How Can Something So Easy Go So Wrong?

[justflyin83]

Ok so here's the situation. I bought my 2006 is350 about 6 months ago with 37,000 miles on it. The car was in excellent condition but I nnoticed after a few days of driving it that the car did not have the LED foot well lights on during night driving. After further insepction and pulling off the lower footwell covers from underneath the dash, the lights were missing, they have been unplugged from the socket. So just recently I purchased these lights from Sewell Lexus and they just arrived yesterday. Last night I decided to install them, and they did not work. It's a LED bulb with 2 wires coming out and white connector on the end. The connector fit into the car's end but the light would not turn on. After further inspection the prongs on the inside of the connector did not match up to the cars connector, it was odd even though the connectors were meant to plug into each other. There was also no other way to plug it in. I was convinced that the problem was the connector so I decided to bypass the connector and hardwire the bulb in. After I did that sure enough the light lit up and everything was perfect. The light turned on like it was supposed to and dimmed once the car was shut off and doors closed. I snapped the bulb socket into the footwell panel, put the panels back in place and I was done.

I went to go start up my car and I noticed that when I put my car in ACC the navigation did not turn on and my clock was halfway dim, the first numbers were bright but the second numbers were dim. I shut off my car and turned it back on ACC again and my gauges would light up but my NAV wouldn't turn on. I went to go further and turn on the car and I would get a grinding noise, almost like the sound of a starter against a flywheel that wasn't moving. I did this processes repaetedly about 8-10 times and things just started getting progressively worse, more lights and things would not work, my headlights stayed on even though the switch was turned completely off. I eventually popped the hood and disconnected the battery, waited about 10 minutes and plugged it back in. Everything seemed fine and as soon as I tried to start the car I would get the grinding noise and things started getting progressively worse again. When I disconnected the battery the navagation actually turned on but after a few more tries actually stopped working again. I checked fuses on both the driversside and passenger side including under the hood and everything seemed fine. So I had no choice but to call roadside assistance to have them tow my car to the dealer so it could be looked at first thing in the morning. I could not even put the car into gear or get it out of park. During the final stage it wouldn't start or even attempt, the grinding noise stopped and nothing really reacted when I pushed the start button other than the bell that dings. Some lights were dead, some were half on, and some were full brightness.

After about 2 hours of waiting the tow truck came to my house and I just tried to start it up one more time, this time it started for a split second and as soon as it started the lights flickered and the car immediately shut down. Tried it once more and the car started right up. I shut it down and tried it again and it started up just fine. I laughed a little and the tow truck driver said my car had ghosts in it. So I decided not to tow my car and this morning the car started up just fine and I drove it to work. My question is what the heck happened???!!! I meant i've done alot of electrical work on cars before but changing a stupid light bulb caused all of this? Or did something else happen and it just happened to be a fluke that I was changing a light bulb? I would bring it to the dealer but I highly doubt they can daignose it if the car is working smoothly. Would it possibly have something to do with the antitheft system? Even if hardwiring the bulb caused some sort of a short in the wiring, first off the buld would not turn on and and still be working just fine, but if it did all it should do is simply blow a fuse not completely disable the entire vehicle. Any experts out there know what could have caused this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.....

[SW03ES]

My guess is the bulb has nothing to do with it...

[justflyin83]

My guess is the bulb has nothing to do with it...

Thanks, that's my guess to but it's weird, it started the very moment I put the bulb in. Could it possbily be my battery going out? It's going on 4 years old, it's orginal with the car.

[bartkat]

I think you created a dead short during bulb installation, and maybe moved something around that did away with the short. It may have been just enough to dirty up the power flow and confused some of the several little computers that control things, maybe even the ECU.

[seohenning]

Could be a grounding issue? The main ground wire from the battery had corroded on my 2006, so when the car was started the current tried to find a ground through alternate routes, it fried a few other wires while doing this and all electrical stopped working. The car was completely dead, and it took the dealer 2 weeks to figure out the problem. That’s my best guess.

Good luck!

[justflyin83]

I think you created a dead short during bulb installation, and maybe moved something around that did away with the short. It may have been just enough to dirty up the power flow and confused some of the several little computers that control things, maybe even the ECU.

But if I created a short with a light bulb wouldn't it just blow a fuse? That's what fuses are for. BTW my battery terminal look like new, no corrosion there.

[bartkat]

Intermittent? Some fuses don't blow right away.