at Lexusdash were converting to cold-cathode tubes as used by the newer Lexus'. I was figuring that the $500.00 that they are advertising for the conversion was due to the fact that they'd have to convert the low-voltage LED technology support on the printed circuit boards to add high-voltage inverters to power the cold-cathode needles. Hence, I figured if some of us already have the high-voltage circuit boards, we ONLY needed the cold-cathode needles. And, because one can buy a 12" or 4" cold cathode tube for between $9 and $20 (type "cathode" in the search window for compusa.com for an example), I figured that it was surprising that they want $500.00! However, I can see the cost being that much for the needles-only, if the quantity produced is so small that it is difficult otherwise to re-coop the non-recoverable engineering costs. But that seems somewhat surprising, as I would think they'd be able to do a LARGE production run for so many of us that have such problems... I was just curious...
UCF3 Posted May 27, 2003 Posted May 27, 2003 motjebben: I think you should try it out. The CompUSA cost seems pretty low, and there's isn't much of a chance for one to mess it up. Let us know if it work. :magic:
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now