Michaelm

The local Lexus dealer took 4 days (!) to diagnose this issue. What they have come back with is that it is the spiral cable (sometimes referred to as the clock spring). Oh, and they want $1000.00 to do the repair. To me this seems like a huge amount of money to repair dash lights. Does anyone have any experience with issues caused by the spiral cable and/or its replacement? Thanks.

These are the same steps I took with my 02 ES300, with the same results. I am taking it in tomorrow to have it looked at and will let you know what they tell me.

This is interesting because I had this happen to my 2002 ES300 last night as well. On my car the radio, climate control, and gear indicator lights near the shifter all go out when I turn on my headlights. So far I haven't been able to figure anything out, and I will probably take my car in next week since (as you well know) I cannot see anything at night.

Yes, I did check the dimmer control and even removed it and measured the resistance. The dimmer control works fine when the headlights are off. I also checked all of the fuses, both behind the coin holder and under the hood, and found that they are all fine. I did notice that not only the instrument panel lights and needles go out when I turn on the headlights, but also all of the radio and climate control lights. A few of the indicator lamps actually do light when I turn on the headlights including the headlight indicator, door open, check engine, and oil. The gear indicator also lights on the instrument cluster but is dim, however the gear indicators near the shift lever are all dark. I will probably take it in next week to have it checked out since I cannot see a thing at night.

My 2002 ES300 instrument cluster goes completely dark when the Xenon headlights are turned on. This includes all backlights, indicator lights (like turn signals, etc), and needle gauge lights. During the day when the headlights are either manually turned off, or if left on "auto" so the daytime driving lights are on, all of the cluster lights work fine. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions? Thanks.