sigtauenus

2000 RX 300 I had water damage to the car that came in through the brake light housings. Details here... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=60116 I am getting a brake caution light (the yellow one that says a brake light bulb is burned out) on the dash but as far as I can tell all 4 bulbs are fine. The light does not come on when the car is first started, but comes on as soon as you push on the brake pedal to shift the transmission. On at least one occasion I pushed the pedal (op check) 3 or 4 times before the light came on. Most times it comes on right away when pushing the brake pedal the first time after starting the car. Is there a sensor or a part of the wiring harness that may have been damaged by the water, or is there anything else I can troubleshoot to get the light on the dash to go out? Is it possible that this is a coincidence, and if so, is there anything else I can look at with the brake lights? Gut feeling is that this is directly related to the water problem.

2000 RX 300, factory stereo, cd changer, without navigation system. I had water damage, details are in this other thread... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=60116 I also am having some other electrical problems that I think are directly related. Biggest problem I face now is that the radio does not work. I found a troubleshooting guide for the 2003 which seems similar enough in design that the steps still work. The issue is that the radio turns on, and the cd changer turns on and operates, but no noise whatsoever comes out of any speaker. I tried the cassette deck, checked both fuses, and have power on both the battery and ACC/ON wires coming into the power amp with my test light. I was not able to get any indication on the speaker feeds going into the amp or coming out, nor was there anything from the amp to the sub. I read on another thread that I will not pick up test indications on the speaker wires, although I'm not sure why unless it has to do with having to go from the + to the - on each speaker vice testing from speaker + to vehicle ground. There was a step in the troubleshooting that said to test the +B to ground, but I couldn't find anything that said what the +B circuit was or what wire it was on the connector, unless it means + battery which did test good. The next step in the troubleshooting was to check the power into the radio, but I did not pull the radio from the dash to check the battery and ACC power in to the radio, nor do I have a wiring diagram that tells me that the power to the radio is routed directly from the fuse or from the amp. I assume since the radio turns on and operates other than making any noise that it is getting power from the ACC side, so I'm pretty sure it is the amp that is bad. I found dried water stains and bits of rust on the amp, which contributed to my assessment is that the amp is damaged. I called the local dealer for a price on the amp, and was told $668 and it has to be special ordered. The first question he asked was, "was there water damage to the car?" It would seem that this is a common occurrence that when there is water damage the amp goes out. The only number that makes sense on the amp is Pioneer 86100-48020, but the dealer said that number did not come up and he had to look it up via type of car. Google cache has about 5 old ebay listings showing 86100-48020 and it appears that they sold anywhere from $75-100. Does anybody know the correct Toyota/Lexus part number for the amp, as that would help tracking down used replacements. What are my options for an aftermarket amp and how do I go about wiring it in? Is it as simple as cutting off the factory connector and splicing in all the speaker and power leads? Does anybody have any recommendations for an amp that will work well for this application? I am ok with using used parts as long as they work, and I'm ok with using an aftermarket amp that is on par with the factory amp. Thanks in advance for any input.

As a follow up, for $180 I found out it was the seals on the back side of the taillights. Somebody had changed out a bulb at some time and did not put the wire loom back in the clip, and wire was caught in the seal of one of the pegs that goes into the quarter to align the light. So then water came into the well under the storage compartment on the side, overflowed into the spare tire well, and then overflowed over into the front of the car. The $180 included reassembly of everything removed to identify the leak source as well as a 1 year warranty. The reason I did not find the water leak myself is I was pouring water on the door and hatch seals and not running water over the car in such a way that it ran onto the light housing as I did not have any reason to suspect it. According to the leak guy, this is a common problem with taillights leaking and water then moving up into the main compartment of the car. Based on this, I suspect the stereo problem is going to be the amp under the rear seat unless it miraculously dries out and works again by itself.

Thanks for the tip. I just talked to the leak specialist, he said $160-250 on average. Considering I saw references to $3400 to have stuff like this fixed at the Lexus dealer, including having the carpet replaced, I do not mind paying somebody 2 bills to identify what the source of the leak really is and prevent more extensive damage than I'm already facing. Also, I found the technical manuals here in the forums for the '99 RX 300 and from what I can tell the sound system is close enough to '00 that I can use the troubleshooting procedures in the body electrical manual to find the culprit with the stereo problem. Given what I already know and have checked already, I suspect it is the power amplifier got wet or a wire harness connector is shorting to ground due to being wet.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it again.

2000 RX 300, 140,000 miles, owned approx 1 year. For the past week or so, my wife has been complaining about a smell in the car, and we thought it was something dropped by the kids (3 and 5) who are terrible about dropping anything from cheerios and gold fish to almost whole cereal bars behind the seat. Friday night my wife came home from work and started cleaning out the car, and came in for some paper towels saying the kids spilled something in the back seat. She came back shortly after saying the carpet was soaked. Saturday morning we looked at it again and put a home dehumidifier in the rear cargo area and left the car closed up hoping it would pull the moisture out of the carpet. After a few hours and a disappointingly little bit of water in the dehumidifier bucket, I looked at the carpet again and realized this was a larger problem. It took me 3 hours, but I gutted the interior, removing the seats, center console, some of the edge trim and pulled the carpet out. The under padding was soaked. I took the opportunity to spray off the carpet with the hose, hopefully rinsing all of the stagnant water out of the carpet, and then set it out to dry. I then went back and looked over the car more thoroughly. The firewall pad seems to be a rubber layer on top and then a fibrous layer underneath. That too is soaked from what I can tell. Every low spot in the floor pan had sitting water in it. I looked into the cargo area and there was standing water in the spare tire well. I took pictures of it all, but don't know at this point that it is worth posting them. I used some towels and dried up all the water I could find, and then put the seats back in so we could still drive the car. I will wait until we figure out what is going on before putting the carpet back in. I am in Virginia Beach, and yesterday and today the weather was very nice, very dry. The carpet was outside overnight and at this point is almost completely dry. Actually the carpet itself is dry, but the padding has some damp areas still. If tomorrow's forecast is nice, I'll put it out again in the morning and that should take care of the carpet. We drove the car around most of the afternoon running errands and then my wife went into work for a meeting. Tonight she just came back and said there is water on the floor again. There was a small bit of pooled water in front of the rear seats, and also some small puddles in the spare tire well. I am not sure if this is residual water that may be working out from under the sound deadener or if it is fresh from wherever it is coming from. I did some searches and found problems with the a/c drain, a/c evaporator case cracks, windshield leaks, door seal leaks, and sunroof drain tubes clogged or disconnected. None of these problems explain the extent of the water we are experiencing. The previous week or so has seen an excessive amount of rain in this area. We normally keep the car in the garage but were doing some cleaning and taking stuff to salvation army, so the garage was full of clutter so the car was out in the rain the whole time. I methodically and liberally used the garden hose to check all the normal suspects, starting at the front and bottom and working my way up and back. There was no indication of water entering the vehicle after dumping water on it continuously for a good 10 minutes or so. I checked the a/c drain and it is working fine. If a single seal had leaked, or if we had left a door open or a window down, I would think there would be some other indication of water in the vehicle besides just the carpet being wet. If enough water was coming in to soak the carpet and padding, such as with a door ajar or window open, then surely there would have been pooled water on the leather seats or console, etc. Also considering the rear axle hump between the rear seat and the spare tire well, it seems unlikely that a leak sourced in the very front or the very back would be able to flow past that hump and soak the rest of the vehicle. The only thing that makes any sense is the car literally being flooded and my wife says she did not drive the car though flood waters (the storm drains in our subdivision has been known to back-up during severe storms, and the low area near the subdivision exit floods about 2-3 feet deep). I have a water leak specialist scheduled to come check the car out tomorrow, but I suspect he will do the same thing I did with the hose and checking for leaks. Are there any suggestions for what I can do to identify the source of the water? Also, in the past week, the factory stereo stopped working. Actually, all indications on the display are that the stereo comes on and all functions seem to work, including all display functions with the cd changer, but there is no noise at all coming from the speakers. I found a pioneer unit with a speaker, possibly a subwoofer, under the passenger seat, and another pioneer unit, possibly an amp, behind the rear passenger seat. I suspect that one or both of these have water damage, but with no wiring diagrams or drawing of all the sound system components, it will be challenging to identify what part has failed. This is a minor issue compared to the obvious main problem, but any suggestions on this would be appreciated as well. As far as I can tell, everything else on the car is working fine.