LS400BL80

Hey I'm Brooke, out in the Desert Cities~ With my beautifull Black '95 LS400. ;] (can we attach a pic to our posting?) Anyway would greatly appreciate some advise --My stereo's digital display/screen is scrambled. And, now the stereo doesnt work. ;( The digital screen (the way it's appearing now) yaknow the digital letters & numbers on the screen, that say the Station you're tuned to, etc. well every possible letter or number in the screen are all showing at once and they dont go off the screen.) Also the stereo isnt working. Is that related? I can turn the power On and my antenna goes up,, but the digital screen stays scrambled looking and I cant play music /nothing comes thru the speakers. well except a faint, high pitched buzzing sound.

Btw was wondering if this did it-- Is it possible my stereo's digital screen got fried from this summer's Heat, out here in the Desert? Even tho I always put the shades up (in the front AND back windows) And I always try to park in a shaded spot --do you think the near 120' heat here for 3 months, just fried my stereo unit? Is that a possibility?

So if someone can tell me --what's happened? and what I need to do to fix it (so I can listen to the Stereo in my car again!) --And how much you think it should cost to fix this. *Thanks for chiming-in with your expert advise! =]

LScowboyLS

YES - you can easily attach a pic!

even easier if you upload it to imgur.com first, then they provide the code to paste in!

code looks like:

[lMG]http://imgur.com/xxxxx.jpg[/IMG]

LS400BL80

~Hey thanks for the tip LScowboyLS! =]

LScowboyLS

we can definitely get to the bottom of any LS400 issue, just be patient, some of the most respected Lexus experts in the world come here!

you likely have two separate issues - the screen going out is pretty common, but that should not be keeping you from hearing the music!

getting the music going is what we should work on first!

the heat was likely a contributor to the screen going out, but it happens in places a lot less hot than where you are!

most issues with the stereo system are caused by someone putting some aftermarket crap in and hacking up the wiring, does this car have any non-factory accessories? (stereo, alarm, security, high intensity lighting, etc.)

Sc0pe

iTrader: (1)

Now this option is sort of unconventional, unless you happen to have a lot of buddies with LS' but see if you can get a radio from another 95-00 and plug that in and see if anything changes. If everything works as it should, then you'll just need a new radio. On the other hand, if things still don't work, then you may need to look at your amplifier (under the passenger seat, behind an air vent shroud) and/or door speakers. As LScowboyLS pointed out before with aftermarket electronics, the owner might have had an aftermarket radio at some point and switched it out for OEM so there might be a wiring issue from the head unit.

Do you know if your car has the Pioneer "Premium Sound" system, or the Nakamichi system?

LS400BL80

Thanks for the reply LScowboyLS, regarding aftermarket crap- haha no, the Nakamichi stereo system has been such superior sound quality I havent even needed to mess with it! to narrow down troubleshooting ideas, a few weeks shortly after the digital screen went scrambled is when the music eventually was unable to come thru. (at first -as long as the screen was (blank like usuall) when I turned on the car: I could turn on the radio.. and hark it would come on the display and everything would work as usual. But I found if when I got in, turned on the car, and the screen is scrambled.. -that meams it's not going to work if I turn it on. And, now it's to the point that yeah the screen has stayed scrambled looking. =(

So does that mean the stereo's main 'head unit' (is that what it's called?) needs to be replaced?

Btw, thanks for affirming my suspicions of possible causes, that yes the extreme burning Heat here could've very well killed my digital screen. and interesting it could happen not only from the Heat.

Ha yaknow my car is a 95'... that's 18 years(!) I tell you what man, an LS is such an excellent, quality car after 18 years and still lookin damn Good!!! a minor Stereo issue, isnt that bad at all huh =]

And mentioning the experts on the ClubLexus Forum. I JUST discovered this site and am pretty excited to have found a place we can talk Cars! (and not just Any cars but our Favorite! that we really want to talk about ~And this whole thing of getting to ask Questions!? And have fellow LS400 Lovers chiming-in with their ideas and answers!? Awesommme!!!.......

LS400BL80

Hi Sc0pe thanks for the reply. nice outside of the box idea, but yeah dont really have buddies on-hand with LS' just yet, but will probly gain some now from being on this site. =] Yes I have the most excellent Nakamichi system.

Do you think I need to get a new head unit installed? And if so, what's some best routes I should go about it. Not interested in ordering a brand new Nakamichi head unit, if that's the most expensive route. ~Is there any other deals out there (cheapest price for very good condition) ..so I dont have to go find a junk yard?... Thanks!~

LScowboyLS

it's not actually an expensive route, as so many people upgrade their stereo on this car, so they can have an aux jack for their iPhone or bluetooth or whatever, that this has created a good supply of the Nakamichi units available in good working order on ebay for cheap! - just deal with a 100% feedback seller who is willing to give you a 30 day money back guarantee!

hopefully CL member Kansas will chime in, he is one of our LS400 audio gurus!

by the way, the heat will only cause a problem with the actual LCD display itself, if the scrambled display is accompanied by the system not working or sounding awful, then that is a different issue.

by the way, when was the last time you bought a new battery for this car, and do you possibly have power steering fluid leaking that could be affecting the alternator?

LS400BL80

Put a new Battery in maybe a little over a year ago? have never had any battery problems with this car~ Actually did have most of the power steering parts replaced a couple years ago actually. (one of the Only things that's needed to be repaired on this car) gotta think back almost 5 years..I think they replaced everything -except this last part of the power steering equation- (was going to be expensive, after everything just done) I think it was.. a minor remaining drip?? +they said it should probly be fine as is, if I didnt choose to replace that last part.
Why /what's the connection? after stereo mentioning the power steering and battery-

LScowboyLS

sick batteries can cause weird electrical issues

sounds like you just have a sick Nakamichi, so your best bet is likely going to be some ebay shopping, I think you will be amazed at the bargains on these there.

Kansas

I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination an LS400 audio guru! I installed a number of car stereos from the 60's into the 80's but I don't find this stuff fun or even physically easy anymore and the technology is getting too complex for me to get it right.

Unfortunately, the right channel of my 2000 LS400 Nakamichi started fading away last Friday - the same symptoms as when it faded away in 2008 when Factory Car Stereo Repair, Inc. in Florida re-soldered the balance control to get it working again. Even in 2008, they didn't want to work on it but they took a look and found they could repair it.

Nobody wants to work on Nakamichi anymore due to the lack of replacement parts. Lexus stopped supplying new or refurbished 98-00 LS400 Nakamichi components in around 2006. Supplies of working, used LS400 Nakamichi components are drying up. Factory Radio Service in California recently told a Club Lexus forum member that they would not try to repair an LS400 Nakamichi although they installed a wonderful 3.5mm aux-in on my Nakamichi only last year. A friend and former coworker has a working Nakamichi system out of a 99 LS400 he offered to give me but I don't plan to take him up on his offer at this point.

If all goes well, I'll have a double-din Kenwood mounted in a Scosche kit after this weekend. The Scosche kit arrived today. It is only ABS plastic but the faceplate/surround is the best color/texture match I've seen.

I spent over 30 minutes with the installer last week discussing the Kenwood install. He is an LS430 driver and seems to know his stuff but we'll see how it goes. I'm going to make it as easy as possible for him by doing much of the interior trim disassembly.

I hate to lose the Nakamichi - it's the best car audio system I've experienced and the sound quality streaming from my phone into the aux-in has been wonderful. At this point, I'm hoping for at least acceptable sound from the Kenwood replacement - good enough to get me by until my next vehicle becomes available in Spring/Summer of 2014.

The Kenwood setup is going to be pretty cool if it all works. I plan to put 3.5mm aux-in and USB connections to it in the upper console tray although I plan to connect my phone audio only through A2DP Bluetooth. I suppose it might be nice to have my personal music library on USB flash memory instead of my phone. I'm not going to miss my CD changer - haven't used since I got the aux-in installed on the Nak.

Gene01

Please excuse me if it has already been answered in this thread - I didn't see it if so.
The connection between the battery & power steering and electrical symptoms is as follows:
Many of the Lexus systems are somewhat sensitive to low battery voltage (this is a separate issue from the ripple problems caused by failing capacitors inside the ECU and other components).
One cause of low voltage is a battery in poor condition, but another cause is an alternator that is not putting out enough voltage (and resulting current) to adequately charge the battery.
Now, you may ask, "What does all this have to do with the Power Steering system?" Good question!
In the earlier LS400s (I don't know what year the design was changed), the power steering pump/reservoir is located directly above the alternator. If (I mean when) it leaks, PS fluid drips down onto/into the alternator in accordance with Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.
Since the alternator does not like the taste of PS fluid, it protests by committing suicide resulting in a rather expensive repair bill. Even a "small drip" is fatal.

Yamae

Judging from the symptoms above, I suspect that the processor which controls functions and the LCD unit is not working properly caused by the ripples. This is probably because of the aged electrolytic capacitors inside of the Nakamichi unit.

Electrolytic capacitors hate high temperature, you know. The internal liquid evaporates through the rubber easily as the temperature goes higher as well as aged. If I were you I would remove the unit and check the capacitance of those electrolytic capacitors.

Those were not Nakamichi units but actually I have fixed several audio units replacing elecrolytic capacitors as I did for ECUs for different cars.