imAC

Hello everyone, I am having some type of electrical problem with my 1997 Lexus ES300.

I am about to just spill out as much information to you as I can possibly remember/recall

The information below will probably seem all jumbled up, thats because I am just going to type ALL that I remember.

roughly 6 months ago I installed a Pioneer headunit into my car, I installed new speakers in all the doors, I added 2 subwoofer to finish it off.

My subwoofers are powered by a mono amp, my 4 door speakers are powered by a separate 4 channel amp. My headunit is hooked up directly to my battery (with an inline fuse also), the reasoning behind this was because my stock headunit no longer powered on, I tried hooking up my aftermarket stereo with the stock power wire and it still didnt turn on (so I am guessing the stock power wire is stripped or something).

After I installed all my speakers, subs, and headunit my power windows no longer work, neither do my power seats, the 12v plug just below the headunit next to the ashtray, even my trunk release interior button does not work.

I have changed ALL FUSES and even RELAYS

I am getting so sick and tired of having to run my AC because I cant open my windows for extra air, not to mention when I have friends who smoke and NEVER want to ride with me because they cannot smoke in my car with the windows stuck up.

I also noticed that I have a noise coming from my speakers, it honestly sounds like a turbo whistle, the noise gets louder the harder I put my foot on the gas. (btw the sound is very noticable, I have had people outside my car (keep in mind my windows are stuck up all the way) tell me that I have a badass turbo....I have no turbo is the problem !!!

I have tried relentessly for over 6 months to get this fixed but I have still not found a solution.


WHAT COULD IT BE !?!?

PuReChaos

Just a quick question, did you install everything yourself or did a shop do it for you?

As for the noise coming from speakers, generally any interference you hear in speakers is caused by AC current being generated somewhere in the car (alternator) whereas the electronics in the car use DC current. This could be fixed by adding a capacitor to the power lead of the amplifier. Not sure exactly if thats the same as your turbo whistling sound... as interference generally sounds a bit like constant static, however it makes sense in a way that the alternator would put out more as your RPM increase as well as the load your putting on.

I'll try and assist you with the seats, window, and charger, just curious whether you or a shop was poking around because if you were to do it maybe you could inform us as to where you altered the wiring if any and stuff like that.

imAC

I am the one who did all the installing (it could very well be a newbie mistake)

Lets see here, I have both of my 4 gauge power wires for the amp coming from the battery through a hole in the passenger leg area. I then ran the two power wires all the way to the trunk (I used a hole underneath the rear seat that goes straight to the trunk). I have both of my amps properly grounded.

As for other wires, the only one I can think of is the stock power cord (I am going straight to the battery with my headunit). Could the stock power wire for the stereo be hitting something that could possibly stop all these things from happening ?

Keep throwing questions at me ! the electrical problems are driving me insane.

imAC

OH !!

I guess I should add :

With my 4 new speakers in the doors, I am not using the factory stereo wires. I am powering all my speakers in my doors with the 4 channel amp in the trunk....so I have ALL my speaker wires running from the trunk to each individual door. I did have the make slight cuts on the rubber grommets that have all the door wires going through them to fit the new speaker wires through the door. Is it possible that I might have sliced a single wire in 1 of the doors and it somehow is affecting ALL of my problems ?

PuReChaos

Okay, I've pulled up the diagrams up and will try and help you locate a possible cause later tonight.

Another question I have is when you replaced the fuses, were any of them blown? Did you replace literally all fuses in the engine box and driver side fuse box or just the ones affected by these electrical circuits?

And to answer your question, yes it could possibly be a cut wire as the door itself has no ground in it rather it uses a bolt on the chassis. So if you want to check, look for a white wire with black stripe and see if its cut in the rubber grommets, however, I know that could very well be easier said than done. I wouldn't go making bigger holes in the grommets just yet.

imAC

I replaced all the fuses (in the driver side compartment, and also all in the engine bay).

I went ahead and just replaced them all just to be 100% sure.

PuReChaos

But were any of them blown was my question, because they might have been blown because there was a short in the circuit which if uncorrected will just blow the fuse again. I only had enough time to take a quick glance to see over lap in these system circuits and easiest thing to check for your side would be fuses and ground locations, and you don't really need to bother with the relay as the only relay used is power relay by the power windows.

The possible culprits are 30A Power (both power seats and the power windows), 10A Gauge (driver power seat and power windows), 25A Door (trunk release and power windows). As for grounds, this might be a little harder for you to check, so I have a few questions again...

Power Seats: Do both not work? The only link between the two keeping them from working is the 30A Power fuse. Which would also explain the windows not working. Another good question would be is does the moon roof work? If that doesn't I would bet the fuse is definitely blown. Which could be as simple as replacing the fuse or as difficult as having to trace the whole circuit with a digital multimeter.

As for the charger (cigarette lighter) its the simplest circuit in that it gets power from the 15A Cig fuse, goes to the cigarette lighter itself and to ground on the instrument panel brace on the driver's side. The only way this links to the other circuits at all is it shares a ground with the power windows (specifically the driver's side control panel), however the ground is connected in parallel to prevent both from working if one circuit fails. So this possibly might mean the ground came loose and is no longer connected. The ground is important to both circuits in that it provides ground for the power relay in the power windows circuit and ground for the cigarette lighter.

As for the luggage release switch, its sort of the black sheep in that the 25A Door fuse is its only link to your overall problem, however that would mean that your courtesy door lights wouldn't function, again the windows, and your fuel door opener wouldn't work as well. However, its ground is sort of in the location of all the other grounds and I guess it could be possible that it came loose, however I'm not sure what other systems that ground affects off the top of my head so that you could indeed verify it was a ground issue. In this case I would lean towards the glove compartment theft deterrent switch, possibly the motor is bad for the trunk, or the switch itself could have gone bad.

Sorry that I can't exactly help further at the moment but electrical problems are a tad tricky without being able to test the systems themselves with a multimeter. Check the listed fuses and report back and I'll try to continue helping.

imAC

Both of my power seats do not work
Nor does my sunroof work

I am going to go check that 30A power one again because it sounds like it should be the culprit

and no, none of them were blown to begin with

imAC

Well I found out something today

I have been suffering for over 8 months with my windows, seats, sunroof, and numerous other things not working in my car

I will NEVER FREAKING EVER shop at AutoZone again.

I went to Oreilly's AutoParts today and had the guy check it out, it turns out all my fuses were indeed fine....BUT he looked at one of the fuses again and noticed that it isnt in the correct type of fuse (The brong type things that go into the fuse holder) were actually for a completely different type of model/brand. He handed me a 30amp fuse to replace it with and EVERYTHING is working again



I absolutely love Oreilly's and will only take my business there in the future !!

PuReChaos

Glad it was a simple solution, I wonder what caused all the circuits to fail the first time around before you swapped out the fuses.

Stoneshine

Where was the 30a fuse located that helped you