Billybobjoe

Before you buy LED backlights (needle SMD LEDs are OK) - you may want to check out this thread - http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=51118 If you use LEDs there is a chance they will die and you'll end up taking apart the dashboard many more times than you'd like (only once as opposed to 3-4 times . . .)

I'm not completely following you . . so your new bulbs are incandescents? I wouldn't have taken them out in the first place if I knew the only replacements were normal bulbs.

Wow I've had both of these same problems recently. I replaced my backlights w/ the bulbs from Superbrightleds.com and they have started slowly dying over the course of the past week. The over voltage would explain that - but how are all of the other lights in the car rated at 12 volts. The bulbs I bought are for automotive use . . . Where did you get your bulbs locally? Also, my '95 ES300 cluster temp./fuel gauges were impossible to get off. I broke them off, did the mod, then superglued them back together (The prongs came out of the socket but the plastic broke as well because I needed to pry them with a screwdriver. I wonder what year the fuel/temp needles start to become possible to remove?

Ha, yeah I didn't realize the title said ES330. HID . . .

I'd find the guy that gave you that quote and slap him on the face. There's a tutorial here somewhere (do a search) - its really easy - your actually over thinking things - the whole bulb assembly twists out and you buy a new one. It shouldn't cost you more than $6 and five minutes of time.

I jsut finished (or so I thought) the needle fix outlined here - http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217411 I also replaced the backlights with LEDs. Everything looks phenomenal but I have three problems. The fuel and temp. neeldes were IMPOSSIBLE to get off without breaking - even just grabbing them with small needle nosed pliers just at the base caused the actual black needle to seperate from the two metal contacts. Some superglue fixed this but now neither appears to be functioning. I manually reset the gas gauge while I had the cluster out of the car, and now when the car is turned off it returns to empty, then slowly over the course of a few minutes returns to show that I have significantly less gas than I know there is. Am I supposed to reset this with the car on ad reading out of the tank? Then the temp. gauge. - where is it supposed to rest with the car off? Mine rests at the bottom and doesn't move (even yesterday driving around at 80 degrees outside). Also, when I turn off the car the tachometer slowly moves down but doesn't quite make it to the bottom. When you turn the car back on it quickly resets itself to the bottom and appears to work fine. Does a '95 ES 300 ever idel below 1k RPM? Mine doesn't appear to.

I realized that my '95 ES300 never had its cabin filter changed, so I located where it should be and there was nothing* there. After some research I realized that they were not usually installed on this year. Now the problem lies in that the space where the filter should be was not quite empty. When I reached my hand in to look for the filter, I met a damp mass of a dirty, black substance that looked like hair or fiberglass insulation. I pulled/vacuumed out as much as possible, but I would really like to get ALL of this out. My question is, is this actually insulation of some sort, and is there any other way to open up this area so it can be properly vacuumed/blown out? (It isn't easy to fit a vacuum attachment in there while being cramped under the drivers seat on your stomach.)