Electrical System Problems of Lexus LS400

The instrument cluster lights are all out. Only the warning and shift indicators lights are on. I can't see how fast I am going or how much fuel I have in the car.

The evening of 3/7/15 my wife and I drove from cedar rapids, IA. To our home in muscatine, IA. As we exited I-80 after almost one hour of constant interstate driving, the car stalled at approximately 5 mph as we came to the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp. We lost power steering and power brakes as well, causing panic. This is not the first time this has happened in the two years we have owned this car. It seems to occur after prolonged interstate driving only. It did not occur that morning because we broke up the trip to cr with a stop in iowa city. This is a horribly dangerous condition and after researching on the internet last night, a very inherent problem with this model and year. Toyota's TSB eg003-96 speaks of it and its remedy, published 10/7/96. The remedy is to replace the faulty ecm with part 89661-50224; a very expensive fix and presumably the reason Toyota did not voluntarily recall the car. There was no forced recall either, but should have been due to the many complaints reportedly submitted to the NHTSA and potential deadly consequences of losing control of the vehicle due to faulty ecm programming. Please make this posting available to any potential 1995 Ls400 owners and/or force a recall of this vehicle.

The contact owns a 1995 Lexus Ls400. While driving various speeds, the vehicle would suddenly stall. In addition, the instrument panel indicators would randomly illuminate. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was 160,000.

The contact owns a 1990 Lexus Ls400. The contact stated that the front drivers side door failed to unlock from the inside or outside of the vehicle. The contact attempted both automatically and manually but the door failed to unlock and open. The contact stated that he had no alternative but to exit through the passengers side door. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the failure was unable to be replicated. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 130,000.

Recently the car began to stumble under acceleration while driving up a hill or merging into traffic or maintaining speed while driving on the interstate. I initially thought it was a fuel supply issue so I changed out the the fuel filter, without any improvement in the problem. I was going to change the fuel pump also and while researching on the internet I learned of a problem with bad electrolytic capacitors inside the car's ecu (engine computer) which can mimic a fuel supply problem. I am a trained electronics technician, so I removed and disassembled the vehicle's ecu and replaced 2 capacitors (cost, less than $1) that I could see were bad (leaking electrolyte fluid). I test drove the car and the "fuel supply problem" was gone, it drove normally again and did not stumble when the accelerator pedal was pressed. I ordered the other 5 or 6 electrolytic capacitors in the ecu (from an outside source, the dealer will only sell a complete ecu for $2000 plus) to hopefully prevent future occurances. In conclusion, it appears the bad capacitors are the result of a "large-scale industrial espionage foul-up". Not a joke! this resulted in defective capacitors being used in many electronic assemblies (consumer electronics, automotive, household, etc. . Read more...

The instrument panel flickered and then went completely dark. First it would come back on after the car was driven for 10 minutes or more. Now it does not light up at all. I feel this is a safety issue.

While driving or when first starting the vehicle the whole dash will go dark and not light back up or keep flickering. You are unable to see how fast you are going or any warning lights and the gas gauge does not work when the dash lights go out. Driving alone is unsafe and even with our 2 children makes it very unsafe not knowing how fast you are going and fuel gauge not working so you could run out of fuel and left stranded with kids on the road. Many complaints have been made about this problem and Lexus refuses any acknowledgement of this problem and something really needs to be done!.

While traveling on the interstate at night-time, the lighting on the instrument panel went completely dark and it became impossible to read any of the cars instrumentation such as vehicle speed and warning indicators. At various times since then the gauges in the instrument panel have also become unreliable, these include the fuel level guage, the speedometer, and the tachometer. At times they will not move from their "0" setting, such as when the vehicle is powered off, until they warm-up up or you bang the dash with your hand and at other times they will not work at all. The lighting problem still occurs on the instruments also. The dealer said all they could do was replace the instrument panel and components in the dash at a cost of over $2000 plus labor, so often I just have to guess how fast I am driving or how much fuel is in the car as the repair would be almost as much as I paid for the car (the instruments were working when I purshased the car).

Our 1999ls400 Lexus is experiencing malfunctions with the electronics in the dash. The odometer and the speedometer are working intermittently. Lexus wants 1200. 00 to pull out dash and send away to repair. I am concerned this is a huge safety issue. I don't know whose replacing what and are they certified Lexus mechanics??? are these early model Ls400's having electronics problems or is this just a single case? please let me know.

See all problems of the 1999 Lexus LS400 🔎.

1999 400ls Lexus dash panel defective.

The dashboard panel goes "black" and all instrumentation fails and this has happed to me three times since I have had the car. Then second time at about 115000 and then again at approx 129500. When this occurs the car is not legally drivable as there is no way to know exact speed etc. This type of failure is not uncommon I have been informed by repair shops and should be investigated to verify the real unreported by owners times it has occurred. It is a very potential not to mention expensive to repair both in time and dollars, out of service approx. 10 days and costs over $1,150. 00 until today when I heard about your site I did not know it existed or I would have reported each incident as it happened. Note incident date above inaccurate but it was the only date the computer would input so that is why it is what it is.