frankzan

Ok well I bought a factory pioneer head unit from ebay with a cd changer button to replace the head unit I have without the cd button. After making the switch the radio and a/c controls light up and everything was working fine. However when i turn on my headlights the radio and a/c controls backlights and lcd's go dark. Both units work and if you hold a flash light to the radio you can see the stations but the green back lights and lcd screen is blacked out.
I removed the head unit and installed my original unit and still the same problem. I then removed the negative terminal on the battery for 20 seconds and the problem still persists. One last thing, this morning my instrument cluster was blacked out as it has been every morning for the past few weeks, the headlights were on and of course the radio and a/c were also blacked out. But now as the instrument cluster started to flash and turn on, the radio buttons and a/c lcd's began to flicker like the instrument cluster and turned on together!! What the F did I do ?! Any help is greatly appreciated, sorry for the long post!
Frank

black_LS

I think the dim light under your cluster is set all the way to the left. Turn it all the way to the right and you should be fine.

frankzan

Thanks Grand LS...Do you mean the dim light on the left side of the instrument cluster? If so I checked that switch but it wasnt the problem.

This morning is was obvious that as the spedo and tach lights started to flash on...the radio and A/C lcd screens came on as well. The headlights being on however is what causes the lcd's and the buttons to stay unlit though. This never happened before I swapped out radios so I'm gonna disconnect the battery and reinstall the radio again and see what happens.

jlp93

It has nothing to do with your head unit/climate control. It is your cluster and it is a common problem. Do the link:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-1st-and-2nd-gen-1990-2000/40025-instrument-cluster-circuit-board-is-bad-1000-bucks.html

Suneet

Time to replace those capacitors. You described the exact problem we have all had.

frankzan

DAMN I was sure after doing a search that my problem was specific to the radio, my bad.

I see now that I wasnt searching for "CENTRE CONSOLE".

Thanks for the link guys!