Tachometer trouble

[flashedwards]

I'm not sure when the trouble started (I'm not the only driver) but last night I noticed that the tach. wasn't working....just sitting on zero. As far as I can tell everything else electrical is 100% functional. All lights, indicators, switches, gauges, warnings and so on all work. Only the tach died. Does anybody have any clues or ideas? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.....I'm stumped.

Thanks......Flash Edwards

[billydpowell]

a firm tap of the fist on the dash pad will jar it loose, it is common.. as summer begins the "lube" warms and gets sticky and you need to jolt it loose.OR you can pull the cluster out and clean and re-lube the needles.. (it happens to the speedometer also)

and now you know.......... 

[flashedwards]

Oh, Billy if it was only so simple.....unfortunately these gauges aren't cable driven. If it had been the tach on '56 Chevy with a blueprinted small block or my 40 inch Triumph desert racer then your advice would have been right on. However, this tach is more like a heads-up display than it is a real tachometer. We're dealing with a purely electrical concept. Now here's where it gets strange. Today I was out running errands....drive-park-shut off-start-drive-park-shut off-start-drive......and so on. When I tried to start after the 5th stop I had to crank it a little longer than normal. When it finally started the tach was working again. Having worked for decades diagnosing problems with machinery, I know that trying to find an intermittent problem is a !Removed!. It's tough to find the problem when everything is working. If anybody has an idea.....lemme know.

Thanks....Flash  

 

[1990LS400]

Sorry, Billy, but others have found that this problem cannot be solved with "lube".  Electronic components in the cluster begin to fail over time.  People on Lexus forums have seemed to be very happy with cluster repairs done by http://www.taninautoelectronix.com/ and their prices seemed reasonable last time I checked..

You might as well have Tannin go ahead and "fix" your speedometer too.  The speedometer needle in the 2000 LS400 I sold in 2014 started to stick in around 2012 but, like Billy said, a firm rap on the dashboard would often get it working again.

[flashedwards]

It happened again....its been working as it should for a couple days and the one evening I started it up and no tach. A day later it started working again. I'm baffled......??????????

[billydpowell]

do like jim said send it to tannin..... but I have had 5 99 LS400's and all of them at times would do this, either speedo or tack and the tap always worked.. I never used any "lube"  oh, and it happened to mine last week..... 

Edited April 16, 2016 by billydpowell
showing all 5 of my LS400

[flashedwards]

So just give it a good whack? That reminds me of the scene in "The Longest Day" where the Bren Gun Carrier is stalled on the beach and the Beach Master gives it a hard rap in it fires right up or maybe in "No Time for Sargeants" when Andy Griffith spits in the back of the aircraft's radio, smacks it hard and it comes to life. I suppose that I can do that because if I pull the instrument cluster to have it repaired the wifey will be less than happy with the car in that condition. Judging from your post this condition will not interfere with the drivability it just is a nuisance?  If it doesn't effect anything else then I suppose I can live with it for a while but I won't be real happy.

Thanks for the info....it has helped alot,

Flash 

[1990LS400]

19 hours ago, flashedwards said:

So just give it a good whack? That reminds me of the scene in "The Longest Day" where the Bren Gun Carrier is stalled on the beach and the Beach Master gives it a hard rap in it fires right up or maybe in "No Time for Sargeants" when Andy Griffith spits in the back of the aircraft's radio, smacks it hard and it comes to life. I suppose that I can do that because if I pull the instrument cluster to have it repaired the wifey will be less than happy with the car in that condition. Judging from your post this condition will not interfere with the drivability it just is a nuisance?  If it doesn't effect anything else then I suppose I can live with it for a while but I won't be real happy.

Thanks for the info....it has helped alot,

Flash 

Come on, Flash.  Have the dang cluster fixed.  Rent a car for your wife if necessary.  I wouldn't recommend driving the car without an instrument cluster.

Forget "whacking" the top of the dashboard.  The problem is only going to get worse until it stops working completely when even a "whack" isn't going to help.

The sticking speedometer on the 2000 LS400 I sold in 2014 seemed related to temperature with the needle most likely to stick the worst when outside temperatures were above around 90 degrees or in the winter when I was running the windshield defroster at a very high temperature like when trying to keep the windshield clear in an ice storm.

Tannin usually offers very quick service.  Have them "rebuild" the speedometer too - it's going to start failing soon.  Fed-Ex "overnight" your cluster to them and you'll probably have it back in your LS in less than a week. 

[billydpowell]

come on Jim, have you EVER heard of anyones tac or speedo sticking and completely not working... mine have been sticking for over 6 years and a whack ALWAYS jars them loose and my dash has not suffered ANY damage... 

[1990LS400]

19 minutes ago, billydpowell said:

come on Jim, have you EVER heard of anyones tac or speedo sticking and completely not working... mine have been sticking for over 6 years and a whack ALWAYS jars them loose and my dash has not suffered ANY damage... 

Yes, Billy.  The speedometer in my 2000 LS400 stopped working for days at a time in the summer of 2013.  A rap on the dashboard would no longer get it going.  I had the same problem in the winter of 2013 when we were driving between Des Moines and Kansas City in an ice storm when I had the temperature set as high as it would go and the HVAC in  defroster mode trying to keep the windshield clear - no amount of beating on the top of the dashboard would make the speedometer needle work.

I had a Garmin GPS mounted on the dash of my 2000 LS400.  It had a GPS-based speedometer which I used when the speedometer in the cluster wasn't working.

If I had known that a company with an excellent reputation like Tannin could fix the problem at a nominal cost, I would have sent my cluster to them when the problem first started happening in the summer of 2012.

[flashedwards]

Easy guys or I'll send both of you to your rooms. I agree that the cluster must be pulled and send to Tannin (or similar) because whacking the dash is working for now but someday it might cease doing the trick. Besides that, it is a violation of Country Club policy to publicly whack your automobile. They might double my green fees or ban me from the cotillion. Anyway, back to reality.....without the input from you two I wouldn't have had a clue to what the problem was or how to fix it (either temporarily with a smack to the dash or permanently by sending it to Tannin). Due to a couple of reasons it might be a while before I can send the cluster in for repair so you might be hearing from me again concerning this problem.

Thanks,

Flash

[billydpowell]

Great Flash, and I yield to the Guru.... just joshing Jim..

[1990LS400]

Please understand that Billy is the "pro" here and I'm just an amateur.

Unfortunately, Billy lives in Texas and, as we all know, a Texan's first impulse is to whack whatever goes wrong ... dashboards, Afghanistan, Iraq ... you name it. 

I once offered to set Billy up with a newly widowed woman friend who lives near him.  Billy's excuse was that he already had one wife and was hesitant to take on another.  Our woman friend hitched up with another retired Texan old f_art so Billy's off the hook for now.

I really liked the 2000 LS400 I had for 10+ years and might have kept it for occasional use if we had garage space for extra vehicles.  Unlike Billy with his gazillion vehicles, my wife and I cut down to only two MPV-type vehicles and moved to "Geezer Village" in preparation for retirement.  I've still got the "car bug" but was unable to persuade my wife to test drive a Model S when we walked by the Kansas City Tesla dealership yesterday.  

[M.Yasir]

Billy you changed the rims on your white lexus?

I also experience the same problems of the tach and speedo both not working sometimes, but i take it easy and let go .... after some bumps on the road it comes back to life..

[billydpowell]

no I hung on to my 17 inch 2001 chrome rims, they are on the white 99 now, I was just flashing all 5 of my 99's in the post

[M.Yasir]

I see, you have 5 of these and that all in showroom condition..... thousand pounds of respect...

I have scratches everywhere billy on my green lexus, in sunlight it looks *BLEEP*... if i will go to showroom for painting works it will blow my pocket.. i was thinking to find the exact paint code and then buy the paint and go to a paint shop.. anyway this is just a plan, i have to save some money and do some major overhauling in engine before i enter into cosmetics department

[billydpowell]

no, I have had 5 of these (99's) over the last 6 years... I usually buy them 2 at a time for me & my wife, I have had 12 LS's all together (see "cars I have owned") I believe the 99's are the best (it took several to get the best I could find).. worked on cars all my life (82 now) had 5 gas stations and a repair shop (nearly 30 years) and I just love cars.. some I restored, and some bought... but now down to one.... good luck on yours .... old people can rattle all day.. 

 

[M.Yasir]

Amazing....