MayorofEastCtown

Stanley, Not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly (and could also be wrong), but the air that is supposed to come out of your dash is not controlled by engine vacuum. If you're referring to the the climate control system not working, that airflow is controlled by a dedicated blower. There's a whole host of things that could make your climate control not come on, but if you google "Lexus GS300 blower motor" there's a youtube video that shows you someone fixing a problem similar to yours. Hope that answers some of your question. Edit: I'm so sorry I forgot you're not supposed to post in here, Stanley I'll DM you or look for the new thread you'll post this in.

Solved! It's been many moons since I posted this, but I finally had time (and money) to put into this. I ended up buying a new Nav computer, the one in the trunk, off Ebay for $50. For some reason no one is buying them anymore, so the price has plummeted. Just went back swapped them out and it worked. Sadly the unit I had, and the one I bought, didn't have Nav hard drives, so the nav doesn't work but everything else does. As far as what went wrong in the nav unit I'll never know, because sadly it was promptly thrown out by someone who thought it looked like trash and didn't want it in their house. Thanks again for all the help!

That was going to be my next step if I reach the end of my patience with solving this. The previous owner actually gave me one when I bought the car. I was hoping to get the original one working though, as more of a novelty than anything because the actual maps wouldn't be very useful now. I also can't stop trying to fix something once I've started, which some say is a character flaw and others call being an engineer.

Paul, Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, America's birthday was a long celebration. I thought it could be the fuses as well, so I replaced the two radio ones and the cigarette lighter one. The reason I changed the one for the cigarette lighter is because one day I was trying to jam my phone charger in it and the screen vaguely showed up. I don't know if that was a coincidence or not, because I completely took apart the radio bay looking for loose wires and couldn't find any. I saw in another thread how to get to the "advanced settings" menu, but since I couldn't see anything that I was pushing it degraded quickly. I'll look for the actual re-booting thread though. I'll look for the trunk hinge threads as well. Though when I pulled back the carpet in my trunk the wires ran on the bottom of the trunk and came through the back seats around the lower back area. So I'm not sure if it's the same harness? Thank you for all the leads! Peter

I just bought a beautifully aged, Cinnabar Pearl (or orangish red in layman's terms), 1998 GS400. I'm the third owner of the car and I bought it for $3800 in Dayton, Ohio. I bought it with 190k on it and it drives like it just came off the production line, that's actually just all speculation on my part. The only thing I've done to it so far is replace the B2S2 O2 sensor, and that cost me around $70 and a few hours of cursing. The only other thing that's off about it is the head unit has some weird quirks, but in the grand scheme of things it's not bad at all. Future mods may include: turning into a convertible, changing the oil, and doing a front wheel drive conversion.

Thank you for the welcome! I'll definitely post a full write up and photos of my baby into the mega thread of them. I'm glad you like it! A few minutes in Microsoft paint can help express my true feeling more than words ever could.

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum and new to Lexus ownership as well. I've had many corolla's over the years and decided it was time to finally step it up and get a big boy Toyota. A few months ago I bought an immaculate 98 GS400 for $3800 from a guy in Ohio and when I say immaculate it was this guys baby, he may have even birthed it himself. The car has been working flawless for me and I absolutely love it. The only problem I've had so far, and the car came like this, is that the head unit screen comes up blank. I found another thread on here with two lonely Lexus owners with the same problem, but it was only merely stated by them and they couldn't find any solutions http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/41111-2000-gs400-navigation-screen-blank/ (that should be the link to it). With that long winded backstory out of the way, now to the problem, a lot of which I stated in that thread. When I turn my car on the screen comes to life and says Lexus in big dramatic letters, but then after that all it shows is a solid color screen, either black or yellow depending on what button I press (menu, destination, audio, etc..). The strange thing is that the outside temp, climate control, and radio station on screen bubbles still pop up and are perfectly clear, so I believe the display isn't completely gone. I can also still use the touch screen capability to click on things and hear the little beep noise it makes, but sadly I then have no idea what I clicked on. I've taken out and reinstalled the entire head unit and I've also taken out and reinstalled the nav computer in the trunk, I even tried using the nav computer without the hard drive in it (hopefully that didn't mess anything up). But at the end of the day I'm still sitting here looking at a solid color screen. Any ideas guys? And if I did anything wrong in this post I'm most sincerely sorry, and will repent to the Japanese car gods.

I've been having the same problem as well. I know the original post was from a long time ago, but have either of you found any solutions? When I turn my car on the screen pops up and says Lexus, but then after that all it shows is a solid color screen, either black or yellow depending on what button I press. The strange thing is that the outside temp, climate control, and radio station on screen bubbles still pop up and are perfectly clear, so I know the display isn't completely gone. I can also, like you guys said, still use the touch screen capability to click on things and hear the little beep noise it makes but sadly I then have no idea what I clicked on. I've taken out and reinstalled the entire head unit and I've also taken out and reinstalled the nav computer in the trunk, I even tried using the nav computer without the drive in it (hopefully that didn't mess anything up). But at the end of the day I'm still sitting here looking at a solid color screen.