My climate control now lights up when the headlights are off, but turns off when you turn the lights on (kinda defeats the purpose of lighting ). It started doing this out of the blue, the display lights up fine when lights are off, but the lettering on buttons don't (I think they used to); when the headlights are on all you see are the green lights on the AC-type buttons.

I don't know why this would be happening, about all I can think of is to look for a new climate control unit on E-bay and see if something went screwy in the unit itself, if that doesn't work it's gotta be something in the wiring.

Anyone have any ideas on what to check, which wires; anything? Maybe just a little pity.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the climate and audio control LCDs, like the instrument cluster, are actually backlit brighter during the day when the headlights are off, to compensate for sun glare. In the late afternoon, the glare makes it pretty hard to read, despite the backlight.

 

That very well could be, I have no problems seeing it during the day, but it's totally dark at night.

 

i agree with that but wait a sec, when i come home late at night and turn myheadlights off, everything goes dark. is there that notorious light sensor somewhere to blame?

 

Sounds like you might also have afuse out or something. that is very strange...

Adam " Leixst "

 

I think Mezoom's right about it at night when you turn the lights off, except now my LCD lights up when I do that.

I suppose I can check the fuses, always worth a shot, takes just a minute and doesn't cost anything.

This one's really confusing me, I've been living with it for a little while now but it bugs me and is inconvenient.

 

Same thing with my 96 LS400, my backlight worked fine on my stereo unit but when I turn on the lights it goes out.

I read another post about physically wacking the unit, I tried this after my backlight completely stopped working and damned if the backlight turned back on. Still have the same problem when I turn on my headlights, it doesn't occur on my A/C controls however.

I'm shocked that so many people have experienced a similar problem with different Lexus models, seems to be a design issue.

Does someone know who to send this to at Lexus Corporate of some govermental agency.