92 Es 300 Speedometer Light?

92-ES300Dave · February 25, 2004

Just purchased a '92 ES 300. This is my first experience with a Lexus and so far we have found it an extremely enjoyable experience. The car has a lot of miles but is extremely 'Tight' (engine/handling/suspension, etc).

We do however have a few questions:

1. None of the needles in the speedometer cluster (speedo, tach, gas, temp)light up. All we have are black needles on a black background that we can't see. When I called my local lLexus dealer, they said that it sounded like the cluster needed to be replaced and would cost $1500.00 ! This is way too expensive for my wallet. Since all of the needles don't light, I am hoping that it may be a bad fuse or loose wire. Where do i start looking?

2. Is there any place to get an ownewrs manual for the car? Never got one as part of the sale, and we need to know simple stuff like.. what is "ECT" next to the automatic shifter (it has a Power and Normal modes)

3. Is there any way to clean the inside of the headlight lens. One is dirty, the other is clean/clear. A quick look last night shows that these appear to be sealed units where I'll need to break the seal to get to the inside of the plastic/glass cover or replace the entire lighting assembly (probably again too expensive for me).

Any help would be greatly appreciated......

kyle0k · February 25, 2004

hmm i think it might be a fuse if all the lights arent working,but i dont kno anything about the fuses. But if worse comes to worse you dont need to pay 1500 to get cluster replaced. Go to a junkyard and get a used cluster there and live with the different mileage(i dont kno how that would work legally though,maybe skperformance or bbsal know).

You can get the manual i believe at ebay or the dealer. But about the ECT button its almost pointless,instead of shifting at like 3000 it changes at liek 5000 for when you need more power,but i think its pointless considering if you need more power then you just floor it and the tranny will automatically redline for you.

Im pretty sure you can somehow open the headlight to clean it,but for more information about that id wait till skperformance answers,as he most liekly knows how to do it(howd you get so smart about the es300 skperformance! :chairshot: )

well i hoped that helped. :cheers:

squarehat · February 25, 2004

The needles are bunch of tiny LEDs run end to end, and from what I've read, the cluster if turned up too high, supplies too much voltage to the LEDs, which causes them to become fused shut over time (and no longer illuminate). There seems to be several fixes to this--painting the needles with glowing paint (see the sticky on top of the LS forum), sending the cluster out for repair (ballpark of $300) or the new cluster. Of the three, I would recommend sending out for repair if you can live without driving the car for a few days. A salvage cluster may conk out on you a few thousand miles after installing it, not to mention the mileage issues.